Online and within inboxes
Websites
Your website is your content hub and home to all of the content you produce for your customers. In addition to the standard contact information and "about" section, your site should contain original branded and/or expert content that is relevant to your customers and prospects. This content can take on many forms -- from white papers and ebooks to articles, blog posts, and videos -- and will establish your company as an authoritative source and destination for consumers who want to learn more about your industry. This rule of content applies whether your company is selling sneakers, technology products, or a professional service. And while a content-rich site is great for organic search engine optimization, you still need to reach out in other ways.
Email
Despite current trends in social media, traditional inbox marketing isn't on its way out. In fact, for online retailers, there is no tool that is more cost effective for selling products to your current customers. Targeting by past purchase behavior is a powerful tactic that will only get better as business intelligence and data-mining software improve. The days of sending promotional email for the sake of sending an email are ending. Promotional emails only contribute to a customer's email overload and are likely deleted before they are even opened. Messages of this nature are really no different than a TV ad or an ad placed in a magazine. They become more of an interruption and nuisance than a piece of valued content.
The key to a successful email campaign is an actionable offer to an opt-in recipient. Steer clear from "informational" emails that don't have a call-to-action. These self-serving missives do not provide any real value to the customer and give them no reason to click through.
Although email marketing is still the most efficient and cost-effective way for online retailers to generate sales from current customers, but it is not effective for generating new prospects or reactivating lapsed customers. Open rates for an unknown sender are inherently low, and there is typically not enough (convincing) information in a single email to attract a new customer to complete the transaction. Reactivating a customer is similarly difficult with email communication since a lapsed customer is likely one who is already ignoring your emails. To re-engage a past customer, you need to change not only the conversation, but the platform.
0 comments:
Post a Comment