Loyal customers interact more with emails sent from brands they trust
For many Canadian small business owners, the economic recession was a time to focus on customer retention rather than try to reach new markets. After all, the old marketing adage dictates that it costs significantly more money to win over a new customer than it does to keep an existing client content, which is a luxury most entrepreneurs could not afford during the past few years.
These retention strategies often involve loyalty programs that encourage consumers to continue shopping with the same business, rather than simply going to whichever organization has the lowest prices. Depending on what sector an entrepreneur served, these programs could include free consultations for repeat customers, discounts and money-back offers, improved customer service or any number of cost-effective solutions.
Now, the Canadian economy is on the recovery. Consumers are slowly beginning to loosen their purse strings and buy more products at retail. In order make the most of increased spending habits, many small business owners are investing more money into their marketing budgets.
According to a new report from Experian Marketing Services, small business owners are in a good spot to capitalize on the loyalty generated during the recession - if they have already incorporated email into their basic marketing strategies.
Loyal customers are active email users
Experian found that email marketing programs geared to customer loyalty program members are more successful than those sent to casual consumers.
Brand enthusiasts are 40 percent more likely to open promotional messages sent by their favorite companies, while they also tend to click through to the sender's website more than 20 percent of the time. This is obviously good for Canadian small business owners that sell products online, as the more opened emails and clicks they more traffic to their websites.
This was further confirmed by Experian, which found that emails sent to company loyalists had a 30 percent higher transaction rate and generated more than 10 percent higher revenue per message.
"Knowing which customers have a propensity to be loyal brand advocates is critical to every business today," said Rachel Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of Experian CheetahMail, a part of Experian Marketing Services. "Given the highly competitive nature of the industry, marketers that engage customers with programs that motivate and reward loyalty will yield significant returns."
Incorporating email into existing marketing strategies
Email is an effective tool for capitalizing on customer loyalty, but if Canadian small business owners don't currently use the channel, they may feel like they have missed the boat. Fortunately, email can be easily integrated into any multichannel marketing campaign, especially if entrepreneurs are experienced online marketers.
For example, if business owners have a big presence on social networks, they could include links to sign up for their email marketing programs. Each time an email newsletter is sent out, they could also tweet or conduct status updates to tease the content of their messages, thereby encouraging consumers to sign up.
Or, if Canadian small business owners have search engine optimized sales pages, they could add newsletter sign-up fields to these websites. Entrepreneurs can even sweeten the pot by offering discounts and incentives to those who sign up, although they should always consider the bottom line when offering these deals.
