One of the most important factors in managing a SaaS company is the rate of customer retention. You will never expand if you have a fantastic customer acquisition program in place but are losing your current clientele as quickly as you are gaining new ones. When sent to clients in the wrong way, emails can be unpleasant and accomplish the reverse of what they were meant to. However, when done properly, email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to interact with clients and support business expansion.
In order to ensure that those new acquisitions lead to growth and repeat business, this also involves an email campaign to support retention initiatives. Let’s examine the definition of retention marketing, the function of a retention email,
What is a retention email?
Customer engagement and satisfaction are the main drivers of customer retention. Any email sent to a current customer with the intention of retaining them as a loyal customer is known as a retention email. Retention emails, which are currently the most popular type of email marketing, can take many various shapes. What they all have in common, though, is that they are made to make your customers happier or more involved with your product.
They are also intended to provide outstanding customer service, lessen consumer effort, and enhance the customer experience. We’ll look at some of the ways this can manifest later.
Here’s why email marketing is an underrated retention strategy
It takes some expertise to use email effectively, whether for acquisition or retention. Many companies will take a haphazard approach to their client email retention strategy, which will not yield the desired outcomes. However, if companies take the time to use email properly, it can be a very effective retention tool.
Customers cost more to acquire than retain
According to research, acquiring a new customer might cost up to five times as much as keeping an old one. You will be wasting money trying to replace clients that could have been retained more cheaply if you don’t have a good retention strategy in place. Additionally, the retention email plan is one of the more economical customer retention tactics at your disposal. In actuality, the return on investment is $42 for every dollar invested. For a low-cost, hassle-free, and successful retention strategy, it can even be automated.
Open and click-through rates can be higher
Triggered emails will heavily utilized in a good retention email plan. These emails are sent automatically in reaction to a user’s action—or inaction. A 2012 study found that compared to emails sent in bulk, these reminder emails have a 95% higher chance of being opened.
Furthermore, the click-through rate of triggered emails is double that of mass emails. When you add in the fact that 40% of users prefer receiving emails from their favorite companies, you have a great chance to employ triggered emails to cultivate a relationship with your existing clientele.
Email allows for personalization
This one is significant. Nowadays, there are numerous advertising strategies that will expose your message to consumers. Even your current clients can be the target of those advertisements. But you need a more accurate delivery technique if you want to tailor your message to a particular customer. Email is great for this. Customers leave for a variety of reasons, and email may act with extreme precision if you can focus your retention efforts on the particular risk of churn.
Additionally, you don’t want to sound robotic. Humane treatment what people desire. Additionally, customized emails more noticeable and have a higher chance of being opened and clicked.
Tips to build a customer retention email strategy that engages customers
We now know that, when used properly, email can be a very effective retention strategy. What does it mean to accomplish things correctly, then? How can you be certain that your approach to email retention is effective? To be honest, you can’t unless you try it and make it better. However, there are some guidelines that will help you get off to a good start so that the refining process proceeds more quickly and you see results more quickly.
Identify customers who are in limbo
If a customer isn’t satisfied with your product, they’re likely to leave. This might be a paying customer who hasn’t used your product recently or a user who hasn’t switched to paid because they haven’t used it. Regardless of the cause, the user isn’t getting anything out of your product, so you should send them a customized email to help them see the benefits.
Although you should already have onboarding and welcome letters that teach new users how to use your product, it can be beneficial to contact each individual with an offer to assist them in resolving issues if they aren’t responding.
Communicate product value clearly
Any time you speak with a customer, but particularly with one who is in limbo, you make care to explain in detail what makes your product useful. Explain to the customer what makes you unique from the competition, what problems you can help them with, and—above all—where they can find resources to help them maximize the benefits of your product. Remind them frequently of the benefits your product offers.
Leverage what’s working for existing customers
The greatest sources of recommendations and information about what makes your product useful are your satisfied customers. As you receive user feedback, which you should do on a regular basis, take note of the software features and business aspects that people find most commendable. This will offer you a place to start when you message clients who are at risk of leaving.
Keep a consistent cadence
Your retention email strategy’s cadence encompasses more than just the frequency of your follow-ups and emails. While frequency may play a role, cadence also encompasses the reasons behind, kinds of, and triggers of emails. Your clients should know when to expect emails from you, whether they cart abandonment emails, regular onboarding emails meant to bring them up to speed, or emails to follow up with them after they haven’t been active for a while.
Get your subject line right
If your customer doesn’t open your email, it won’t help with retention. An email’s subject line greatly influences whether it opened or promptly deleted. Keep subject lines brief. The subject line should always make it clear what your message will be about. If at all possible, it should also highlight the benefits of your product. However, you should never talk too much about your topic. In addition to being interesting, the subject line should be simple to read.
Optimize with templates
Although you can personalize a lot with email marketing, you are often repeating the same things to different clients. Using templates, you can construct the same fundamental message and tailor it to particular individuals or somewhat different use cases. In addition to saving you time when creating customer retention emails, this also makes it simple to test and iterate your messaging, making changes to the subject line, body, and email signature.
Additionally, be careful to include distinct email signatures in each template when constructing them. These email signature marketing strategies can be very successful in drawing in and keeping clients.
Examples of customer retention emails that work (and why)
Asana’s welcome email makes new customers feel valued
The main goal of Asana’s product is to facilitate teamwork. They make sure to inform clients in their welcome email that they have joined both their team of employees and the Asana team. This initial email is succinct. Direct, and precisely aligned with Asana’s identity.
Users may immediately benefit from the product without wasting time figuring out how to utilize it because it introduces them to the first three steps they should perform right away.
Amazon’s thank you email builds brand loyalty
When customers place an order or interact with your eCommerce site in any other way. They expect to receive a thank-you email, so this hardly seems like a retention effort. However, a well-written thank-you email unquestionably a useful tool for client loyalty and retention. A brief thank-you note that appropriately branded to fit. The website will be sent to you when you place an order on Amazon.
However, a list of items that are comparable to the one you just ordered will appear at the bottom of the email. SaaS companies may readily use this to showcase various features or even a section with advice. The goal of the thank-you email is to maintain the customer’s interest.