I am an avid buyer online. Maybe another word you could use is spender. If I need an item, I do a quick Google search, find a company that looks like it may have been in business for a while, read a couple of reviews, and make the purchase. A couple of years down the road I may need another item of the same kind. I am guilty of not going back to my emails from years before or seeing exactly where I purchased it. Often times I can never remember where I had purchased it. So basically I do the same process as above.
Internet buyers are this way. It is not as though they can go to a local store. They will almost always remember where they went to get a product. For some reason it is not that way when you buy things online. So how do you keep customers around? The answer in short would be newsletters.
If you own an online business, even if it is making sales, you should always ask your buyers if they want to opt in to a newsletter. Many times they will say no, but those that might be interested in seeing other specials you have would be willing to accept newsletters from you.
I will use my dad as a classic example. A few years back he bought an item called an “elmo”. This product is fairly rare, not frequently found in local retail stores. He had no idea where he had purchased that one. We went back online to find another place to buy one. They never were able to keep my dad as a customer. However, had he received a newsletter every month, he probably would have not only remembered, but made another purchase after the other one broke to no fault of the manufacturer or company that sold it to him. Not only this, but they probably would have sold him another Elmo and a projector which he needed that is a common accessory to go with an Elmo.
Another risk is not just the individual buyers, but companies. Let’s say that I own a car repair business. I know that you are probably one of the many places online I could buy from. I might find a rare type of alternator at your website that you could supply. If I do not go back to your website for a long time, I could easily forget where I found it at. Not only this, but when you have specials on items, I may never be aware of them, even if it could put more money in my pocket when buying from you.
See, the idea here is that you want to make your name aware to people. People always use email and it is quickly becoming one of the most used pieces of communication in the world today. You do not need to spam people to gain buyers, you just have to put your name in front of them and encourage them to buy from you. Even if they are not willing to right that minute, they may remember you later on down the road and buy from you then. Email marketing has a lasting effect that cannot be ignored when it comes to customer retention.
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