You’ve heard the old adage that it costs more to acquire a new customer than retain a current one, right? How much more, though? Most experts say between 4 to10 times more. I have a feeling you’d like to keep some of that money in your pocket, so it’s time to build stronger relationships with your eCommerce customers through a little customer marketing.
One of the best places to start managing customer relationships is with your data. Chances are, you’re sitting on a bunch of useful information about your customers. Let’s cover three ways you can employ that data to strengthen relationships with your customers.
1. Make email feel personal
Your data tells you what people have purchased, when they purchased it, possibly whether it was a gift, how long before they bought again (IF they bought again), and so much more. That data helps tell a story that you can build on!
Let’s use the gift option as an example. Chances are good there was a specific occasion for that gift – a birthday, anniversary, wedding, etc. Using this data, you can create a dynamic list of people who bought gifts. Set up a campaign to automatically pull that purchase data, and email them around the same time next year. You’ve then reminded them they bought this gift last year, and can ask if it’s time to pick up something new. You also may have saved them from forgetting and gave them a very personalized experience.
2. Turn transactional messages into WOW moments
Just because transactional messages (confirmation emails, packing slips, shipping information, etc.) are part of the order process doesn’t mean they have to be boring and lack personality.
Use what you know about customers to create customized confirmation emails. Make a new customer feel welcome with a first-timer offer. According to MarketingSherpa, 50% of welcome emails get opened. Make sure those opens lead to a stronger relationship, which then leads to more sales.
A word of caution, however. Make sure you remain in compliance with CAN-SPAM regulations when it comes to transactional emails. If you start to border too much into promotional territory, you could find yourself in hot water. The FTC provides some pretty good definitions based on intent. Learn more about that here.
3. Work marketing and customer service in tandem
In the omnichannel, multi-touch world of eCommerce, every interaction with customers matters. If you’re not logging each interaction to get to know your customers on a personal level, you’re missing a huge opportunity.
Whether you have a customer service department, or you ARE a customer service department of one, have a consistent system to note or tag customer interactions and inform your future efforts. This allows you to later segment and target messaging on more levels than just purchase behavior.
For example, let’s say you’ve had numerous people contact you about a specific item they wanted that was out of stock. Or, heaven forbid, a product that they had issues with. Rather than sending a blanket email to all subscribers about quantity replenishment or improvement, create a campaign targeted directly to people tagged based on this specific scenario. Let them know you value them, their feedback, and their business, and you wanted them to be first to know. How’s that for personalized?
A study by Adestra showed that 60% of people think they get too many promotional emails from brands, so personalized or not, keep a cadence that feels appropriate.
Everything mentioned above can be done using ShippingEasy’s Customer Marketing platform, hosted right in the dashboard where online sellers can manage their shipments and inventory.
Rob Zaleski
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