I’ve recently read that the chances of selling to an existing customer is twelve times that of selling to a new prospect. The figure should not come as a surprise. Your email marketing plan should take this statistic to heart.
Customer retention means higher profits and lower costs. The journey from lead to subscriber to an email marketing list is expensive. Money used to keep a customer is money well spent. Retention should be a high priority. Further, and just as importantly, a customer who is pleased with a transaction is much more likely to recommend you to their friends, those who would be your target audience.
That is all very well, but what should you spend your well-argued budget increase on? There are two general routes: find out what your customers like about your company, and also what makes them fail to complete. We’ll look to the latter.
If you have a high rate of churn, work out why. One way is to ask them the reasons they unsubscribed. Most will not answer; they’ll be glad to be rid of you, but those who do might well be irritated enough to fire back with intent to show ‘them’ what they think. They might be rude, but they might also be helpful.
An FAQ page can be seen as a process that defines your deficiencies. Are you confusing your customers? Perhaps the marketing email was not clear. Maybe the instructions were less than helpful. Whilst you might think that they want you to explain the obvious, it was patently not obvious enough to them.
What are people searching for on your website? If ‘Contact’ comes up regularly in the search box, then do something about it. Lack of methods of contact is a frequent criticism on product forums. Discover why they need to ask you something.
Set up a dialogue with those on your email marketing list. An open forum can give rise to difficulties, but one with access limited to subscribers makes it appear they are receiving special treatment. Ensure questions are answered promptly, and that any information on how to improve your service are identified and acted on.
