Internet marketing is a field that allows you unprecedented access to your customers, but it’s also easy to make mistakes that will damage your brand and how people view your customer.
Make sure not to make any of these common mistakes when you are marketing online.
Impersonal Mass Emails
When a customer gives you their email address, that does not mean they want constant news updates and offers on your full range. Such communications can quickly lead to them thinking that your communications are not relevant to them, so that when you send an email that has something they would want to buy, they may well delete it unread.
Try to use your customers’ shopping data to personalize your communications with them, so the news and offers they receive is tailored to their interests. Not only are you more likely to prompt them to visit your website, you avoid them thinking of your company as an annoying timewaster.
Too Many Emails
While having your customers’ contact details can make the idea of sending out frequent updates and offers tempting, it can backfire spectacularly.
Sending emails is just a waste of time if your customers are just going to delete them unread. Sending too many emails can annoy your customers like the buzzing of a persistent mosquito. It’s all too easy for our customers to find a bushel of emails in their inbox and just delete them unread, or even mark them as spam.
Try to limit yourself to a once-weekly update, if that, with any extra communications limited to offers that are clearly indicated as such in the subject line.
Slow Customer Service
Today’s Internet users are used to the idea of instantaneous communication. This means that if they have a question or complaint, they will contact you, and they will expect a response.
Your customers understand that mistakes can happen, but they want to know that you have received their communication and are acting on it. Even if you do not have an answer or solution right away, it’s imperative that you let your customers know that you are working on it and give them an expected time by which you will contact them again.
The advice on personalization holds true here as well. Nothing annoys customers more than receiving a form response that does not address any of the issues that they raised.
Big publicity disasters are not the only way to turn off customers. Little annoyances can have an even more pernicious effect, driving your customers away and undermining all of your good efforts. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and make sure your marketing strategy is hitting the mark.
This is a guest post by James who blogs on internet marketing of all types, from email marketing to SEO using popular terms like ‘mosquito’ and ‘printer’.
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