You’ve got an in-house customer and prospect mailing list created automatically by your ecommerce system, plus an automatic autoresponder and email marketing facility. Or you’ve built your own database by hand using something like Excel. So what do you do with it?
15 uses for an in-house mailing list
Here are a few sensible ideas to start you off creating positive, lucrative relationships with your customers and prospects.
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thank customers for their last order and make them an offer they can’t resist
- send a short questionnaire or survey (using free survey software if you need it) that’ll deliver commercially useful feedback – people love being asked questions about themselves, their opinions and buying habits
- encourage your hottest prospects to buy with a tightly targeted special offer
- touch base with a newsletter
- ask your prospects for an honest answer about why they haven’t bought from you yet – and act on their feedback. Honesty is compelling and increases trust in your brand
- send them something free
- invite them to contribute to your blog
- send season’s greetings
- carry out an event-led campaign
- celebrate a year, or two, three or five, since they first ordered from you
- tell them about new services or products
- inform them you’re having a sale
- provide discount codes or money off vouchers
- encourage them to enter a competition
- ask for testimonials
Don’t forget to communicate with your customers and prospects separately – from a marketing perspective they’re very different animals. And don’t overdo it. You’re a consumer too, so ask yourself how often you’d appreciate getting marketing stuff and act accordingly.
