Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Do you Communicate With Your Customers?


You've Got Mail!


Does the symbol @ have a name?  IN ENGLISH, the symbol is boringly known as "commercial at".


Getting someone to your Etsy shop can be a real challenge, and once there your first thought is to get them to buy something. But what you should really be interested in is turning that customer into a repeat customer! A previous customer returning to your shop is six times more likely to buy something than a new visitor. Much llike shopping in the Real World, those newbies are  usually "just looking". 
 

In DUTCH the "commercial at" is called apestaart , which means "monkey's tail" ... kind of cute!


You've already spent your valuable time and maybe even some money attracting customers, so what are you doing to make sure they stay with you as repeat customers? You've got to give people a reason to come back.  One way of doing this is through an email newsletter.There are free templates available at Mail Chimp, the same host of our Team Newsletter.

What I don't understand, is why we feel the need to abbreviate a two letter word ๏̯͡๏ 


I've done quite a bit of reading up on the subject, and I would encourage you to do the same. Newsletters have been a valuable tool for me, and I believe they are the reason I've gotten custom orders on Flickr. My customers know they will find a lot of my designs posted on Flickr that are not listed in my Etsy shop.

Keeping the customers I've worked so hard to find is definitely one of the most important challenges I face. I rarely offer discounts in my Etsy shop, but when I do I want to be 100% sure that my customers know about it!!!

To maintain branding, I sent out an email for the Mega PromoFrenzy Special using a version of my shop banner:                                            

In the live email, each photograph was clickable and linked to the item in my Etsy shop

This is the email I sent to my customers before a sale I ran last Fall. I was using a different shop banner at that time:                            
 
Maintain branding by using the same banner for Newsletters and Etsy shop
      
   
The previous year I wasn't sending Newsletters. Sales were almost half of what they were the following year when I used email to let my customers know I was having a Sale.

I went in a different direction using sale-specific branding for my Etsy shop banner, avatar and Facebook announcements:                        


Shop banner and avatar I used during the Sale



Placed on Facebook a week before the Sale began

On Facebook the day the Sale started

With the Holiday shopping season just around the corner, now is the time to be making plans on how to Communicate With Your Customers ...

 


 




22 comments:

Symbolic Imports said...

Very informative post. I have thought about having a newsletter but I have not started one yet. Looks like I need to get a move on!

CalliopeCreations said...

Very interesting. I'll take a look at the newsletter (and attaching pictures) information.

I have some repeat customers and was toying with contacting them.

nangatesdesigns said...

Great post! I've bookmarked the link so I can look further into creating newsletters. That's an avenue I have never really given much thought to but it looks like I should!

Susie Tenzer said...

thanks for a good post - I've already signed up for mail chimp & would like to start sending a few newsletters/year. I don't know how to increase my contact list.

Linda B said...

Thanks for posting and what lovely images you've used for your specials.

I'm just starting with mailchimp to set up a database.

I have done it the "monkey way" by sending emails in the past.

BijiBijoux said...

Thanks for the important and helpful information. I have to go read your blog again and I will come back with more questions for you. Thanks for sharing.

Bella the Bead said...

Great post!! Very informative! I have bookmarked this one; will come back to it when I'm ready to start my newsletter.

Unknown said...

jQ, thanks for this great post. I had never even thought of doing a newsletter. It's such a good idea. It's going to be my next project!

magdamagda said...

Jill, you are So Right! Even with my little experience in the "@" field I couldn't agree more- one of my dear customers returned to order a gift for a friend - I was feeling so lucky! Soon she ordered 19 other pieces for more of her friends! Oh and then another friend ordered 2 necklaces... I know - wow! Thanks for the screen shots, I'll try to start sending newsletters soon, I also made an account on MailChimp more than a year ago with good intentions (only):D

Unknown said...

Great post, Jill! I send out an occasional email but haven't tried the newsletter route. Glad it helped your sales, great job!!

2justByou said...

A newsletter is something I've been thinking about, so thanks for a really great post! Perfect timing too.
~Kim

Unknown said...

Great and informative post. I have a question though...where do you have your customers go to "sign up" for your newsletter?

Unknown said...

I'm glad to hear about all of the positive impact of setting up a newsletter. I have opened a MailChimp account, but i have yet to start a newsletter.

This was just the information and motivation I needed. :)

Sewinggranny - Mona said...

Wow, what an interesting idea...thanks for sharing.

Jill Q said...

@Katie - I'll convo you.

Inessa/Prittyfy said...

Jill,
You are very creative and always have great ideas. Thanks for sharing.

Unknown said...

uniquecozytreasures- Thanks for the very necessary information. I need to use it now.

Unknown said...

VERY TRUE!! We even use newsletter to help our team out! The newsletter to keep our teammtes on the same page, the newsletter to let people know of our BNR events definitely help!

They are a proven effective way to market! And your newsletter for our team sale looks AMAZING. Great formatting.

Kathleen said...

What a great post! Your mailings are absolutely beautiful...I will definitely consider using a newsletter instead of flyers in my next mailing...Thanks much!

Unknown said...

Great article. I use mail chimp but I have a LOT of trouble getting people to subscribe. Any ideas how to remedy that?!

MagicByLeah said...

This is great information. I actually JUST SIGNED UP with MailChimp (after seeing their logo on KatersAcres newsletter) and I am now in the process of working on my signup list. I hadn't thought to use it for sales but that is a great idea, thank you

Unknown said...

Hey very nice website!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your web site and take the feeds also…I am happy to find numerous useful info here in the post,

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