I’m all for finding new customers but don’t lose sight of reaching out to past customers. Past customers who already like and trusted you enough to purchase from you. They have already made that buying decision so now you are just re-engaging them to let them know you are still here offering your products.
New customers are exciting but they are just in the “shall I or shouldn’t I buy from this business”
phase. I know you have emails of all the people who have ever bought from you. I am not going to force the issue of the must-have mailing list. I will leave that for you to look at.
If you have not added an opt-in mailing list to your business you can still contact your past customers. For as a business you have business records. Every customer who buys from you, you should have their email address, worst case their delivery address.
Use this information to reach out to them and get them thinking, remembering your business. Of course, you want to offer an incentive. So in this email, we will create, we are looking to offer a discount of your choosing and also a pdf of your products. Whether that’s new products, bestsellers or themed products based on a particular event like mothers day, valentines day, easter etc..
If you collected information like when their birthday is you can center your email around that event.
If you are going to mail this to your past customers, simple turn the email into a short letter. Print it off and pop it into an envelope along with your pdf.
Now, this pdf containing your products only needs to be about 1 – 2 pages max. We don’t want to send them a book. We also don’t want to send all your products. Less is more.
Or you could simply add a few products to the email itself. However with the pdf its more about giving them a browsing experience. Whereas many people don’t really like to stay in their emails for too long. The choice is yours, you simply want to encourage them to remember your business and share some of your products with them.
Reach out to past customers by email
Your email doesn’t need to be a long one but make it get to the point quickly.
Hello,
I’m [ your name ] from [your shop name or URL ], you purchased from us a while ago. I just wanted to thank you for your purchase and wanted to offer you a discount of _____ as a special thank you. We have also enclosed our new products, for you to have a look through.
The product images are clickable & will take you directly to the product you select. Any questions please contact us.
Have a great weekend
Kind regards
[your signature]
Note: Add a code for them to use so you know how many respond to your offer.
Where the word is in purple you can replace with your themed products like Valentines products etc.. This email can be changed to fit any products you want to share.
Making the Product Themed PDF
Put your creativity on your page.
Use Microsoft office and add the following
- Add a title to your header section
- Add your business URL in the footer section
- Use your best product images, if you need to retake them so be it.
- Very story based descriptions, add links to your images to link directly to your products in your shop
- Add a note saying the images are clickable, and then save the doc file as a pdf doc. You can do this by using one of these links:
Then you are done, get it printed an add to your envelope is you are reaching out via mail.
Tracking your emails & following up
This is where your mailing list data should help. You need to see who opened your email and who didn’t. If you mailed out your information you can still track your discount usage by how many people acctually use your code say within a month.
Then you need to see who clicked on product links or not. for those that didn’t open your email send a follow-up email.
In about 1 week or so send out a follow-up email. Just see if they received your email and to remind them of the discount that was enclosed. Some people may not have even seen your email at all, as it went straight into their spam folder or in case of Gmail the promotional folder.
Let them know about these places, where your email could be hiding, just in case.
Again ask if they have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact you.
Repeat the process
This is a simple process that can be repeated over and over again. It helps you to stay in your past customer’s minds. Gives them an incentive to revisit your shop again and that all you want. Use your mailing list that’s what its there for. An if you have not started to collect your customer’s emails addresses but you received payments via PayPal, Stripe or another payment platform they should have the emails stored for you. Go and collect these emails and sign up to a mailing list provider and add these emails to your new past customer list. Then start crafting your email.
What I would say if your past customers are old one just give then a refresh of who you are and what you offer before you jump in with the discount offer. It will help refresh their memory about your business.
In the comments share how you reach out to your past customers? Got any questions share them below also 🙂
