Email Marketing Tips - Recession-Proof Emarketing

Recession-Proof Emarketing

Now that we've all gotten through the holiday season, and the new year's planning and resolutions, we can relax, right?

Hardly.

There's a recession coming, whether we went to acknowledge that fact or not, and it's a wise marketer who prepares him or herself for the future. And while the future may be difficult, it certainly isn't dire.

Email marketing my not be recession-proof, but it certainly had a lot of advantages over other marketing. For one thing, it's inexpensive, with the best return on investment in the business. For another thing, it's flexible: you can change specials, web pages, time of day you send your emails, and all pretty much at the drop of a hat.

And email marketing that directs customers to online ordering has a tremendous advantage over brick-and-mortar stores: in nearly all circumstances, you can offer products at a lower price-point that the shop on the corner, which has to be an important factor in a recession.

But there's one thing that the corner store still does better: it makes the customer feel valued, known, and appreciated. We all love walking into a shop where we are greeted by name, where our preferences are known and our budgets respected. How can an online merchant possibly compete with that?

We'd like to suggest something that we call transition marketing: the establishment of a relationship with new customers, even before they become regulars — in an effort to make them become regular customers. It's time to treat customers as one would like to be treated oneself, which includes making them feel welcomed, showing them around, answering their questions, offering them special inducements to return again.

Try transition marketing out and see if it works for you!

• Start with a special welcome letter
• Follow it up with a FAQ letter and a URL to more of the same
• Offer something free in exchange for a filled-out questionnaire
• Check in with new customer regularly, encourage contact
• Offer a special sale for new customers
• Always assure customers that you know them and want to serve them better

These are small steps, perhaps, but they come a lot closer to offering the corner-store service that seems to be going by the wayside even in corner stores. Want to grow your business during the coming recession? Add "offer superior customer service and transition marketing" to your 2008 resolutions!