Email Marketing to Your Existing Customers

Marketing efforts are biased toward acquiring new customers. Yet, according to Bain & Company, repeat customers spend an average of 67% more than new customers and are 6 to 12 times less expensive to sell to.

Email marketing is a particularly inexpensive and effective way to keep in touch with existing customers. After all, if someone has done business with you, you know they’re your target audience. You have information about their purchases that you can use to further target your marketing to ensure that your campaigns are more effective. And, assuming the customer had a positive experience, they’re more likely to open your email and trust your message.

Some of the ways you can use email to stay in touch with, and re-engage, existing customers include:

1. A welcome email.  Welcome and Order Confirmation emails have some of the highest open rates. You have an opportunity to convince customers to stay tuned and see what else you have to offer. Your email can start by showing appreciation for the fact that they selected your solution over the competition, provide valuable information such as key contacts within your organization and links to helpful resources, and asking them if they’d like to receive emails on an ongoing basis.
2. A feedback email. After the customer has enough time to use your product, ask them how your solution is working out for them. If they’re not happy, you need to know so you can fix any issues. If they are, you can reaffirm their confidence in your business and make them feel like valued customers.
3. Educational content. This is one of my favorites. Send your customers a newsletter, or article or other useful information on an ongoing basis. I recommend at least monthly. This information might include news, industry trends that may impact your customers, tips from technical support or professional services on how to use your product more effectively, or industry research. Customers always appreciate this type of information and it keeps you top-of-mind when they need your service again.
4. Actively upsell and cross sell.  As part of your educational efforts, you can also introduce new problems and solutions to your customers as an upsell opportunity. You can also make recommendations for new solutions based on past history. For example, Amazon.com increased sales by 30% using upselling and cross-selling techniques—“Customers who bought this item also bought,” and “Frequently bought together.”
5. Offer customers exclusive deals. One reason people subscribe to email is for offers that no one else has access to. While a B2C marketer might include special deals and coupons, a B2B marketer can use this technique as well. For example, a B2B marketer could offer customers a first look at a new product or service before anyone else—and the opportunity to provide feedback.

Using these tactics, you can not only stay top-of-mind with existing customers, you can also drum up new business in a manner that’s far easier and more effective than simply approaching prospective customers.

How do you keep in touch with existing customers?