Selling by Email – Sales Dream or Nightmare
Done right, sending out a special offer to you previous customers is an excellent way of generating instant cash flow.
Let me give you an example I have just experienced.
One of my suppliers (in other words I’m their customer) emailed me with a special offer I couldn’t refuse.
It’s been 18 months since I last purchased from them, and normally I’d need to make a purchase from them at least annually. Purchasing from them has been on my to do list, however, at a low priority.
So I was in ready to buy mode, and all I really needed was something to get me to take action.
The email they sent contained an irresistible offer. The offer included more product than I’d previously got and at a lower price than the previous time I’d purchased, plus a 15% discount on top of that.
And here’s where the trouble started and it all went pear shaped.
First off they made me jump through hoops on their website. Yes it was clever how their website processed my order, very cool looking etc. Trouble is, for me, one of the steps didn’t work and I was unable to get to the next step of the process.
Then began my hunt for a phone number, eventually I found an 0800 number answered by an offshore call centre. Let’s just say they were less than helpful. I asked for the local office number, while they put me on hold to look for it, I found it on a local business directory, just as well, because they didn’t have it.
Like I said, the offer was irresistible, so I phoned the local office. I spoke with the person whose name was on the email, they said they would help. I emailed them the issue I’d had so they could get a support person to help me.
Meanwhile I find another way of getting around the issues of their website ordering process.
Looking good, I’m about to complete the order, and more confusion sets in.
The email mentions a 15% discount, and the order page requires a promo code to get said discount. I don’t have this code yet.
You see, there are two links in the email. One to go buy the product, which I had clicked on. And another to register your interest in purchasing and request the promo code.
This promo code would arrive next week, and be valid for 10 days starting the week after that. Confusing, yes.
So I’m hot to buy right now. Instead they want me to request a promo code that I’ll get in a weeks’ time, that I can use the week after that. You can just hear the response rate taking a massive dive.
It all started of with an irresistible offer that got me to take action and want to buy right now.
This could have been a huge money earner for them. However, with this amount of confusion, sales will likely be minimal. They made it too hard to buy. This type of customer experience does a lot more harm than good, and the unfortunate thing is that it happens day in day out at businesses all over town.
What not to do:
- Include a lame offer like 5% off
- Confuse with multiple actions
- Make it hard to buy, if someone wants to buy now, let them, don’t make them wait (and lose interest)
- Make it hard to get help
What to do:
- Include a single irresistible offer in your email to get people to take action, great for reactivating people that haven’t purchased in a while and have forgotten about you
- Make the action you want the reader to take obvious
- Minimise the number of clicks they have to do to make a purchase
- Add value and bonuses that have high perceived value to the customer, yet cost you little, such as extended warranties or gifts from complementary companies
- Provide a phone number answered by a real person (not a machine) in case people have problems buying
- Detail what the customer can expect after completing the purchase, timeframe of getting the product etc (under promise and over deliver here)
Last words – sending out an offer to your customers by email is an excellent way to get instant sales, making an irresistible offer will massively increase your sales, making it hard to buy will drop sales through the floor and massively reduce the likelihood that they will ever do business with you in the future.
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