What email marketing strategy to use to retain customers?

05 April

Let’s dive into the immortal world of email marketing, an essential tool in the arsenal of any digital marketing strategy. We would like to start by demystifying the belief that having an email marketing strategy is outdated. In the midst of the era of social media and instant messaging apps, email marketing not only survives but thrives.

Far from being obsolete, email has transformed into a very powerful tool for all types of businesses, without exception.

The sending of emails continues to grow, contrary to what is sometimes heard “out there.” Data doesn’t lie, and email, despite its risks due to spam, notification abuse, and the mass sale of lists, remains alive and not only that but continues to deliver results.

Why is customer retention important?

Well, the question seems obvious, but if we’ve already invested in an entire process for a person or company to become our customer, what sense does it make to lose them, right?

Capturing the attention of new customers is just the beginning. The real magic lies in retaining those customers, turning them into loyal followers of our brand. But why is this retention so crucial? The answer to this question is very simple: loyal customers not only tend to spend more than new customers but also, over time, tend to become ambassadors of our brand, contributing greatly to our acquisition strategies. The power of word-of-mouth is unimaginable, remember that.

In this context, digital strategies, and especially email marketing strategies, emerge as powerful tools to maintain a constant and relevant communication with our audience. The challenge lies in knowing how to use these tools to our advantage to foster a lasting relationship with our customers, without overwhelming them and providing information in the form of incremental value.

Email marketing as a retention strategy

As we mentioned in the previous section, the email marketing is positioned as one of the most effective tools to promote customer retention. Its power lies in its ability to personalize and segment messages, ensuring that content is relevant and valuable to each recipient. Through email marketing, we can keep our customers informed, interested and engaged with our brand for the long term. Here we are not only talking about sending promotions or discounts; it is about creating an ongoing conversation that brings value to our customers and reinforces their decision to stay with us.

Personalization of content: It’s not just a “Hello, [Name]”

It’s super important to understand that personalization goes far beyond including the recipient’s name somewhere in the email. In reality, personalized email must understand the preferences and behaviors of our customers to offer them content that resonates with their individual interests, beyond adding a name or company to the text of the email. What do we mean by this? We’re talking about advanced segmentation, based on customer behavior, interests, and needs, which allows creating messages that truly resonate with each audience segment.

A clear example would be if a customer frequently purchases products from a specific category, emails can highlight news or offers related to that category, thus encouraging their continued interest and loyalty.

The possibilities for personalization in email are impressive, considering that in the case of email, we have an opportunity that rarely occurs in digital marketing: we have a unique identifier for that person we want to talk to. And this has enormous potential for your strategy.

2. Automation: The Intelligent Autopilot

Automation is the perfect co-pilot of email marketing. It’s super important to use tools like Mailchimp or Sendinblue to design workflows that send the right email at the perfect time, without the need for constant manual intervention. This point is vital for customer onboarding and retention; having a simple flow to welcome your customer once they complete a form, congratulate them on their birthday, remind them of the last products they liked, and above all send them valuable and relevant information on topics that may interest them, will be the perfect way to accompany personalization to continue nurturing your relationship with your brand.

3. Loyalty programs: The icing on the cake

Loyalty programs reward customers for their loyalty, encouraging them to continue interacting with our brand. An effective email marketing strategy for these programs may include updates on accumulated points, available rewards, or even exclusive access to sales or special events. An example could be sending an email to loyalty program members announcing double points accumulation for purchases during the upcoming weekend.

Best practices

For our email marketing strategies to be effective and truly contribute to customer retention, it is crucial to follow some best practices:

• Smart Segmentation: Create audience segments based on behaviors, preferences, and demographic data to ensure that your messages are as relevant as possible. This will increase the effectiveness of your campaigns and improve the user experience in purchasing.
• Value Content: Every email sent should provide some value to the recipient, whether it’s useful information, entertainment, or exclusive offers. Emails that only aim to sell can be counterproductive. The use of such useful content, such as guides, financial tips, important security updates, and product news, can increase open and click-through rates, especially in the fintech and banking sectors.
• Responsive Design: Your emails should look good on any device. Responsive design ensures that your messages are accessible and attractive, both on desktop computers and mobile devices. It shouldn’t just attract attention but also facilitate reading and understanding of the message.
• Appropriate Frequency: Sending too many emails can saturate your subscribers, while sending too few can make them forget you. Find the perfect balance through constant testing and adjustments.
• Attractive Subjects: The subject of the email is often the first thing your subscribers see. Make them short, direct, and enticing to increase open rates.
• Automation and Personalization: Use automation tools like the ones mentioned earlier to send emails based on specific user actions, such as welcomes, birthdays, and reminders of abandoned carts. This increases the relevance and personalization of your communications.
• A/B Testing: Experiment with different versions of your emails (design, subject, calls to action) to understand what works best with your audience and optimize your future campaigns.
• Measurement and Analysis: You can’t improve what you don’t measure. It’s important to always consider specific KPIs for these types of campaigns. The main ones would be: open rate, clicks, conversions, and unsubscribes.

FAQs

Some of the email marketing related questions we have received along our journey through the digital marketing world include:

How often should I send email marketing to my customers? The ideal frequency depends on your audience and the type of content you send. Monitor open and unsubscribe rates to adjust your strategy. A good way to start is with a moderate frequency and adjust according to subscriber response.

How can I measure if my email marketing campaigns are effective? Key metrics include open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, and unsubscribe rate. Use these metrics to evaluate the performance of your campaigns and to optimize future mailings.

Is it necessary to personalize each email? While personalization can significantly increase the effectiveness of your campaigns, the level of personalization will depend on your resources and targeting capabilities. Even small touches of personalization, such as using the recipient’s name, can make a big difference.

What should I do if my open rate is low? Review and optimize the subject line of your emails, make sure your subscriber list is updated and properly segmented, and experiment with different sending days and times. A/B testing can be especially useful in identifying which changes have a positive impact.

Email Marketing, one of your digital allies

So, can we agree that email marketing is still one of the most effective and profitable tools in digital marketing?

Cleverly executed, it has the power to transform casual customers into loyal advocates of your brand and its key is to balance personalization, value, and relevance to keep that conversation alive and vibrant.

Remember, the ultimate goal is not just to sell, but to build a community of customers who believe in your brand as much as you do. By implementing the strategies and best practices discussed, you will not only be improving your retention metrics, but also strengthening the heart of your business.

At this point, you might be wondering how to effectively apply these strategies and best practices in your own business. We are here to help you! Email marketing doesn’t have to be your only digital ally. If you are interested in working with us to create a customized strategy that not only resonates with your audience, but also has a direct impact on driving your business forward, don’t hesitate to contact us.