FEATURE STORY
By Bob McCann
Integrated Email Campaigns:
L
ast month, I discussed how marketing automation solutions can help
you stay in touch with customers and prospects. An important feature
of marketing automation is the creation and sending of emails. This
month, I'll share with you ways that you can easily and cost-effectively stay
in touch with customers and prospects to drive more sales.
Setting goals
Most dealers want to set a goal for
increased sales when they start an email
campaign, which is a smart idea. An email
campaign provides opportunities for
upselling, cross selling, and gaining new
sales in the future. Not only that, it also
provides an easy and inexpensive method
of communicating with large groups. When
a dealership implements a calculated email
strategy, the larger goals would be to boost
sales, reduce costs, cultivate relationships,
increase customer satisfaction, as well as
improve customer retention, nurture leads
into customers, and increase the likelihood
of capturing lifetime loyal customers.
18
As long as your message is relevant,
and provides valuable information, you
can send around 16 messages per year.
Sixteen different email messages might
seem like a daunting task, but with a
little planning, you can easily achieve
that level of relationship-building
communication with your prospects
and customers.
With a focused plan that combines
action-triggered emails, product and
service promotions, and educational
features, you can turn one-off emails into
integrated campaigns that engage your
customers and prospects to help you sell
more stuff.
OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPMENT
Start with automated,
action-triggered emails
A customer's or prospect's action should
be used to "trigger" automated emails.
Trigger emails can include your response
to a request for information, thank you
for your business following a sale, addition
to your newsletter mailing list, customer
feedback requests, and even reminders
of abandoned carts. Some examples of
action-triggered emails include:
* Thank you for your business. As I
tell all of the dealers I speak with, the sale
is just the beginning of your relationship.
Thank you emails give you an exceptional
opportunity to convince customers to stay
in touch with your dealership. As applicable,
your thank you should include order details,
email opt-in confirmation, along with a
clear call-to-action, to encourage customers
to stay connected with you. A great way to
do that is by including a discount coupon
www.outdoorpowerequipment.com
Image above ©istockphoto.com/ Yakobchuk
A must-have tool for engaging customers and prospects
