Is Your Email Marketing Acquisition Process Lacking?

By ELIZABETH JACOBI  |  Special to the Palisadian-Post

It sounds so easy to send email to retain customers.

In some ways, it is that easy, but there are still businesses that struggle with this. One of the reasons is that the email collection process can be daunting.

One of the first questions we always ask prospective clients is how they are going about obtaining email addresses from customers or prospective customers. Usually, the response is the website.

If you are a large eCommerce business, that might be good enough. For businesses with more foot traffic, such as a store, restaurant, coffee place or even Realtors holding open houses, there are plenty of easy and effective ways to build your email marketing list.

Here are five ways to collect email addresses to ensure your email marketing program is meeting your customer retention needs:

Website: Ensure your email acquisition stands out on your website. If someone must dig for it, it is unlikely they will join your list.

QR codes: We saw these make a huge return in 2020, and today they are everywhere. Since we all know how to use them, make sure you have one to make it easy for people to join your email list. QR codes are especially important for businesses such as a store, Realtor open house, coffee shops and restaurants, and for those in-person events that are making a comeback.

Join by text: SMS marketing is growing, and like email marketing, it is another effective digital channel to retain customers. So, utilize a service that allows your customers to text to join your email list. You can see ours in action by texting EMAIL to 66866.

Ensure email collection for marketing messages is part of your RSVP or reservation process: If you accept lunch/dinner reservations through third-party services, make sure that you ask if the customer wants information from you by email and SMS, and then make sure you market to them.

Social media: This seems to be the most forgotten one but is likely to impact email marketing list growth significantly, especially if you have an engaged following. If you don’t do paid social media to drive people to your email list, use a service like Linktree so that you can have your email sign up be one of the links on your Instagram. Make sure it is also one of the tabs on your Facebook page.

Email marketing is the most effective marketing channel for retaining loyal repeat customers but collecting email addresses from these customers, or potential customers, needs to be done correctly to work.

Remember, if someone visits your business, whether to browse or to buy, you want to have a way to keep in touch, retain them and make them loyal customers. Forming that connection will achieve that.

You want first-time customers to come back quickly, so make sure that you have a solid manageable email acquisition process in place.

Elizabeth Jacobi grew up in the Palisades and is the founder of MochaBear Marketing. She has developed email marketing campaigns and strategies for several local businesses. Not sure where to get started with your email marketing program? Contact Jacobi for a free 30-minute consultation. You can book directly at mochabearmarketing.com/scheduling or call her at 424-272-6712.