Your eCommerce Inbound Marketing Optimization Strategies should start and end with your customers in mind.When a customer orders a product from you, you need to Reward, Interact and Thank them:
"Americans will Spend 9% More With Companies That Provide Excellent Service - But 2/3's Feel Companies Are Not Doing Enough To Earn Their Business" - CNBC 7/7/2010
1. Immediate Reward
American consumers simply expect more faster, cheaper and better than ever before. And we are pissed when we don't get a reward for whatever we do. When a new customer places an order with you, throw in something for free that they were NOT expecting. Do not use this freebie as your selling tool... just make it an extra reward for buying from you. Remember when you were a kid of 8 years old (or 28..) and begged your mom or dad to buy a certain brand of cereal purely because you knew that they had great toys inside?
Take advantage of this feeling by offering a free product to your first time customers as a "Thank You" for shopping with us. If you sell T-Shirts, consider throwing in a t-shirt with a cool design and your logo on it for your first time customers. Or include a coupon for a Free T-Shirt -- no strings attached -- of their choice. Go the extra mile for your customers with an Immediate Reward. You will thank yourself when they go to their social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, ect.) and brag about their new free toy. You may even be lucky enough to attract a few links from the tech savvy customers whom operate their own blog.
2. Creative Engagement Promotions
Create buzz about your company by encouraging customers to interact with your products. Follow up their order with an email explaining a special promotion only for customers who post pictures of themselves using your products. Chick-Fil-A used Twitter to encourage interaction with their brand when the Peach Milkshake debuted. They held regular contests to give away free peach milkshakes to the 10th person who uploaded a picture of themselves drinking a peach milkshake.
Small businesses need take note and encourage their customers to do the same. Encourage your customers to upload a picture of themselves using the product they just purchased to your Facebook Fan page and receive 25% Off their next order. Be creative and offer value.
3. Use Your Manners
The best kind of a thank you note is not an email, it is hand written card with a special message just for the receiver. I realize that not everyone has the time to write a handwritten "thank you" note for every purchase from your store. But I do realize the power of it. Pick one customer a day and write them a handwritten thank you note signed by the owner of the company.
It may be a southern thing, but I truly believe that customers not only appreciate the small things, they support the companies that understand and engage in 'em.
The Review:
Always be thinking about your customers and how you can keep them. It is 10 times more difficult to attract a new customer versus keeping an existing one.
Give your customers immediate rewards, get creative with your engagement strategies and always say thank you.
