| Own an ecommerce website? Do you have a mailing | | | | Why? They are far more eyecatching, which is |
| list? | | | | essential given the increasing amounts of email we |
| If not, youre potentially leaving a lot of money on | | | | get every day. You stand a better chance if you |
| the counter. | | | | include images of your products after all a picture is |
| Keeping in touch with your past customers and | | | | worth a thousand words, right? |
| visitors, is one of the easiest and cost effective | | | | (the only exception to this is people selling non |
| methods of increasing your website sales. You simply | | | | tangible products or services - for example, |
| must have a mechanism to collect the email | | | | information products usually work better in text |
| addresses of both buyers and browsers alike. | | | | emails.) |
| Collecting buyers email addresses is a no brainer after | | | | What should you communicate in your emails? |
| all you need to send them confirmation details, | | | | Special offers |
| receipts etc. Just make sure you ask their permission | | | | Any products that you have put on special offer, |
| to keep them up to date on future special offers. | | | | sale items, end of line stock etc. Adding a message |
| Collecting visitor details is a bit trickier, and you must | | | | of limited availability or ends by a certain date will help |
| offer some kind of incentive in return for them | | | | increase response. |
| handing over their valuable email address. Here are | | | | Seasonal offers |
| several ways: | | | | Garden furniture and barbecues in Spring, for |
| A discount voucher off their first order | | | | example. |
| The amount you are prepared to offer will depend | | | | Offers tied to special events |
| on the profit margin in your business, and the | | | | Before the recent FIFA World Cup, I was inundated |
| drawback is you may only get the email addresses | | | | with special offers on all kinds of TVs for watching it |
| of people who were going to purchase anyway. | | | | on. If you can tie your products to a popular event in |
| A competition to win one of your products. | | | | some way, so much the better. |
| Do make sure you are honest and pick a winner put | | | | New product reviews |
| past winner details on your site to emphasise this | | | | Reviews of the latest product offerings to hit your |
| An insiders buyers guide | | | | marketplace, will interest your customers. |
| If you offer technical products that can be tricky to | | | | Technical how tos |
| understand such as electronics, audio-visual etc, then | | | | If you sell any kind of technical product, your |
| write a short guide | | | | customers will appreciate the occasional how to |
| Special reports or tips guides | | | | guide. How to get the best out of your equipment, |
| If you sell golf equipment, search for articles on golf | | | | top tips, etc. |
| tips online, obtain the authors permission and compile | | | | Frequency of emails |
| them into a PDF report. | | | | I wouldnt advise emailing your customers any more |
| Managing your list | | | | than once a week, and leave it more than a month |
| Depending on what ecommerce system your | | | | between communications and they are likely to be |
| website is based on, you may already have the | | | | forgetting about you. |
| ability to manage email lists. If not, use a list | | | | There we have it. Loads of ideas on how to keep in |
| management service such as Aweber ( which allows | | | | touch with your customers, and make sure you stay |
| you to set up autoresponder sequences, multiple lists | | | | at the forefront of their minds. The cost is virtually |
| and send HTML emails. | | | | zero, and the potential returns are massive. |
| Which brings me nicely to the next *must* . . . send | | | | Whats the cost if you dont? Well, undoubtedly one |
| HTML emails! | | | | of your competitors will make the effort and end up |
| HTML emails are the ones full of images and graphics, | | | | seducing your customers away from you . . possibly |
| rather like webpages as opposed to plain text emails. | | | | for good. |