In publishing the opt-in newsletter on a regular basis, you are effectively maintaining a long-term relationship with your customer. You may send out an email newsletter to all the customers on a weekly or monthly basis. You decide the frequency of the newsletter based on the requirements of your business. The basic purpose of the newsletter is to constantly update your customers with the latest offers like major discounts or new products that are complementary to your current catalogue. You can also update them with the current tips, strategies or latest happenings relating to their interests.
What is the main benefit of offering such a newsletter? The reasoning is as such: When customers first visit your website, only a small percentage of the visitors will buy from you. This is called the conversion rate. Most online businesses have conversion rates ranging from 0.5% to 2%. Others may be higher, depending on how convincing the sales copy is. If an opt-in offer to your newsletter is present, a higher percentage (like 40%) of your traffic will be inclined to sign up for the newsletter. Of course, it must be free, and offer enough incentives like free e-books or bonuses. If no opt-in offer is present, the visitors who are not purchasing anything would simply leave your site and visit another, wasting the effort you spent promoting your site.
Most online businesses use newsletters to constantly offer customers back-end products, which are products complementary to the other products you offer. This process is often called ‘up-selling’. Let’s say a customer does not buy from you the first time round. He takes a look around the site and finds the products interesting but not compelling enough for him to make a purchase. Signing up for the opt-in newsletter would be his next course of action. You constantly update him through the newsletter about the latest offers and products, and one day he may find a particular offer attractive enough for him to make a purchase. Thus, the ‘lifetime’ values of your customers are maximized when they constantly buy products from you over a long period of time. In fact, it is estimated that it costs six times more to attract a new customer than it is to sell your products to an existing customer.
Maintaining an opt-in newsletter is a relatively easy task. Simply take some time off your current schedule at the end of every week or every month to write the newsletter. The income generated from this consistent effort will definitely pay for itself hundred times over. Such a form of business marketing is also free as emails do not cost you anything. All you ever have to pay for initially is an email-marketing service which can manage mailing lists like a database. The software should be able to transfer your visitors’ names and email addresses from your website into the mailing list automatically, and also offer automatic subscribe and unsubscribe abilities. It must also be able to personalize the individual emails with the customers’ name, instead of sending out emails addressed to 'Dear Sir/Ms'.
Email marketing through an opt-in offer is a very powerful and cost-effective way to promote your dropship business. Be sure to include such a feature on your website, you would be doing your business a great favor. |
