Email Automation for Predictable Cash Flow and Asset Creation

Keeping in touch with your customers is good business. This is especially true when they have requested it. This article will explain why building a customer contact list and keeping in touch is so important and so valuable to your business now, and in the future.

Build Your Business with Permission-Based Marketing

Permission-based marketing is when people have given you permission to send them your offers. If people have had a good experience in your restaurant, they’ll often give you permission to keep in touch, especially if you have a special offer for them. Keeping in touch is easy and cheap with email marketing automation. It’s also really valuable.

Keeping in Touch With Customers-Why it’s So Important

It’s not your customer’s job to remember you, it’s YOUR job to remind them you exist. When people give you their email contact information, they’re ASKING you to REMIND them. This is a gift.

You want to be remembered when the question arises: “Where do you want to go out to eat (or order take-out)?” Among ALL the choices there are (and new ones popping up constantly), it’s a lot easier to be remembered when YOUR restaurant shows up in their email inbox once a week.

Even when the customers on your list don’t open your email, they will usually SEE your name and subject line which reminds them of you.

Why do customer stop coming to a place? It’s SO important to keep in touch!

According to Dan Kennedy’s research (a well known marketing guru), we lose customers for the following reasons:

• 1% die
• 3% move
• 14% are influenced by a friend’s or relative’s advice and switch to their brand
• 9%leave because of a better price or product
• 14% switch due to product or service dissatisfaction
• 68% leave because they felt the sales person and company were indifferent to their needs. They feel taken for granted.

Of course, there’s nothing you can do about those who die or about those who move out of the area. But if you have permission to keep in touch with people, you can continue to keep in touch with a friendly message and an offer. Done with class, this will help you retain more customers, even win some back.

Email Marketing Automation

When someone fills out a signup form like the one pictured above, the information will need to be manually entered into an email database. This is about the only part that’s not automatic, but it’s not difficult.

A page on your website should be setup with a similar form or coupons. These can be setup to capture your customers’ contact information and automatically add them to your email database.

Then what?

Email marketing technology allows us to setup emails in advance. Your email messages can be planned ahead to be sent on a schedule of your choosing-once per week, every other week, or once each month.

“But I don’t want to burden customers with emails.” 

NONSENSE! Remember, this is a permission-based list. They have given you permission-they have asked you to send them your stuff. You’re practically under obligation! Besides, everyone on your list can opt-out which automatically removes them from the list.

When someone fills out a sign-up form Like the one above) after they’ve eaten your food, they’re telling you, “Yes. I’m satisfied with your food and my experience. I’ll be back, especially if you keep in touch with your specials, coupons, and news.”

Think about the possible lifetime value of this customer. Do the math: if you can get just 50 customers (with a party of 4) to come back in just 3 more times per year by keeping in touch, how much more revenue will you generate?

Advertise to Build Your List

When you advertise with Groupon or in print (coupon mailers or local magazines), people will visit your website to take a closer look. If you have a page on your website called Specials and Coupons, people will opt-in to your contact list. Now, every time you advertise, you’ll not only get a bump in sales, you’ll also be building your list.

Building an Asset Which Makes Your Business More Valuable

When you send out emails, you’ll see a bump in revenue. You’ll be on a mission to grow your list bigger and faster. Not only will you generate more revenue, you’ll also be creating a new asset: YOUR LIST. Your huge list of customers (fans), is property-property which makes your business more valuable to you NOW and makes your business more valuable and attractive to a potential buyer.

ADVERTISING GETS PEOPLE TO MY WEBSITE > PEOPLE ON MY WEBSITE GETS PEOPLE TO SIGN UP FOR MY EMAIL > PEOPLE IN MY RESTAURANT GETS PEOPLE TO SIGN UP FOR MY EMAIL > SENDING EMAIL KEEPS PEOPLE COMING BACK MORE OFTEN > PEOPLE COMING BACK MORE OFTEN GENERATES MORE REVENUE AND HIGHER LIFETIME CUSTOMER VALUE > A BIG CUSTOMER CONTACT LIST INCREASES THE VALUE OF MY BUSINESS NOW AND IN THE FUTURE.

How Important is Email to Your Overall Marketing Strategy?

Permission-Based Marketing.  Sound interesting? What’s that mean? It means when people give you their name and email address, they have raised their hands and said, “Please let me know what you’re selling because I might buy it.” Pretty sweet, right? “Send me your information because I want to hear about what you have to say.” “Send me your offers.” What could be better than to have a list of friendly people who give you permission and pay attention to your advertising?

