In marketing, attracting new customers is only one half of the equation; businesses must also focus on how to keep those customers once they earn them. Sending customer retention emails is one way to help accomplish this. But simply asking customers to make another purchase likely won’t be effective—and could come off as pushy, which may turn off otherwise interested customers.
So what’s the right approach to take? What should businesses include in these emails, and why? Below, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council each name one tried-and-true tip they have for effective customer retention emails and explain why these tips help keep customers engaged and coming back for more.
Young Entrepreneur Council members discuss their tips for customer retention emails.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Offer A Sneak Peek Of Upcoming Product Features
Customers leave because they no longer find value in the product. One of the most effective retention strategies is to keep your customers in the loop about new and upcoming features. By giving them a sneak peek of what’s to come, you’ll get them excited about using your product and foster a sense of loyalty and ownership. Make sure to elaborate on why the new features are valuable and how they address specific pain points. This will show your customers that you’re constantly working to improve their experience and make them more likely to stick around. – Abhijeet Kaldate, Astra WordPress Theme
2. Take An Honest, Personal Approach
If you have a great customer acquisition program, but you are losing old customers as fast as you are attracting new ones, you will never grow. You should have a good idea of how to start using email to improve customer retention. Remember, an honest and personal approach that considers your customer’s journey is the foundation for successful email customer retention. Be personal. This means that customers are more likely to respond to a message addressed to them that meets a personal need than they are to one that seems generic and impersonal. So be sure to make an emotional connection with your emails to keep customers interested in your business. If done right, this will increase your sales. – Maksym Babych, SpdLoad
3. Show Them How They Can Get More Value
People will not renew or upgrade unless they are getting tangible value from you. It’s up to you to show them how to get more value. Educate customers who may be on the fence to help them get more from their product, service or membership. This takes some personalization and segmentation so you don’t send the same messages to everyone. Target customers who aren’t active, such as those who haven’t logged in for a while. Provide links to helpful articles or videos that show them the benefits and how to use relevant tools. Invite them to reach out with questions if they aren’t clear about something. The key is to make it easy for uncertain or inactive customers to find relevant information. – Kalin Kassabov, ProTexting
4. Leverage Customer Heat Maps
Focus on the graphical representation of the frequency and intensity of customer interaction with a product. This data can be used to identify what customers are looking for, how they’re looking for it and why they’re not finding it. Remember, a customer retention plan is a strategy to reduce churn and increase customer loyalty. Find out what they say about your company on social media and read their reviews on third-party sites like Yelp or Google Reviews. This will give you an idea about what customers think about your company and how they feel about their experience with it. The more personal you can make the message, the better it will be for customer retention. Be timely and informed before sending emails to earn steady revenue. – Kelly Richardson, Infobrandz
5. Offer Further Education
Your business is the expert on something. Your email list represents a segment of people who needed your solution at least once. People have an eye for straight sales messages, but maybe you can find a way to educate your customers or “check in” on their progress with your product. Maintenance tips, storage tips, helpful pairings and anything else you can think of are all fair game for email marketing. Retention happens when people know they will get something out of any email from you. That something can be a discount, a helpful tip or an interesting piece of industry news. The only limits are your creativity. Invest in punchy writers and follow the data toward what gets positive results. – Tyler Bray, TK Trailer Parts
6. Incorporate Social Proof
I’ve found that including social proof in your retention email improves conversions. In most cases (mine included), that means including user reviews for the product the customer left behind. The vast majority of people want to see reviews before they make a purchase online. I believe showing social proof from existing customers can quell doubts and turn hesitant subscribers into loyal shoppers. – John Brackett, Smash Balloon LLC
7. Curate Your Message Based On Customer Needs
Personalizing your emails can help improve customer retention. Your email shouldn’t read as if it was composed by a bot. Something as simple as addressing a customer by their name goes a long way. For this to work, knowing your customers is the key. You need to identify the needs of your customers and curate your message accordingly. There’s a reason your customers discontinued using your product or service. Explore what led them to make that decision and see what you have to offer. Your emails should be personalized per the use case and contain relevant content to address respective customer concerns. – Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
8. Thank Them For Their Feedback
Many businesses conduct exit surveys to get suggestions from customers who are leaving. Most of us pay heed to this critical feedback and improve our products or services for a better user experience—but we don’t reach back out to those customers about the problem we just fixed. One tried-and-true retention strategy is to create an email drip campaign targeting your churned customers. Reach out to them and let them know that you have improved based on the feedback provided. Thank them for helping you be better at what you do and explain how their suggestions paved the way for you to achieve excellence. Send them a link to claim a free trial so they can take the new and improved version of your solution for a spin and see if it works out for them. This retention strategy works like a charm. – Jared Atchison, WPForms