Retain clients with free email marketing

January 19, 2008
A monthly newsletter or other correspondence can drastically reduce your business's turnover rate. Often, we think of marketing as a way to obtain new customers. Print ads, Google ads, and seminars are all tools that are great at attracting new customers. The problem is that it is far more expensive to attract new customers than it is to retain existing ones. Email marketing provides an excellent venue for reducing customer turnover and increasing sales. Real estate agents, mechanics, and financial service professionals are very different types of business people who have one thing in common. They may have only one customer interaction per year, on average. An affordable way to keep your business fresh in the minds of customers is a monthly newsletter. Businesses such as restaurants and coffee shops may have increased customer interaction, but no way of communicating to existing customers outside of their visits to the location. A monthly newsletter will increase that customer interaction from once a year to twelve times a year. Mechanics can send information to customers about car maintenance. Real estate agents can send new listings or house selling tips. And, the customers will really appreciate the information. The wonderful thing about email marketing is that, even if your customer base doubles from 10,000 to 20,000 customers, you still spend the same amount of money contacting them -- nothing. Especially when you have access to a free email marketing software package such as Email Marketing Professional. So how do you get started? First, you need a mailing list. This newsletter has articles related to developing mailing lists for free. There are free scripts available to capture email addresses online. If you have a physical store, you can request email addresses at the point of sale. Explain to the customer that you will be sending them coupons and informational newsletter. Next, you need a tool such as Email Marketing Professional to send those coupons and newsletters. Get started today!