If you work in e-commerce, you know that when you're looking for the perfect marketing campaign strategy, you have a wealth of options. That's why at Persooa we've put together a list of campaigns designed to build user loyalty.
Table of contents
- 01 What is a campaign built on a brand promise?
- 02 Why do birthday campaigns convert so well?
- 03 How does a loyalty program build customer loyalty?
- 04 How does a first-purchase discount attract new customers?
- 05 How does a customer referral program work?
- 06 How to run an effective flash sale?
- 07 What is a win-back campaign and when to use it?
It's worth remembering that with email marketing strategies we can distinguish three key types of campaigns. These are:
promotional content, which aims to present an offer, handle self-promotion, and increase sales, relationship emails - regularly delivering benefits or promises to customers. These can be newsletters, birthday gift messages, coupons for signing up to the newsletter, or recurring reports, transactional emails, most often sent in response to user activity. They confirm order fulfillment or inform customers about its subsequent stages (e.g., picking or shipping), confirm a subscription, or send a welcome message.
Below you'll find 7 sample campaigns that will not only boost loyalty but also improve conversion, all while making customers want to come back to you for more!
01 1. What is a campaign built on a brand promise?
Campaigns like these carry a simple message. Their goal is to open up communication with your audience. They often feature a motto, highlight the brand's main trait, or the quality of the products the brand is associated with. These could be specialized winter sports accessories, high-quality genuine leather handbags, original perfumes, or top-tier industry training.
The effectiveness of this campaign shows in the way it reinforces users' purchase decisions while reminding them of the reasons they chose your brand over a competing one. In your communication you can use the brands' official logos if you're a multibrand retailer.
For example, if you offer premium branded products and this fact sets you apart from the competition, but after receiving their order a customer has doubts about their authenticity, your job is to reassure them that they've received a genuine product. You can prove it, for instance, by presenting a list of features that let you recognize an item as original.
02 2. Why do birthday campaigns convert so well?
This is one of the best-converting campaigns for increasing customer loyalty and driving engagement. It simply makes a given user feel noticed on this special day of theirs.
Research conducted by MailUP shows that the OR is 481% higher compared with a typical newsletter, order value also rises by 342%, and the click-to-open rate is 179% higher.
03 3. How does a loyalty program build customer loyalty?
A campaign built around a loyalty program is one of the best ways to keep customers with you. Thanks to it, users earn extra points or coupons for every purchase, which they can then redeem for discounts, dedicated offers, exclusive products, or freebies.
04 4. How does a first-purchase discount attract new customers?
This is an excellent campaign that will help you win a group of new users. Use messaging that, through additional benefits, encourages people to make a purchase: free shipping, an extra discount on their first purchase. An extra discount on the first purchase (the more it combines with a current promotion, the more likely a potential customer is to take advantage of it).
On your site you notice plenty of visits and traffic, and you even observe that products are frequently added to the cart. However, purchases aren't being completed, and the customer rarely returns to you. How can you prevent this? Take care of a so-called lead magnet, and before they leave your site, surprise them with a push notification or an exit pop-up letting them know about an extra discount on their first purchase after signing up for the newsletter. This way you accomplish three goals at once:
you gain a valuable lead, you drive higher conversion by encouraging purchases with an extra discount, you stay in the user's memory, and they will revisit your site and make a purchase - here, take care to build positive associations in order to earn their loyalty.
05 5. How does a customer referral program work?
This is a simple campaign that brings many positive effects for e-commerce. It not only increases the engagement of your existing customers but also lets you generate additional leads at a low cost.
06 6. How to run an effective flash sale?
The key element of this campaign is the fact that it can't last as long as classic sales or promotions. It must be time-limited, so that users feel extra pressure because of its short duration. As a result, they'll be more eager to take advantage of an attractive offer in order to make it in time before it disappears or the stock sells out.
This type of campaign can deliver a large volume of sales in a short time. However, it requires solid preparation on your part - in terms of stock availability, customer service, and order fulfillment alike.
How can you emphasize the short duration of the promotion?
Use marketing automation activities. This is the right moment to:
place a countdown timer on your site counting down to the start of the sale, or after it begins, down to its end, generate a send of emails reminding customers about the ongoing sale, send users push notifications or emails a few hours before the campaign ends.
This way you'll deliver a good reminder to the user that the offer is coming to an end, while also seeing an increase in conversion. Just remember not to run this kind of campaign too often - let your loyal users know that these are exceptional occasions worth taking advantage of.
How can you show appreciation to your existing customers?
Above all, make sure they feel special. Let them be aware that the offer is aimed only at club members. This will further increase their eagerness to await the moment when they get early access to the sale offer or a new collection, or receive an extra discount on a promotion that all users can take advantage of.
07 7. What is a win-back campaign and when to use it?
This is communication aimed at users who have already interacted with your brand in the past but have long been inactive. Its goal is to drive their re-engagement and reactivation in order to win back their loyalty.
How can you reach inactive customers? To remind them of your existence, create a win-back campaign. Let its first element be a message explaining the renewed contact (let the customer know that they haven't opened your emails or visited your store's app for x amount of time).
The next step will be to ask the user directly whether they still want to receive communications from you - both brand and marketing messages. Remember that by giving them a choice, you show respect to your customers and, as a result, build positive emotions.
Then let the user update their data, including permissions to receive messages through the channels they choose and only on the topics that interest them. Do this with a clickable CTA that takes them to their account, a login landing page, or other elements on the site. Also remember to give them the option to choose - let the customer know they can unsubscribe from the subscriber list. Don't worry that this might happen; on the contrary - it will have a positive effect on your mailing list, which, thanks to systematic database cleaning, will be far higher in quality.
08 Summary: Boost customer loyalty with the Persooa experts
Remember that in today's business world, email marketing communication is far too important to afford to leave it out. Send the individual types of messages to selected segments from your database, saving time in the process, and in your campaigns make use of software dedicated to marketing automation.