A newsletter or e-zine is a very effective tool for an e-commerce business. Studies have indicated that the main reason customers will no longer buy from you is a lack of communication. If you want to hold onto the customers you currently have, you need to strengthen your relationship with them using a newsletter program as your form of communication. As soon as you have a continuous relationship with your customers, it becomes a lot easier to sell to them again and again.
There are several elements you need to include and a variety of factors to keep in mind when creating your own newsletter program. Here is a list of some key features a good e-commerce website newsletter should have:
- Feature announcement of brand new products
- Offer customers special promotions or discounts
- Make sure the design of your newsletter matches that of your site, including header and tabs
- Keep it concise, less content is better
- Have consistent delivery of your newsletter, try not to send out too many or too little
- Give important information related to your products such as consumer reports or recent news
- Add numerous calls to action such as banners, text links and buttons that will send the subscriber directly to specific pages on your site
- Add an 'Unsubscribe' link in the footer area of each newsletter and make sure a form is included on the unsubscribe page asking for feedback
There are several benefits of having a website newsletter in addition to your e-commerce store. The main reason for having a newsletter program is to build customer loyalty and get more repeat business. Studies have shown that existing customers on average spend 33% more than new customers and the ones that participate in customer loyalty programs generally will spend 4x as much. Your website newsletter serves an important function of constantly reminding people of your store's brand and getting new products in front of them. Unless you have a newsletter, most people would forget about your online store almost immediately after they make a purchase. You can't expect your customers to actively return to your web site on a regular basis to find out about new product offerings or promotions. This is the reason why it is so important to have a newsletter program, it is one of the best forms of communication that an ecommerce business can have. Your subscriber list is the most targeted market you can find. They have already bought from you, they know and trust your business, they clearly have an interest in your products and there's a much higher likelihood that they will buy from you over a new customer. Your subscribers should also be appreciative of the fact that they are one of the first people to know about new products, promotions or discounts.
Any good e-commerce solution should be able to provide basic features for implementing a website newsletter program for your online store. Here is a list of important things to look for:
- Have a built-in newsletter program in your store admin which lets you create and send newsletters directly from your site interface
- Collect names, emails and other information that you specify
- Have the ability to verify whether or not email addresses are valid
- Have the ability to customize the design of your newsletter
- Give subscribers the ability to unsubscribe at any time
- Include a special newsletter sign up feature in the checkout area
Besides having your website newsletter sign up box prominently displayed on your homepage and within your checkout, there are several other ways to build your subscriber list. It's important for visitors to be able to see your newsletter subscription information on every page that they land on. This can be achieved by placing either an opt-in box, banner, image link or text link on the header, footer or sidebar of your ecommerce site. You can also add a 'Tell a Friend' page or have that feature show up after checkout to collect names and emails of your current customers' friends. Other ways to build your website newsletter program mailing list include setting up contests where people have to give their emails and the winner gets a prize from your e-commerce site. This is a marketing tactic used by many well known online retailers and it really does help build your list quickly. You can market your contest on blogs, forums and other social media web sites.
Choosing the correct ecommerce solution with an available
newsletter management software is crucial for opening up channels of communication with your customers. You must have a solid newsletter feature to simplify the process of creating and sending it out to your subscribers.
