Email marketing can be used in various ways and for numerous goals, gathering your audience in one place by integrating all your marketing channels. That said, most email marketers have a straightforward plan — generating more click-throughs.
Most internet marketing experts agree that optimizing your emails for click-throughs is essential, as more traffic to your site is always welcome. However, a top-quality email marketing strategy can also boost brand loyalty, leading to long-term returns.
Brand loyalty allows you to generate more business more consistently. As you facilitate brand loyalty through your email marketing campaign, you’ll entice your customers to buy from you repeatedly instead of running to the competition the first chance they get.
5 Ways to Build Brand Loyalty Through Email Marketing
You can use email marketing to boost your brand loyalty in many different ways. Here are five of our favorites, in no particular order:
1. Reminders and Updates
Although we just said that we compiled this list with no particular order in mind, perhaps we’ll make an exception to that self-imposed rule when it comes to the first item.
Important updates and reminders are probably the first things you should focus on when it comes to your email strategy. You want to keep your audience informed about new products and other developments within the company.
This will make your customers feel like they’re part of a community gathered around your brand. If, for example, you’re planning a major sale in the near future, make sure that your email subscribers are the first to know, enticing a sense of exclusivity.
Sending periodic reminders via the newsletter as the sale date grows closer will keep your company at the top of your customers’ minds. It will also get them to think of the sale as a major event, which might make some of them save up some extra cash for that product they’ve wanted for a while.
All that being said, a constant barrage of pointless emails is more likely to annoy your audience than make them more loyal. Always make sure your emails bring real value.
2. Gifts and Free Digital Items
Offering gifts is a tactic commonly used to attract people to subscribe to your mailing list in the first place. Think of it as an exchange of value. Internet users are savvier than ever, and few will be willing to give you their email address just because they like you; most will expect something in return.
However, getting people to subscribe is not the end of the road. Once they get what they subscribed for, nothing’s stopping them from leaving.
This is why you want to show your email audience the recurring value, keeping them subscribed for the long term. One way to do this is to offer recurring gifts, which will remind them why they subscribed in the first place.
Like in a romantic relationship, you have to work at it and not let yourself take the other person for granted. The gifts don’t have to be expensive; it’s the thought that counts.
3. Segmentation and Personalization
If you want to give each customer what they really want, you’ll need to employ customer segmentation and personalization.
Email marketing is perhaps the most personal marketing channel, aside from direct, face-to-face interaction. Therefore, understanding how to target each segment of your audience and deliver the appropriate message to each person is vital.
To do this properly, you’ll need lots of data. Information such as gender, age, income level, and location can tell you a lot about a person’s interests and needs. The more info you can gather during the sign-up process, the better. Be careful, however, as asking too much is a surefire way to scare people away.
Once you have the data, you can use it in a variety of ways. If you see a large number of subscriptions from a particular area, for instance, Miami, you’ll want to build loyalty with your Miami audience. To do this, you can outsource to Miami web design professionals to help you create the perfect look for your newsletter and make it “talk” to that audience specifically.
4. Email-Exclusive Content
Email-exclusive content offers another route you can choose to take in your email marketing strategy. As the name suggests, this type of content is only shared with your email subscribers, at least within a certain period.
For example, you may give your email subscribers early access to a piece of content, such as a podcast, blog post, or eBook. To make the subscription worthwhile, it’s best not to publish the content to a wide audience for at least a week or two.
Another approach is to share smaller bits of content, like quick guides, infographics, or fact sheets, exclusively with your email audience. The key is to create exclusivity by offering something they can’t get elsewhere.
5. Social Media Integration
The final item on our list involves encouraging brand loyalty by combining your email marketing strategy with your social media presence. This allows you to cross-pollinate your audiences and share followers between the two channels.
For example, you may ask your loyal social media followers to subscribe to your mailing list or ask your email audience to follow you on social media. Both approaches should boost user participation and widen your brand’s exposure, fostering a stronger sense of community and, therefore, brand loyalty.
Closing Thoughts
You should note that the effectiveness of the five strategies we outlined above will greatly depend on the nature of your business and the audience you’re looking to reach. We wish there were a be-all-end-all strategy to building brand loyalty through email marketing, but unfortunately, that is not the case.
Until you’ve tested a few different approaches, it won’t be easy to know what works. Therefore, we advise against putting all your eggs in one basket. Instead, take some time to develop a variety of marketing strategies along with your email campaign.
