How important is it to get your customers’ emails and what do you do with them once you have a list? This first one seems obvious, but we still regularly meet businesses who do not ask for and collect emails from customers. This is a major mistake! You lose money by not collecting customer emails. Some common excuses we hear are:

• “Customers do not want to give their email… who cares?” Sales people should be used to being rejected. It is the game you play. You ask to sell a bunch of times and you close a small percentage. That percentage is your profit. We hear things like the ABC’s of sales. Always Be Closing! You should approach collecting emails the same way. Be prepared to be rejected and be fine with it, because collecting emails is selling. It opens you up to future sales. We’ll get to that in a second. 

• “My employees have so much to do, I can’t get them to also collect emails.” Really? Do you have employees who aren’t selling? Do they have too much to do to help customers? No, it is the most important part of their job. Collecting emails should fall into that same category. 

• “We collected them but nothing came of it.” Okay, we are closer but the issue wasn’t collecting the emails, it was what you did with them after. This is the time to adjust the plan. 

So before we get to what you should do with the customer email list,  here are some easy ways to collect them:

• Check if your POS has a way to add it to a customer during check out, most do. Square and systems like that all have the ability to do this, you just need to make it part of your process. You ask for a credit card or cash right? Ask for the email.
• Add a form to your website… add lots of forms. There should be a call to action on every page and maybe even a pop up asking for people to join your email list.
• Collect emails through social media platforms. Ask people to join through social posts for updated information or even special deals. 
• Are you super low tech? Then just ask and write it down. Do you own a small, handmade business that sells at farmer’s markets for cash? Have a clipboard, ask for customer emails, and write them down. You can add them to your email manager later. 

Now that you know why and how to collect customer emails, it is time to do something with it. You need to send them an email or a few. You need to start remarketing them. These people are your customers. They liked your product and bought, so hopefully they got it home and loved it as much as they thought they would. You can now ask them to buy more products or introduce them to other offers you have. 

The other thing to do with your email list is to use them to get more customers. Ask them to leave your company a review. The best type of marketing is word of mouth and reviews are a great way to spread that word of mouth. You can also ask them to like your social media pages or post about their experience with your business. Then, you tap into their network of friends and create a whole new group of potential customers. 

Bonus Task: Separate your email list and market to them specifically based on why they are in a group. With certain email platforms, like Mailchimp, you can put a list together of customers who you have their birthday. Email them on their birthday and give them a special discount. You can separate lists with people that have purchased before or people who just joined the mailing list. Then, you can offer a first time purchase for the people who haven’t bought before and messaging can be specific. 

Lastly, you can do a thing called drip campaigns. This is where you create several emails with a path built in, based off of what the customer does. For instance, there could be the first email and if they click a certain area, it sends a follow up email with even more information about that specific thing. Maybe nothing in the email connects with them and if they don’t click anything then maybe it sends them a different email with entirely different information. Also, what about the people that don’t even open the email? They should receive a new email with a different subject line that tries to capture their eye in a new way. 

The point is there is so much that can be done with customer emails and we know it is a lot to figure out, but you lose out on potential revenue by not taking advantage of something as simple as asking for an email. Lusca Digital has tons of experience with this and we would love to help you reach (like an animal with 8 arms) in more places for more customers. Contact us to learn more about how you can get more revenue through email collection and email campaigns.