Expand Your Customer Base With Email

Solid business growth depends on expanding your customer base while maintaining your relationships with existing clients. Email marketing is a tried and true way to do both at once.

With a few simple techniques, you can kick off a new email marketing campaign (or reorganize an existing one) to expand your client base. Here’s how it’s done.

Create a Mailing List

Before you can start an email campaign, you’ll need a mailing list. Creating a mailing list can be challenging if you’re starting from scratch and don’t have many contacts. Fortunately, you can build up your list by promoting sign-ups through in-person customer interactions, popup contact forms on your business website, or with social media links to a sign-up page.

By compiling the contact information you collected into a spreadsheet, you’ll have a functional email list. With certain software, you can even use that spreadsheet as a database, creating mass emails customized to match each name on the list, or segmenting groups of contacts for targeted messages.

Encourage email sign-ups with lead magnets

A lead magnet creates contacts by enticing potential customers with something free in return for contact information. This is also a chance to build customer trust by appearing generous with your giveaways.

That said, lead magnets don’t need to be an expensive investment. Sometimes offering exclusive information (such as advance notice of sales) is enough incentive for a sign-up. Other possible lead magnets include:

• Trial subscriptions to digital products
• Discounts for new sign-ups
• Free service consultations
• Entry in a contest

Should I pay for email leads?

You might see email address lists being sold online, which may seem appealing if you’re short on contacts. However, there’s no guarantee that the addresses you buy belong to useful prospects for your business, or are even still active. Building an organic email list with verifiable customers is much safer and smarter.

Send Emails to Build Your Customer Base

Email allows you to engage with customers on an individual level, encouraging them to build a positive connection with your business and become regular customers, part of your customer base. Even when operating an email campaign with hundreds or thousands of recipients, making that individual connection is the key to growing your base.

Regularly sending email helps your recipients stay aware of your business and builds trust, making them more likely to join your regular customer base. Your business should maintain a consistent presence in customer inboxes, but not so overwhelming that emails get sent to the spam folder.

What kinds of email helps my customer base grow?

While you should maintain a consistent email output, mix up the actual types of email you send. Don’t bore a customer into ignoring your outreach by sending repetitive content. Here are a variety of email messages you can use as part of your base-building tool kit:

• Welcomes: Your company’s first email to a new customer or member of a mailing list sets the standard for future interactions. Your customers should respond to a friendly greeting, but they’ll respond even more if you include a discount with the welcome message. This is also a chance to invite the customer to follow your social media.
• Newsletters: A well-made newsletter is a great way to maintain customer awareness of your brand and keep them informed about new and upcoming developments in your business. Regularly scheduled newsletters filled with personality and useful information are a great way to humanize your company and create a connection with your readers.
• Special Occasions: Solicit birthday dates from your customers with promises of a special birthday benefit. You can schedule a celebratory message for that date, along with a special offer that will encourage them to return to your business. This approach also works for other important dates, like anniversaries for a hospitality company or adoption days for a pet store.
• Reminders: If a customer has unfinished business with your company, like an online shopping cart left unordered, automated reminder emails help them keep your business top-of-mind—and give you another chance to make a sale.
• Sales and Specials: Notifying customers of major sales is a great way to focus their attention back to your business. You can also do this by emailing customers when your business has a rare or trendy item in stock that might be hard to obtain elsewhere.

You’ll need to carefully craft your marketing email to stand out in crowded inboxes, and learn what resonates most with your customer base. But with some patience and planning, a good email campaign will send your clientele to new heights.

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