Customer loyalty doesn't just happen. It must be earned. And the same rule applies to establishing and maintaining email subscriber loyalty.
So if you're serious about building and sustaining subscriber loyalty, here are five things that can make or break your relationship.
1. Express gratitude
Your mother was right. You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.
That's why the first rule of building subscriber loyalty is to say "thank you" for subscribing. It's an easy thing to do, but research shows that fewer than 50 percent of marketers take the time to send a welcome email to new subscribers saying "thank you" for subscribing.
For most marketers, the welcome email is considered to be the most important email they send because it sets the tone for the brand or company's relationship with the subscriber. But beyond showing good manners, the welcome email also provides a terrific opportunity to learn more about the subscriber's needs.
If you're a B2C marketer, thank consumers for subscribing by providing a discount code or coupon that can be used on the customer's next purchase. Or, if you're a B2B company, provide a free download of a new white paper, case study, or research report. These are the little things that can make a huge difference in starting your relationship with the new subscriber off on the right foot.
2. Take interest
One of the smartest -- and easiest -- things you can do to build powerful loyalty with subscribers is invite them to tell you about their communication needs or interests. Then, use this data to "serve" the subscriber by delivering content relevant to their defined needs.
To obtain this insight, set up a subscriber preference center. When you send your welcome email, invite new subscribers to visit the preference center to identify their information needs and preferences. Explain that this information will be used to personalize email content and provide offers that are relevant to the subscriber's interests. And be very clear that this information will be kept private. Subscribers need to know they can trust you to keep their information confidential.
Customers now take longer to research suppliers, read user reviews, and narrow their choices, lengthening the overall busying process. As a result, email has emerged as a vital tool for nurturing leads and aiding the buyer's decision-making process. By making your email content more relevant and timely, you can better demonstrate to the customer how much you care.
3. Let subscribers do the talking
In his new book, "Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones," Joseph Jaffe notes that one of the most effective tactics marketers can use to engage subscribers and drive loyalty is to empower them to share email content and their opinions with friends and business colleagues with whom they are connected on social networks.
Here are two ways to give subscribers a voice:
Enable subscribers to share email content. Nothing is more powerful than word-of-mouth marketing. And social sharing is the easiest and most powerful way to enable subscribers to share information and offers they receive via email.
By embedding social media icons for top social networking sites -- such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn -- directly in the content of the email, subscribers can click on the icon and share a specific article or offer with friends and colleagues with whom they are connected. And it works! Research shows that shared email has higher open rates because it is coming from a known source.
Invite subscribers to contribute to your blog. Nothing has more influence on a prospective customer's purchase decision than the product endorsement of another customer. And one of the best outlets for these endorsements is a blog.
4. Know your brand fans
All customers are equally important -- but some are more equal than others. Marketers can create tremendous subscriber loyalty by identifying and rewarding their brand fans -- those who share email content, post opinions on social networking sites, and blog about their product usage experience.
Tools such as the Customer Engagement Index (CEI) allow brands to score customers based on level of brand engagement, making it easier to measure overall subscriber and brand loyalty. Brand fans who measure high on the index are invited to participate in special events where they can discuss their experience with the product, and many brands invite these consumers to sit on customer advisory councils or collaborate with product research and development teams on new ideas for product enhancement.
Using email and word-of-mouth marketing in combination with an engaging website and a strong social media strategy enables a company to attract and develop powerful relationships with brand fans who are vocal and influential.
5. Build a watering hole
There's no question that social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube have become hugely popular public venues for brands to attract new customers. But as social networking continues to emerge as a powerful tool for engaging customers and prospects, many brands are beginning to add value to their relationships with email subscribers by creating private social networks to provide "subscriber only" access to user groups, invitations to events, and access to other resources that address the needs of current or prospective customers.
By creating a private "subscribers only" social network for your brand, you extend the value of being an email subscriber and enhance the service you provide. The added benefit to private social networks is that brands can monitor who is there and what resources they are using. They can survey customers and invite feedback on issues affecting product design and use. Used properly, this insight can enable brands to stay closer to their customers and respond more quickly to customer needs.
Conclusion
Subscriber loyalty is firmly rooted in the commitment to serve customers better. And service has become the primary currency for driving customer retention and creating brand fans.
By following these five rules for building subscriber loyalty, you will find yourself building the kind of customer relationships that will enable you to accelerate marketing ROI.
Joel Book is director of e-marketing education at ExactTarget.
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