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Best Way To Bring Back Return Customers? Email Drip Campaigns

Drip_of_waterWhen marketers are interested in increasing sales, they often forget one powerful resource: their current customers. People who have purchased from you once are likely to do so again. But, sometimes it takes some action on your part to remind your customers why they love your products and why they should come back for now. Drip email campaigns are one great way to enhance your company's visibility.

What Is a Drip Campaign?

Drip email campaigns are simply emails that are delivered over a period of time. You could send one 24 hours after the first purchase, another a few days later asking to contact you with any questions, and a third later on describing ways that other customers have put your products to use. The key is to contact your customers often enough to keep you in mind but not so often that they find you annoying.

What Is Your Desired Outcome?

Before constructing a drip campaign, decide what you want to happen. Do you want customers to buy another product? Buy a pro version of free software? Subscribe to a pay service? The answer to this question will guide the content and frequency of your emails.For instance, if you want someone to upgrade from free to a pay service or to a more expensive version, your email communications can include case studies of customer success with your premium products or tips on how to make the most of them.

Make Your Emails Useful

Customers are more likely to open and read your emails if the content is relevant to them. Keep promotional messages to a minimum; these are messages that talk about what you want rather than what your customer might want. Instead, share tips, industry news, FAQs and other interesting content.

When sending an email that is promotional, it's still best to keep the wants and needs of your client in mind. For instance, an email sharing a special previous-buyer-only discount codes will have better results than one that simply asks them to visit your online store.

Automate But Personalize

One of the best things about drip campaigns is that, when they are well-managed, they can be nearly effortless. Create several campaigns that fit different kind of buyers. And, always talk directly to the recipient. Instead of "We want to tell our customers about our new product!" say "We thought you'd love to hear what's new at Company X." Once you have created the relevant emails and lists, simply sort customers as they come in. The messages can be sent with any number of email management programs with no further time on your part.

Reach out to customers regularly. This frequent contact helps them get more value out of your products and strengthens your relationship.

 

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Matt Walde
Post by Matt Walde
May 2, 2014

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