Capturing Customer Interest

14.11.2017 |

Episode #9 of the course How to start an online store by Patrick Rauland

 

We’re coming up on the home stretch here!

You’ve spent a ton of time doing all this marketing, and you may have noticed that most visitors bounce off your site. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to reach out to them even if they don’t purchase, so you don’t lose them forever?

And even if they do purchase a product, don’t you want to keep in touch with them to get repeat business?

To solve both of these problems, there is one tactic that I need to highlight since it’s critically important in scaling your marketing efforts. I’m talking about capturing customer interest with newsletters.

 

Where to Start

There are a couple things you can do to get customers’ email addresses and keep your relationship going.

The easiest one is to capture email addresses at checkout. There should be a checkbox at checkout that lets you market to these customers again. If they check this, you will be able to add them to your email list. It will take 30 minutes to set up and will generate a ton of revenue once you get your email marketing machine up and running.

The other option is to gather leads. One of the most popular methods to do so is a content upgrade. A content upgrade is where you have a blog post educating the visitors with an opt-in that lets them download bonus files. So, if you’re selling a book, you could have a blog post about Chapter 1. And at the bottom of that post, you could include a PDF of Chapter 2 if they enter their email address.

 

Provide Value

Remember earlier in the course where I talked about using social media to promote your marketing efforts? That’s how you should use your newsletter. It’s not there to blast your potential customers to buy, buy, buy.

No one wants that.

A content upgrade works best when you get the email address and the customer gets something of value, usually a guide, template, or some resources. Email about improvements you’re making to the product, a new piece of information about how to use the product, and then, as a P.S. at the bottom of the email, mention something about a sale going on.

 

What Mailing Platform to Choose

When it comes to the platforms, I recommend two. MailChimp is great for someone with a tiny budget. The user interface is pretty easy to use, and their support team is great. The only downside is when you want to have a lot of automations, since they’re hard to set up.

The other is ConvertKit. They have a gorgeous visual automations builder, so all your opt-ins will have workflows that email the right person at the right time ,and you’ll be able to visually see the flowchart.

 

Start Now

I understand that there’s a lot that goes into an online store. I manage them myself, so I know how many hundreds of hours you can pour into all the details. There’s a natural tendency to push stuff off until you just have to do it. With newsletters, I recommend collecting email addresses on Day 1. And if at the end of the first month, you see that you’ve got a dozen subscribers, you can start providing value to them and promoting your products.

Key takeaway: Newsletter marketing lets you capture customer interest. It’s an easy win that’s worth setting up shortly after you launch.

 

Recommended resource

ConversionXL is the go-to website for conversion optimization. You can browse through many advanced strategies on their site.

 

Recommended book

Ask: The Counterintuitive Online Method to Discover Exactly What Your Customers Want to Buy by Ryan Levesque

 

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