Have you ever heard the phrase “the money is in the list?”
What entrepreneurs mean when they say this is that having an email list of prospects and customers that are easily contactable to sell things to is really valuable.
For example, let’s say you had a really profitable e-commerce store, but one day day you lost the store and all the data, but you still had your list of prospects and customers, you could be back in business fast by emailing them offers again.
On the other hand, if you had your store, but all of your prospect’s and customer’s information got deleted, it would be a lot harder and slow going to rebuild the success of your store.
While these are generalized statements, you can still see that having your own list or database of buyers and prospects is extremely valuable to the ongoing success of your business.
Now, with that said, most businesses do NOT treat their customer database as if it were a valuable asset capable of producing repeat and ongoing sales.
How do I know?
Well, let’s do a simple exercise.
Think about how any businesses you’ve bought from in the past few months, businesses like:
- Grocery stores
- Gas stations
- Clothing stores
- Spa’s
- Doctors office
- Dentist office
- Restaurants
- Recreational activities
- Pet store
- Pool company
- Online stores
…and the list goes on.
Now that you’re thinking about those businesses you’ve recently spent money with, how many have sent you an email with a thank you, a discount or coupon to come back, asked for a referral, etc?
Some may have, but I’m guessing most have not sent regular, ongoing communications with you outside of your initial transaction.
However, how many may have gotten more business from you had they followed up, stayed top of mind in your awareness, and gave you see kind of incentive to do more business with them?
The most successful companies out there are staying in regular contact with their customer and prospect database, letting their people know about sales, coupons, special events and more, and getting repeat and referral business as a result.
So how about you?
Are you actively building your own list of prospects and customers?
If so, are you mailing them regularly to see them more products and services? Are you sending them coupons, inviting them to special events, and staying top of mind in their awareness?
If not, then let’s look at some ways to start building your own lists through your e-commerce store.
Let’s start with taking a look at a few ways to start building your prospect list.
1. Add A Coupon Pop-up To Your eCom Store
One of the fastest ways to build a targeted list of prospects is to add a pop up that gives your site visitors a first-time customer discount by giving you their name and email address. That popup then pushes the name of that prospect to your email service where it triggers an email to the email address provided containing the coupon code.
If you are using a platform like Shopify to power your eCom store, there are dozens of pop-up apps, both free and paid, that can help you get this up and running really fast.
You'll want to make sure and test when to display the pop up in an effort to get the best results. For example you might not want the pop up to appear immediately when a person lands on your site for the first time. A popular method that many people choose is to use what is called an exit intent popup. An exit popup displays the message right as the person is about to leave your site.
2. Offer A Lead Magnet To Get Optins
A really great way to get more high-quality prospects on your list is to offer a valuable lead magnet that your prospects would like to have.
So, what is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet is an incentive offer to potential buyers in exchange for their email address or other contact information. Lead magnets usually offer downloadable content, such as a free PDF checklist, report, eBook, whitepaper, video, etc.
For example, let’s say your eCom store sells drones and related accessories.
A good lead magnet could be a PDF and/ or video guide on how to make money with your drone by offering aerial photo and video services. Another lead magnet could be the best tips and tricks for getting the most out of your drone.
In order to get the lead magnet, your site visitors would need to enter their name and email address at a minimum to get access to it, and it would be delivered to them via your email system, just like the coupon popup above.
Again, platforms like Shopify have dozens of apps that make adding a lead magnet / optin easy to set up quickly.
3. Adding All Customers To Your Email List
Once someone makes a purchase from you, be sure to add them onto the email list for your buyers. This seems obvious, but way too many store owners do not do this, they simply have a database of buyers, but do not push them to an email list for regular followup and promotions.
Do NOT be that eCom owner. Instead, maximize your sales and your long term success by adding them to your email list and sending them regular promotions and educational content that they look forward to.
Platforms like Shopify will be able to add your customer info into your email list, so this is a simple process to set up.
And email systems like Klaviyo are great to use because they were designed to work specifically with e-commerce stores and they make this process really easy.
What To Email Your Customers And Prospects
Now that you know some easy ways to capture your stores' prospects and customers and push them onto your email lists…
…what kinds of emails do you send them?
That’s a great question, and that is the subject of a recent blog post I wrote titled “7 Easy E-commerce Email Marketing Tactics You Should Be Using In Your Business”. In that post, you’ll learn several ways to start monetizing your email list quickly such as sending:
- A Welcome Series that builds a relationship…
- A Flash Sales Series to quickly monetize your prospects…
- An Abandoned Cart Email Series that monetizes visitors that came close to purchasing and may just need a small push to get their business…
…and more, so be sure to read that post next.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, if you want to maximize the success of your e-commerce business, you must build a list of customers and prospects and you must send regular education and promotion content to build a relations and to build ongoing sales.
If you take these simple steps and implement them, you will quickly become unstoppable in your business.
