Top 10 Automated Email Programs to Increase Online Sales

It is really tough to follow your customers, prospects or subscribers regularly. The best way is to have an auto-generated email programs which will trigger at the appropriate time. Here is the list of top 10 automated emails which can be triggered to increase the online sales.

1. Welcome Email: Whenever there is a subscription or first purchase, welcome the guest with an email introducing about the various products and services you offer. A special discount offer or top 10 HOT products can boost their interest and help in increasing the sales.
2. Cart Abandoning: An auto-email sent to visitors once they have abandoned the shopping cart will act as a friendly reminder. A email can be triggered after 2-3 days and the visitor can come back and complete the shopping thus, avoiding the prospect from searching all over again and avoid them from hitting the competitors websites.
3. Transaction Success Email: Let your customers know that the online payment made by them was successful. The intention of the email is to refer them some related products or services or submit a product review.
4. Referral Request: Let your satisfied customers refer more customers to you. Request them to refer their friends to your website. Word-of-mouth is the most economical and the best way to promote your business.
5. Reminder Campaigns: Do remind your customers if they have not made a purchase in a set considerable time period. Such customers can be offered special discounts or offers to avoid them from going to competitors.
6. After-sales Email: Thank your customers when they complete the purchase. You can have a satisfaction survey or a poll to know their shopping experience. Accordingly, you can act on the changes or feedback suggested. (#3, 4 and 6 can be considered as one program).
7. Browsing Behavior Email: Understand the browsing behavior of the customers using a good analytics program and trigger the email with suggestions and offers. Thus, you not only make their purchase easy, but will also make a sale.
8. Special Occasion Email: Who does not liked to receive greetings on their birthday or anniversary. Have a email program which will trigger greetings email to them on their birthdays or anniversaries. You can have such campaigns on special festivals as well to promote the business.
9. Stock Notifications: Have an email reminder field in the product pages where you have out-of-stock messages. If the visitor wants to know when the product is back in stock can submit the email address. An email can be triggered to make the prospect know that the product stock.
10. Renewal Reminder Email: If the sale is something consumed regularly like a printer cartridge or a subscription one then you can have an automated email to remind them to purchase or renew the same. Such timely reminders not only signifies as a good customer service but can help you in generating online sales.

These email programs can help in generating good online sales. I also invite your suggestions regarding such programs which have helped you in generating more online sales.

10 Tips To Increase Online Sales During This Recession

No wonder, why I am telling the same story which everyone know – the slow economy and recession. But, the numbers which I got from eMarketer surprised me.

Unlike in previous years, 2008 was sluggish for B2C sites.

The retail category which has hardly hit were computer software, digital entertainment and office supplies. While fitness equipment, books and magazines did well.

Seeing the above graph, one can interpret that the entertainment, luxury items and office supplies were vastly effected. Under luxury and entertainment we can term – music, videos, jewelry, watches, toys, PDAs and events tickets. So, the buyers have become too cautious in 2008 about what they are spending on. And they have spend the money were they really want to. They just did the purchases for their family needs – health, fitness, books, furniture, flowers and apparels.

What notes you need to take during this time of recession -

1. Concentrate more on organic search rankings. As it is a free tool to get the target audience and it is the best way when you have tight budgets.
2. Appropriately allocate the ad and marketing budget.
3. Have a proper messaging to your campaigns - you are here to fulfill your consumer’s basic needs and not to thrust your product on to them.
4. Target the niche audience as far as possible. This will help in more conversions and a better ROI.
5. Do measure your ROI for all your different campaigns separately and regularly. Invest more in the campaigns which is giving you better ROI. Have only ROI-driven strategies and use only quantifiable tactics. If you can’t prove it is working, then slash it.
6. It requires more effort and time to get a new customer. Better get more business from the existing customer. Concentrate more on customer marketing.
7. Try cross-selling other products/services to existing customers. This will save time and your customers may want to buy from you rather than other sellers.
8. If you do not have products/services to cross-sell, then partner with other sellers and scratch each other’s backs.
9. Increase your affiliate network. Motivate your top affiliates and help them with promotional materials and educate them to get more business during this situation. Better show them these 10-tips :)
10. Have coupon based or other promotional strategy. Re-look and constantly check, if it working and is it yielding more profits in a shorter span.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. You can get the prospects to your site, but the big question is can you make them buy? I also want to add that this is the best time to increase the market share for your business and beat the competitors before they beat you.

I would appreciate more suggestions from the various thought leaders in this e-Commerce market.

(Source for the above two graphs: eMarketer.com)