Send Email Updates to Get Repeat Customers
September 2nd, 2008
If you sell products online or offline, you might be familiar with this all-too-common customer story:
1 ) Maria wants the product you sell.
2 )Â She finds you through Google, eBay, or a friend’s recommendation.
3 ) She buys your product. You do everything right and she loves your customer service.
4 ) In 2-3 months, Maria completely forgets that you exist. Next time she wants a similar product you carry, she finds your competitor instead.
The best way to convert this into a happy ending is also one of the simplest. Send updates through email. Here’s the alternate ending:
4 ) When making the sale, you ask Maria if she’d like to get updates on new products and discounts through email. You promise to email her a coupon for 10% off her next purchase. She’s happy enough with your company that she gives you permission.
5 )Â Once a month or so, you send relevant updates about new products or sales.
6 )Â Three months later, Maria sees your email and thinks that she could use something in red to go with her original purchase, so she buys another.
7 )Â Six months later, Maria sees a new product that you announced through email and decides to buy one of those too.
8 )Â And they live happily ever after.
Send your happy customers email updates to remind them about your company once in a while and introduce new products or discounts. This is one of the most effective ways to increase sales without spending a fortune on marketing.
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One Response to “Send Email Updates to Get Repeat Customers”
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September 2nd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
You may have also heard of RSS, a technology that allows people to subscribe to updates that you post to a blog. Unfortunately, this isn’t nearly as widespread as email yet, only about 5% of online people use RSS so far. So for the time being, you’ll be able to reach more people with email updates than purely blogging and RSS.
I find using RSS is a great way to keep up-to-date without clogging up my email box - it’s like creating your own newspaper by choosing your favourite columns. You’ll need to pick an RSS reader - I use Google Reader. More information on how to get started with RSS. If you haven’t already, now is a great time to get ahead of the pack by subscribing to more business tips by clicking the Subscribe by Feed link on this blog.