8 strategies to build customer loyalty via email, with examples

Have you ever seen phone plan offers for «new contracts»?

Sure you have. And it’s pretty annoying: you’re one of the customers who stays loyal to your provider, and it rewards you by putting all its effort into attracting new users.

And what about building loyalty among the customers who stick around year after year?

That’s exactly what we’re going to talk about in this post: what customer loyalty actually means, how to retain and build loyalty among your customers through email marketing services, and examples of companies that build customer loyalty by email.

Even at the risk of sounding repetitive, we never tire of saying that email is an excellent tool for acquiring and retaining users. It’s no coincidence that it’s a growing trend that most companies, regardless of their size, are tapping into.

That’s why we think we should start there; before diving into loyalty strategies, use cases and specific examples, it’s worth refreshing a few concepts. We’ll walk you through it here at Mailrelay.

Let’s get started.

What customer loyalty actually means, and why email is an effective tool

Customer loyalty is about caring for and pampering your audience so they want to stay with you. Or put another way: it’s all those strategies that get your customers not just to come back, but to become advocates for your brand.

But it’s not enough to treat others well out of self-interest, only once they’ve already bought from you and that’s it. Your commitment to your customers has to start even before you’ve met, and now you’ll see why.

The importance of building customer loyalty from the very start

As we said, loyalty-building has to start from minute one of the relationship. In fact, you need to keep it in mind throughout every stage of the customer journey, which also includes the stages before the purchase:

1. Discovery: this is the stage where the person realizes they have a need or a problem, but doesn’t know how to solve it and starts researching. It’s stage zero of engagement, the first step toward winning over your target’s decision-making center, and a great time for lead generation. And as we all know, today’s leads are tomorrow’s buyers.
2. Consideration: during their research they come across some alternatives and it’s time to take one more step toward solving their problem. It’s time to address pain points and answer questions to really strike a chord.
3. Decision: the user settles on one of the options they were weighing. In short, it’s the moment of truth. And that’s where you need to be, making things easy for them, being clear in your messages, and positioning yourself in their mind so you’re the one they choose.
4. Purchase: the buying process is one of the trickiest, because it’s when the customer can feel most vulnerable; make it clear that everything will be fine and that you’re trustworthy. Don’t skimp on confirmation and thank-you messages.
5. After-sales: this stage is sometimes considered outside the customer journey, but that’s precisely what we’re talking about today. If you want a customer to come back and recommend you, take care of them warmly after the purchase too.

If you cover the whole spectrum, you manage to build an emotional connection with the customer as they move through each stage of the sales funnel. Make the most of the opportunities at each stage and design customer loyalty strategies for each one.

And why is email an especially useful tool in your loyalty strategies? You’ll see right away.

Advantages of email in building customer loyalty

In case you still have doubts that email is an essential channel for rolling out your loyalty strategies, here are some of its strengths:

● It’s fast. Can you think of a more agile way to send a thank-you letter to a loyal customer than email? And that’s just one example. There’s surely no other channel where sending a message takes less time. And with autoresponders it’s even faster.

● It’s a close, personal way to communicate because it speaks to the reader one-on-one. It’s like stepping into their personal space. Take care with the copywriting in your emails and connect with your audience while you go after conversions.

● It’s versatile because it works for answering questions, strengthening emotional bonds, closing sales, asking about your service, entertaining…

● Email is a respectful, low-intrusion way to reach out to customers, because they read it whenever they want and reply whenever it suits them.

● It’s cheap: for example, with Mailrelay you can send up to 80,000 emails a month to a maximum of 20,000 contacts at zero cost.

Now that you know what customer loyalty is all about and why email is THE CHANNEL, it’s time to see how you can reward users who keep coming back to your brand, how to retain them, and ways to turn them into your best influencer.

Quick tips before you start building customer loyalty

Before diving into ideas for keeping your audience happy and examples of companies putting them into practice, here are four basic tips you should follow in your loyalty campaigns right from the start:

● Take care with the copy of your messages, from the subject line to the sign-off: adjust the tone, language and content to your buyer persona and to the stage of the buying decision they’re at. And to do that…

● Segment from the very first point of contact, that way you’ll be able to personalize your communications and give each person what they need.

● Rely on an intuitive, flexible sending automation platform so you can evolve and adjust your email marketing strategies aimed at retaining customers.

● Measure as much as you can: delivered emails, bounces, views, number of clicks and unsubscribes are extremely valuable data for decision-making — and not just about your customer loyalty techniques, but about how your business is doing overall.

✍️ You might be interested in: Newsletter examples

Now that you know how to build customer loyalty…

…All that’s left is to do it with a platform that’s versatile, easy to use and won’t break the bank.

To choose the right one, do a comparison of email marketing tools looking at these variables:

● Number of subscribers, the sending volume they allow, and at what price

● Whether they offer 24/7 technical support with short response times

● Features you’re going to need, such as templates, automations or statistics

Once you know this and the characteristics of your business, all that’s left is to start designing your own customer loyalty strategies. It won’t be for lack of ideas.

Here are a few articles that might interest you:

• Daily email strategy
• What a corporate email is
• Unique subject lines for newsletters
• How to apologize in writing: Tips and templates
• Mailing campaigns: definition and examples for businesses