Our entire life is surrounded by relationships and it is our maintenance of these relationships that make us successful. Putting in the right kind of time and effort is what ensures your relationship stays intact and that the other party stays in love with you. This is true of your spouse, your friends and even of your customers. Love doesn’t come cheap either: you have to do the work if you want to keep the relationship strong. If you want to prevent a total eclipse of the heart, you need to take good care of your customers. So, what does this mean?A study by Oracle found that 34% of consumers have broken up with a brand because of either poor, disruptive or irrelevant marketing messages being sent to them. One-third of these guys say it was because the messages were completely generic and obviously sent to everyone. Everyone wants to believe they are special and if you are telling person after person you love them – in the exact same way – that’s going to get real old, real fast. One surprising stat that came out of this same research found that men were more likely than women to break up with a brand because of their generic messages.
How do you keep the flame alive?
You know you can’t please everyone, so don’t bother trying. A smart marketer researches to find their target audience (those who will identify with their brand the most) and gives them all of their affection. Rather than swooning over the unattainable consumer, tailoring your email marketing efforts towards those who will be the most willing to give you the love back is your best bet. Basically: stay within your league.Once you’ve locked eyes on your target, you need to let them know just how special they are to you. Sure, you can send them numerous promotional offers, but by tailoring your emails to give them useful content (i.e., DIYs, fashion tips, quotes from thought leaders), you’ll make yourself a lot more worthwhile in their minds. Everyone loves the guy who can fix anything or give that helpful advice and if your customers see you as this guy, you are treading towards commitment to brand territory.But, even the most helpful guy gets shunned in the real world. It happens. But, what does he do to woo back the one he loves? Gives them a gift, of course! 72% of consumers say that when a brand rewards them for always being there (as a loyal customer), it makes them want to continue this relationship for many years to come. This makes total sense since no one wants to see their efforts to stick by you go to waste. We all want to be appreciated. Customer rewards are a huge indicator of this and is why they work so well to promote brand loyalty and increase sales.
Changing it up
You’ve been doing what works – sending your customers that useful info, tailored promotions and rewarding them for shopping with you – but suddenly, the love stops coming. Your customers are dropping like flies and basically, they just aren’t that into you anymore. Why? Just as in the real world, doing the same thing over and over might work for many years, but there comes a point where you need to change it up. If you aren’t analyzing the real-time data from your email campaigns and changing them based on the information you are getting, your customer will find someone else to love while you aren’t looking.
