How to Market To Existing Customers (Without Driving Them Crazy)

By Rob Zaleski
May 30, 2017

Customer Management without driving your customers crazy

As I sit down to write this post on communication and customer management, the 80s classic rock song Hold On Loosely by .38 Special comes to mind.

“Hold on loosely, but don’t let go. If you cling too tightly, you’re gonna lose control.”

If you don’t remember this classic song, listen along.

You’re totally humming it now, aren’t you? I don’t think the 80s rock icons were thinking of customer management when they hit the studio to record this classic, but it definitely fits. So let’s break it down with some other stanzas in the song and how they relate to managing your relationship with current customers.

You see it all around you // Good lovin’ gone bad // And usually it’s too late when you // Realize what you had

We’ve all seen and experienced “good lovin gone bad” in our inboxes. So a best practice for you is to be proactive and upfront about communications preferences. Don’t wait until someone is considering unsubscribing to offer them options on how often you email them. Be transparent and let them know you value their inbox trust. Be clear about how to maintain their email preferences so you can get the right cadence. Try different means of communicating this to see what works best.

Also, automatically signing people up for an email newsletter can lead to a higher unsubscribe rate (and may even violate some privacy laws). Always get an opt in. And if you want to make sure the address is valid before giving out a coupon code, make it so they have to check their email or verify it with a link in the initial communication. Then you know this love is real.

It’s so damn easy // When your feelings are such // To overprotect her // To love her too much

It’s exciting when someone signs up for your email list. And you’re passionate about all you have to offer. But don’t overwhelm subscribers by being overzealous and stuffing emails with as many offers as possible. Have a definitive approach and reason for each email, with clear calls-to-action for those objectives.

According to Juniper Research, relevant emails drive 18x higher revenue than broadcast emails. I’m willing to bet you’d like to see that kind of return, so make sure you’re using customer data, purchase history, and other segmentation to really drill down message delivery.

Your baby needs someone to believe in // And a whole lot of space to breathe in

This is actually my favorite of the bunch. Your customers need you to be interesting, inspiring, and give them something they can get excited about. Just don’t smother them.

Test your email open rates to see what kind of cadence works best. Or, simply ask them. You may be surprised how often or how little people want to hear from you. It could pay off to create some customer segments based on those preferences and use that to tailor communications to them.

For the ones who need more space: only email them when something big is happening (seasonal, huge sales, etc). The ones who are more amped about your company: weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly newsletters may be more their speed.

Ready for your guitar solo now? You bet you are. And ShippingEasy has you covered on the backing vocals and rhythm guitar. Learn more about our Customer Management software and how it can help you be the rock star your customers will love!