How to build stronger customer relationships using email marketing

It goes without saying that as a brand, your customers are everything.You are dependent on your customers to continue to drive revenue, and obviously, you need money to run your business. This is why you should be using email marketing.

Therefore, it also goes without saying that you need to trust your customers like kings and queens and show them that they’re valuable to you. One of the ways to do that is using email marketing.

This is of course just one of many ways to build a stronger customer relationship, but the foundation for building relationships is always interaction. Not once, not twice, but consistent interactions time and time over. Just think about how many times you’ve interacted with your best friend to create the strong relationship you have with that person today.

Now, email marketing is a great customer acquisition tool, but we should not forget that it can be leveraged as a relationship tool as well. Remember that the foundation for building a relationship with someone, whether it be your customers or a friend, is consistent interaction, and if you see where I am going with this, email opens up an interaction channel for you to engage and interact with your customers. Now, it is time to leverage it.

In this post, we’re looking at ways you can build stronger customer relationships using email marketing.

Run automated emails

Now, you might be thinking:

“But should I really do automated emails when I am focusing on building customer relationships?”

And yes, that’s a reasonable thought, because the usage of all form of automation risk creating a disconnect between you and your customer due to the lost sense of a human touch, but the good news is that automation used correctly ensures that the human touch is still there, only that you use automation to streamline the process, save time, and ensure that the right emails are sent to the right person at the right time.

Sounds reasonable?

Relationships are built between humans, and this is why, when using automation (and even when not using automation), you need to ensure that the human touch is never lost and that your brand’s personality and brand voice can shine through. If you do this, however, there’s absolutely no reason to use email automation.

How can you use email automation to build stronger customer relationships?

By using it to interact and engage with your customers, of course. The more you interact with your customers, the better.

The automated emails will be sent after specific conditions are met, for example when someone has clicked a link or opened an email. In using this, you have full control over when your emails are sent.

Send emails on important dates

It’s the details that matter when using email marketing.

You probably receive a bunch of gifts or messages during the holidays such as Christmas and new year’s, but when you receive all of those gifts or well-wishes on those occasions, it almost becomes saturated in a way, and quite soon thereafter, you forgot who sent what.

Recognize yourself in this?

This is why you need to take a different approach to acknowledging important dates for your customers. In doing so, remember that the only way to stand out from the crowd is to do what your competitors aren’t doing.

When it comes to gifting, the vast majority of brands send gifts around the holidays, but this is actually a huge mistake as it has been found to be the least effective time to give a gift. While you can’t send physical gifts through email, there’s nothing that’s stopping you from sending non-physical gifts such as coupons, free products, or gift cards.

But the best part is that you don’t have to give something of monetary value if you don’t want. You’d be amazed at how far a “congratulations” will take you because after all, it is the thought that counts, and if you do acknowledge your customers at times when no other brand is, you show them that you go above and beyond and that you pay great attention to them. If you show that you value and appreciation, reciprocity will make your customers do the same thing in return. Additionally, it will have a huge positive effect on your relationship with that person.

This is why, you want to leverage email to send your customers messages at times when they least expect it, and when no-one else is. Birthdays are a great start, but that is a time when most people expect it. To stand out even further, you want to send them at even more “random times”, yet times that still means something to your customers.

With SendPulse, you can create automation emails that are triggered on special dates.

Send welcome emails

Never underestimate the power of welcome emails when using email marketing.

Someone comes to your site, they look around, but since everything is a bit new to them, it might feel a little intimidating. Because your site and business are what they are looking for, they might sign up for your newsletter. Now, it is time for you to make them feel welcome and like home.

Remember what the first day at school felt like: everything was scary and intimidating, but if someone comes and welcome you with a warm smile, it will obviously feel a lot better, right? That’s exactly what you’re going to do with your welcome email.

With SendPulse, you can set up automated emails to be triggered and sent to people when they fill in your subscription form. Many brands make the mistake of trying to sell right from the bat the second when someone signs up to their newsletter, but remember that the first impression is crucial, and making your first impression that you are someone who is just trying to sell to them will push them away from them more than it will bring them closer to you.

If you meet someone, for example at a wedding, would the first thing you would do be to try to sell to them? Of course not, you would start building a relationship with them. There’s a misconception that there’s a difference between online and real-life, but no matter where the interactions take place, the principle of human interaction doesn’t change.

A tip is to use your welcome email to first do as the name suggests, welcome them, and then, talk more about yourself, your brand, and your mission. Also, why not invite them to join you on your mission, whether it be to get people to eat more sugar, or to become more healthy.

Personalization

Personalization in email has proven to be tremendously effective, not only in increasing sales and open-rates, but they are also incredibly effective in strengthening your customer relationships.

Relationships are built between two humans, and when you personalize your emails based on the recipient, you show them that you don’t see them as just a number in your email subscription list or a source of income which you’re going to try to get as much money from as possible, but instead, you’re engaging with each customer as an individual, and show them that you see them as an individual that you value and respect.

Leverage location

Personalization is tremendously powerful in building your customer relationships, and a great way to do this is by segmenting your mailing list when using email marketing by the countries which your customers are from.

Segmenting your subscribers based on location helps you send more relevant emails which people can resonate better with. Some people might have festivals or holidays tied to that specific country which you can talk about in your email to make them resonate better with you, and some countries might have winter when others have summer, and this can be yet another thing to talk about when emailing them. The opportunities really are endless.

The best part?

Using SendPulse, you can see exactly where your email subscribers are from, and then segment your list

Otherwise, finding out where each and every one of your subscribers is from can be a tricky task, to say the least, but with the statistics service tool, it will be done automatically using email marketing. Awesome, right?