The Five Most Important Emails to Send Customers
By Hostway
Email is taking center stage in today’s small business marketing plans as
advertising budgets are squeezed and doing more with less is becoming the
norm. If you’re not emailing your customers, you’re missing out on one of
the least expensive, highest return methods for increasing sales and
building customer loyalty. Here are the five emails no business can afford
to skip.
1. Order Confirmation
With a high open rate, the order confirmation email presents the perfect
chance to make your customer feel good about her purchase. This email tells
customers their purchase was successful and marks the beginning of the
anticipation stage where they eagerly await the arrival of their recent
purchase(s). Beyond stating the exact product or service ordered and the price,
this email can be used to confirm why the customer bought from you in the first
place and even cross-sell your products.
2. Welcome Email
Where an order confirmation email’s main purpose is to verify the order and
confirm its success, a welcome email should set expectations for future
communications. If sent immediately after the purchase, a welcome email reaches
a highly receptive audience excited about a recent purchase. It’s a great place
to communicate additional information about your company and your products and
set the stage for a successful long-term relationship.
What should be included in a welcome email? It should restate the benefits of
your email program. Here are some examples:
- Early notification of new products
- Early access to the latest sales and promotions
- Exclusive sales and promotions
- News, articles, features, podcasts, etc.
- Recommendations for future purchases
3. Newsletter
Many people have a short memory span when it comes to purchases. A regular
newsletter helps keep your business in front of people who’ve already taken the
leap to purchase from you. It gives you a forum for establishing your expertise
in your industry, providing tips on how to use current products or generating
interest in new products. In short, it’s a way to increase engagement with your
products and services and your brand.
Here are some helpful articles to get you started with your customer
newsletter:
4. Sales and Promotions
Slashing prices? Offering a special bonus for customers who spend a certain
amount? Make your sales a success by drawing your previous customers back to you
for discounts and promotions. An email marketing campaign is the best (most
inexpensive) way to get the word out about your sale to a receptive audience.
5. Renewal Notices
The key to successful sales is to make it easy. If you’re running a
subscription-based business, chances are high your subscribers don’t know when
to renew without a little reminder. And with cluttered email boxes, it’s easy to
overlook, accidentally delete or just plain forget about a renewal reminder.
That’s why it’s best to develop a series of renewal notices and send them out at
intervals as the expiration date approaches.
Now that you have a plan for which email messages to send, you may be
wondering how you’ll build your list. Don’t worry; we have you covered. Read
Build an Opt-in Email List for some ideas.
Hostway Corporation helps small- and medium-sized businesses
grow with innovative Web services that make advanced technology accessible and
easy to use. Founded in 1998, the company currently serves more than 600,000
customers across the globe with domain name services and Web hosting packages
that include an easy-to-use Web site builder and a built-in mechanism for
driving traffic. One of the world's largest Web hosting companies, it operates
over 250,000 square feet of state-of-the-art data centers with a direct presence
in 13 countries, 17 worldwide operation centers and more than 700 employees.
Visit Hostway online at
www.hostway.com.
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