Building Customer Lists and Prospect Lists Are The 2 Most Important Things You Can Do To Build and Maintain Customers and Cash Flow

There’s been a lot of emphasis on social media as a marketing platform in the last several years, and rightfully so. But do you know what the #1 goal of all the most successful social media mavens is? Getting email addresses. “The money is in the list.” This is the mantra of all the most successful marketers and it’s true.

When someone has given you permission to send them your stuff- your information, your offers, your news updates, it’s a beautiful thing.

Email Marketing is The Most Important Component of Online Marketing

The easiest person to sell something to is someone you have sold to and satisfied in the past. But just because this pleasing transaction took place in the past, it doesn’t mean there’s going to be a “next-time” because if you’re out of sight, you’re out of mind. It’s not your customer’s job to remember you or to be faithful to you, it’s your job to remind them you exist and you appreciate them.

Here’s How Email Marketing Works

Example:

You take your car to a car wash close to home on a Sunday morning. They do a nice job. You signed up for email there because they promised you an occasional promotion. They keep in touch every now and then. You can see their email in your inbox. Sometimes you open it. Sometimes, not…you just delete it. When you open it, there’s usually a car care tip or a cute joke and an offer for a discount on a service. There’s a picture of the owner or the manager and you recognize him (or her). That’s nice.

You pass by a car wash on your way home from work every week. It’s convenient. You don’t have to go out of your way at all. It’s $2.00 cheaper than the other place. But you don’t go there any more because the other guys keep in touch. You feel like you know them. You feel like they know you. They send you an email coupon for a FREE WASH on your birthday. 

Friend, substitute your business for the car wash. Are you keeping in touch with your customers on a regular basis with email? Do you send your customers a Happy Birthday message and a gift via email? Are you reminding your customers you care about them, you value them and you exist?

Email will keep your business in top-of-mind position but if you’re like most business owners you probably feel like:

• You don’t have time for emailing people. Then get someone to do it for you!
• You don’t want to burden your customers with unwanted emails. But if people are giving you their email address, they’re requesting your offers! What a gift! Use it!
• You tried this and you didn’t get any results. But chances are you didn’t know how to do it right or you gave up too soon.

Email is a numbers game. Only about 12% of the people on your list will even open your email at any given time. But if you have 1000 people on your list, that’s 120 people! Out of 120 people, SOME of them will show up and do business with you just because you sent them an email. If that’s true, wouldn’t you be eager to grow your list to 2000, 3000, 5000? Almost everyone loves to be recognized on their birthday and will gladly include it if asked. On average, over 70% of people will open your Happy Birthday email. IT’S A NO-BRAINER!

Email Marketing Tips:

1. Consistency: no one wants to be bombarded with emails but a consistent schedule is vital to email marketing success. Once weekly, twice monthly, no less than once per month depending on the type of business you’re in. Don’t be discouraged if you fail to get results with some of your emails. Keep delivering with regularity. Don’t worry about being a burden, they gave you their email contact information!
2. Headline: (aka subject line.) A good headline is essential so your email isn’t deleted before it gets opened. Avoid hype. Do a little homework. There’s a lot of material out there with ideas on how to craft email subject lines.
3. Personalization: email programs have the ability to automatically insert your recipients’ first name into the greeting of your message. Use this function in your program. Personalization is proven to be effective.
4. Keep your eye on opt-outs: if you send an email and a larger-than-typical number of people opt-out, learn from it. Try to figure out what may have triggered the negative response.
5. Sell but don’t be “salesy”: With your offer or promotion, deliver a bit of information, humor, or story in your emails. Be personal. Including something about your kids, your pet or your recent vacation is engaging. Inspirational quotes and jokes are fuel for getting more of your emails opened and read.
6. Proof read: spelling and grammar errors are killers. Create your email but don’t send it right away. Reread it out loud and check spelling. Keep sentences short and eliminate unnecessary words.
7. Link your message to a specific page of your website. Suggest your recipients share your message on social media.
8. Make an offer. Send them to your coupon page on your website. Suggest they share this too!
9. Think about the benefit your audience: Remember your readers want to know “what’s in it for me?”  Deliver a benefit for opening your email. Otherwise they’ll delete and eventually opt-out of your list.
10. Include list building into every marketing effort from this point forward. 

Keeping in touch with people who have NOT done business with you yet but have shown interest in a product or service should be a top priority. It’s easy to keep in touch with email. If they’re not ready to buy now, your periodic email will keep you in top-of-mind position for when that time comes.

Contact Andrew Mazer at 1-866-799-2825 for email marketing consultation or email: info@mazermarketing.com