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Why should our company use
email newsletters in its marketing program?
Email and the Internet are fast becoming primary
mediums to convey and receive information. This
trend is expected to continue and to be more and
more important as time goes on. Permission-based
email communication has proven to be the best, most
cost effective way of staying in touch with
customers. In fact, it has proven to be the most
effective way to develop customer loyalty because it
is the only medium that creates a relationship with
the customer. The sooner this email relationship is
built the less likely customers will shift their
loyalty to your competitors. The goal of email
newsletters is to create repeat business and develop
customers for life. Email newsletters should form
the foundation of any effective customer loyalty
program.
What do you mean by a customer loyalty program?
All retailers want repeat business. All big ticket
furniture retailers want past customers to think of
them first whenever they have home furnishings needs
rather than running off to a competitor simply
because of compelling advertising campaigns.
Retailers want their customers to come back into the
store year after year and to be a customer for life.
To develop this kind of a customer relationship
requires consistent communication on a personal
level from the retailer. The big question for
retailers becomes how to cost effectively develop
that personal relationship and how to reach the
ultimate goal of achieving customers for life. We
know that since there is great turnover in sales
staff it is not realistic to expect individual sales
people to keep up the relationship with the customer
over the long term. Retailers seek to develop
customers who feel comfortable being in the store
and like the company. We do that by treating them
with the utmost respect during the sales process and
afterwards paying attention to them, just like any
interpersonal relationship.
How can we gather email addresses?
There are several ways to gather email addresses.
All should be implemented and used consistently:
1. At point of sale is the
easiest way to obtain customer email addresses
and permission to communicate with them. Many
retailers make email notification a part of the
delivery process. It is usually easy to obtain
email permission with the offer of continued
communication through non-threatening
informational newsletters.
2. In-store promotion of your monthly email
newsletters is a great way to obtain email
addresses from those who come to your store but
do not buy. You have already spent advertising
dollars to attract these potential customers to
your store, so it can only be beneficial to
develop an email relationship with them. Many
retailers offer a monthly giveaway of store
merchandise or gift certificates for those who
sign up for the newsletters. It is also
recommended to incentivize the sales associates
to encourage sign ups.
3. Your web site should promote signing up for
the monthly newsletters. Newsletter examples
should be posted so the reader has an idea of
what she will be receiving and monthly giveaways
would provide the incentive to sign up.
4. A-Z Media’s EmailMatch process compares your
company’s database of former customers with
national email address databases. Where matches
are achieved a message is sent requesting
permission to continue ongoing email
communication from your company. In most cases
this process will increase the size of your
email address database significantly. Because
people change email addresses frequently it is
recommended to repeat the process periodically.
How many email addresses do I
need to make it worth sending out a newsletter?
Just a few thousand email addresses can make a
newsletter cost-effective because of the flexibility
of pricing for A-Z Media’s private label
newsletters. It is best to start with your basic
list and build your email address database from
there. The important thing is consistent
communication to the customer.
What if my customers don’t want to give their
email addresses?
You need to provide them with a compelling reason to
do so. There can be several:
1. The offer to receive a
non-promotional newsletter periodically
2. The offer to send them periodic information
about special sales events only promoted through
email
3. Incentives to sign up by offering a drawing
for a free gift certificate
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