So you’ve developed or created a product or service and you have managed to create growing customer base. Like most other businesses, you are finding that the costs of continuing to only attract new clients is growing beyond your financial capabilities and operational goals.

Seeing as keeping customers is more cost effective than only working to attract new customers, it would appear that the best way to achieve your sales and operational goals is to connect with your client base in a way that makes them feel special and important to your company.

While social media campaigns can be great for reaching out to your customers when special sales, promotions, and deals are on, it is not the reason nor the cause of a customers loyalty. Clients who follow companies on social media tend to do so mostly for the purpose of staying up to date with this information.

What keeps them loyal is something entirely different.

Connecting with customers via email marketing is a tried and tested form of advertising and fosters lasting product and brand loyalty from customers.

Companies who send emotional emails that reach out to customers after purchases, client service interactions, and even run-of-the-mill check-ins, tend to foster an immense sense of loyalty from their customers. These customers, in turn, start to follow their social media, which allows for more targeted advertising and, of course, increased profits.

What’s in an email?

Creating emotional emails that increase customer loyalty isn’t as easy as it seems though. There are many businesses out there for a client to choose from and a company must make sure that their main focus is making a customer feel like they are number one. Doing this involves:

• Engaging the customer in a personal and relatable way
• Making the email seem like it is a check in rather than an advertising campaign
• Using verbiage that makes a client feel like the email is meant only for them
• Adding visuals to keep a customer attracted
• Creating a sales offer that is tailored to a customer’s specific purchase habits

Why do so many fail?

Most companies utilize a “splatter style” of email campaigns that put the sale of the product above the needs of the customer. Doing so may be great for clearing stock out quick, or growing a list of client information for data analysis, but, to be honest, it does nothing to inspire or increase customer loyalty. Companies that:

• Use vague or generalized wording or phrasing such as “Dear Sir/Madam,” “To Whom it may concern,” “To Our Favorite Customer,” etc, doesn’t make a customer feel like you know about them or care whether or not they buy your product. This makes customers less likely to return to your company for other services or products you may provide.
• Send emails periodically based only on new products or services without tailoring the advertising to the customers. Specific needs or purchase habits.
• Bombard customers with too many emails do nothing to foster loyalty and make a customer feel like they are not important.

What makes customers stay?

Customers want to feel special. They want to feel like they are the only person in the world that your company will bend over backward to help. A consumer wants to know that on their special days or around a special time of year, that the company is thinking of new and exciting ways to…

• Help only them save money
• Learn about a new opportunity
• Touch base and say “Hi, we are still thinking about you!”
• Connect customers with products that matter to them
• Inform customers new products that help enhance their lifestyle needs

Why is keeping customers better than finding new ones?

There are so many studies, blogs, articles, and research out in the world that proves why keeping customers rather than constantly creating new ones is the way to go for a company that has a solid consumer base. The cost of constantly marketing through social media, tv, and advertising can be quite a profit killer to growing businesses. While hiring someone to write emails that inspire and increase customer loyalty, like the professional writers at EssayTigers, can seem like an expensive burden, the fact is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be if your emails are written in a way that helps your company reach your operational and sales goals while simultaneously making a customer feel like they are the most important person that has ever made a purchase from you. The fact is that…

• Everyone has an email address. Email existed long before social media and is something that everyone has. If your target audience is from a generation that didn’t get into the social media swing, then paying to target them is useless. Sending loyalty-inspiring emails is a great way to reach all of your target audience!
• Loyal customers talk. A lot. The more you connect with your consumer base using compelling and emotional emails, the more a customer is likely to come back to your company for future purchases. The more they do that, the more they spread the news of your wonderful company and the lengths they go to offer specials, discounts, and excellent customer service – especially to the most loyal of customers.

What to write?

There are probably more things that will turn a customer away from a company or product then turn them onto it. This is especially true when marketing via email. The client has no way to hear your intended tone and meaning so picking the right words and phrases are really important to increasing customer loyalty rather pushing them to make their purchases from somewhere else. Make sure to:

• Use the full name of the customer in the email. If a client has a preferred way to be addressed, add a section for it into a registration form so that you can make even more detailed customizations. Check out how does it below
• Get personal. Introduce the person who is sending an email. “Hi, this is _____ from _____. I am the _______ at this company and I wanted to reach out to tell you….” the more you expose customers to the people they are working with the more they will feel like they are being taken care of which is an excellent way to get that customer loyalty you have been looking to grow.
• Use specific words. Speak with positive words and attitudes so as to make a customer feel good rather than ashamed. Avoid using negative or harsh words that make a customer feel pressured, shamed, or scared to continue to make purchases.

When to say it?

While your company may want to expose all of their products and services to your customers, the fact is that not every customer needs every product. Saturating your clients with emails for things they don’t want at times they don’t need them is a sure fire way to alienate your customers and lose their loyalty to your brand. Organize your consumers’ data in a way that lets you target groups that…

• Haven’t purchased in 1, 3, 6, & 12 months
• Have just made a purchase
• Purchased and may be running low on stock
• Have a birthday, anniversary, or other special event coming up
• Are interested in holiday shopping
• Tend to purchase only when sent deals and specials
• Haven’t logged on in a long period of time
• Just spoke with a customer service agents

While this list is not totally inclusive of everything, it is a great start to helping you create effective marketing emails that increase customer loyalty.

The Takeaway

Retaining customers is the best way to generate additional sales and build and spread brand recognition. The more your customers love your business, products, and services, the more they will recommend you to others who will do the same.

The key to this is making sure that you are actively engaging your customers in a regular and routine way that makes them feel important without making them feel pressured.

There are lots of ways to connect with your customers via email and it’s up to you to find the right way based on your consumer base and the products and services that you offer.

With customers that are loyal to your business and only your business, you will be able to watch your profits and your brand recognition soar to great heights!

Stacey Wonder is an experienced content marketer who currently works for EssayTigers, the writing service. She works with all kinds of content starting with social media posts and ending with commercial emails. Stacey says that the best way to retain a client is to create an emotional connection between a client and your brand.