Imagine having a 24/7 assistant that could take good care of your clients and make you money (even if you are sleeping for taking a well-deserved vacation).
If you have SendBound, you have one.
One of the places where I see clients leaving money on the table is in post-sale follow-up.
Studies show that it costs 4 times as much to acquire a customer as to retain an existing customer. Email is a cost-effective way to keep your customer relationship going strong long after the sale.
What should I send?
OK, I’ve convinced you to add some post-sale follow up messages to your customers. Next, you should decide what kinds of messages to send.
You should (as much as possible) determine this in advance so that you can tell new customers what to expect from you right from the beginning.
First Things First… Say “Thank You”
Start by sending a “thank you” message thanking the new subscriber and reminding them of what they can expect from your emails.
Either in this email or the next email, provide for your subscribers a guide to your service. Offer any tutorials, FAQs, or other informational services you have in a way that’s easy to understand and access with links.
Focus on offering the information the customer or lead needs to get their questions answered—so they don’t need to contact you directly.
Did You Get What I Sent?
A quick logistics email the day after someone buys from you is one of the most effective emails you can send. The purpose of the email is to double check that they’ve received the material and that all is well.
If you are an advanced user of SendBound, you can set up your automation to send this message to people who have not logged into your site or who did not open your initial thank you message.
Sending this message nips customer service issues in the bud and makes you a hero to customers who are having trouble accessing your product (but who might have been embarrassed to ask for help).
Just Checking In…
You should periodically send emails geared specifically towards your customers’ purchases and any problems they might have encountered. Send messages telling them you are checking in to see how they are doing.
Your automated emails should ask if they have any questions or feedback for you. This encourages them to make the best use of your services and seek the help they may be hesitant to ask for. These messages also keep people on your radar and encourage interaction.
This is also a great way to build asking for referrals and testimonials into your marketing flow.
If you have a consumable product, be sure to send a check in email timed for just before you expect them to run out of your product. This is a great way to prompt for a repeat sale.
News and Updates
Whenever there is something new that might be of interest to your subscribers, send them a message informing them.
This could be a new product line or a new service you’re offering, or new FAQ questions or tutorials. Try to update subscribers with information that will be specifically helpful to them and provide good customer service.
Keep Teaching
In addition to updates and customer service help, most email lists also send out content that’s purely informational.
This would be like the content you use for content marketing, but it should be exclusive to your list. They should feel that they’re getting something special through the subscription. Focus on content that helps your subscribers solve their problems or make the best use of your services.
This content should still be related to your business, but the main goal is to help.
A good way to improve your customer service through informational content is to take a question asked by one customer and answer it for everyone.
Whenever you get a new question, write an email to send to all subscribers answering the question. If one customer asked, it’s highly likely that others have the question in their minds as well.
Special Offers
Although the focus of your list might be to improve your customer service and build relationships through automation, you can also offer special deals and make sales directly through your list.
First, exclusive offers such as special deals and discounts make your list special. This is an enticement for getting people to sign up and it also keeps them tuned in and paying attention.
Second, in addition to direct sales, you can qualify your prospects and learn about them through making special offers.
For example, you might make an initial offer to new subscribers right after they’ve signed up. It might be a limited-time free trial of a new service you’re offering.
For the subscribers who aren’t interested in trying a free service, you know that they’re not likely to show interest in many other offers you make (although it could also be the nature of the service, which they might feel they don’t need).
But those who take the free trial are those who are potentially interested in other offers. If you make an offer for a premium product with more advanced features and some of your subscribers buy it, you know that these subscribers are your best potential customers of further offers.
You can also use the list to up-sell or cross-sell.
After a customer makes a certain purchase, you could set the autoresponder to automatically send a message offering a deal on a similar product that would also be useful to the customer. It could be something that enhances their current purchase, or something they didn’t realize you offer, but which they might need.
As you can see from the examples, you’re providing customer service solutions through email in an automated way, but you could also be making sales.
With up-selling, cross-selling, and promotions, the key is to help the customer by anticipating their needs and offering something before they ask for it.