How To Use Email Marketing To Build Relationships With Online Store Subscribers

As you probably know very well, marketing your business isn’t easy. There are millions of voices out there, all wanting to be heard, and you’re one of them.

You have a variety of platforms to choose from, though, and you have a great product or service, so there is infinite potential to reach the right people!

Email marketing is one of the most effective methods in that it engages current and potential customers on a personal, intimate level. Many e-commerce platforms, such as Shoplazza, Shopify, Squarespace, etc., integrate with email marketing apps to help online store owners engage more with their subscribers.

You need to know how to make the most of it, though, because you aren’t the only one using it!

Understanding how to use email marketing to get messages across and build solid and lasting relationships with subscribers is essential. That way, you’ll draw potential clients closer, strengthen your bond with current customers, and ultimately become more successful as a business.

Let’s take a look at five ways to do this effectively.

1. Get Personal

Familiarity breeds trust and email marketing is the perfect platform to become more familiar with your audience. A personal touch will allow you to connect with your audience and encourage them to engage with you and your brand.

Ensure that you always introduce yourself (or your marketing/communications employee) personally in all email communication. Unfortunately, most people receive spam every day, and generic communication is often ignored or blocked.

It will be helpful if you communicate in a personable and warm tone that builds a strong relationship. Be careful of coming across as too familiar, though—just the right amount of proper respect and friendliness is a perfect balance here.

2. Learn About Their Wants & Needs

The best way to build a viable and robust relationship with email subscribers is to discover their innermost wants and needs. Unfortunately, this isn’t always easy because you can’t ask them directly; it might seem creepy!

Getting to know your customers and subscribers often takes a while, but some techniques can speed up the process and get you the information you want.

• Polls and surveys; 
• Emails with generic queries as to preferences;
• Email tones and styles are being A/B tested;
• Analyzing the demographics of your subscribers;
• Analyzing subscribers based on their responses, spending habits, and interactions; 
• Analyzing social media habits and trends.

3. Create Avatars

Getting to know your subscribers is great, but there is no point if you aren’t using that information productively. That’s where avatars come in.

Client avatars are a way to group current and potential customers into specific demographic and behavioral groups based on the information you gather about them.

Creating avatars will help you get to know your subscribers better and be able to direct specific marketing campaigns to them based on their characteristics.

Creating descriptive avatars allows you to build the most substantial possible relationship with your subscribers and dramatically increase your sales!

4. Connect Appropriately

Connecting appropriately applies to two facets of email marketing.

Firstly, you need to know the appropriate intervals, times, and situations for emailing them. For example, sending an email twice every day to say hi is highly inappropriate, and you’ll lose that subscriber fast!

Depending on your industry, various intervals apply, so check out the protocols. Emailing should also be limited to a reminder of specific deals and specials and should be in the form of monthly or weekly newsletter-style informational emails.

The second facet has to do with integrated connectivity. Your email marketing campaign should link to your social media, website, SMS, or any other marketing activities. The tone, branding, and voice should be similar, and subscribers should know you across all channels.

5. Provide Value

We all want value in our lives, and your subscribers do too. Building a relationship with them is about offering value and getting their patronage and attention in return.

You can provide them with value in the following ways:

• Discounts on products based on opting-in for email newsletters and liking social media pages;
• Competitions with giveaways, deals, and other fantastic prizes;
• Loyalty programs for remaining on the emailer list for a specific period.

Email marketing is a great way to build your brand and improve your business. The key is to develop and maintain a strong relationship with your subscribers!

(Contributed by Aneeca Younas & Hermes Fang)