NEW YORK, April 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The effect of email marketing in the marketing and promoting of trade B2C websites should never be ignored. It has a different emphasis from email marketing of other sites. B2C SooBest, which has a wide range of products such as fashionable women's clothing, men's clothing, digital watches, and charm jewelry, summarizes the seven major roles in support of email marketing to help promote B2Cs involved in foreign trade:
Role One: Develop potential customers
Compared to hard advertising, email marketing can lower the cost of developing potential customers. The key is how you present the source of the email address.
You may want to send mass emails to customers. While this may reach a large audience, some people may consider this as spam, and your website would garner a bad reputation.
Instead, use recommendations to reach out to potential customers. Rather than solely advertising your wares, point out products and services from other websites that compliments your goods. But B2C websites rather use this kind of method.
Role Two: Auxiliary telemarketing
Some B2Cs sell high value products and see a need for telemarketing, even building up their websites to support telephone marketing or offline marketing. Email, however, acts as a buffer between B2Cs and customers. Most people would think of a cold call as strange and awkward, but if they received a prior email notifying them of a product or service, followed by a phone by the company, it would reduce the sense of awkwardness.
To avoid further rejection, we can use gifts to attract customers to leave their contact information, reach out to them by email, followed by a telephone call if they're still interested.
Role Three: Word-of-mouth promotion
People are naturally wary of an unfamiliar business and usually do not purchase anything until they see other people recommending it. In this situation, a business should take action to encourage their customers to share their shopping experiences with others.
To encourage sharing, a business should use incentives like gifts or value-added services. These can be promoted through email.
Role Four: Promotion Information
Email is a good means of introduction to new products or services, or a variety of promotional activities. For example, email can be used to notify customers of sales. Customers who are interested in a product or service can leave their contact information, and when the price drops, they would be notified by e-mail or text messages.
Role Five: Direct marketing
Direct marketing can complement B2C's email and web strategy too. Instead of sending massive amounts of information on different products or services, direct marketing can be used to target a specific item. If this perks the interest of customers, they can go directly to the website to purchase the goods immediately.
Role Six: Quality of after-sales service
Most customers are very concerned about the status of their orders when they buy things online. One important function of email marketing is to notify customers that their orders are being promptly processed. Some customers may make spur-of-the-moment purchases, only to regret it later, resulting in customer returns. However, the timely delivery of e-mails including order confirmation, a congratulation of the purchase, after-sales service, and other positive wording would appease customers' emotions, and can may reduce return rates and improve customer satisfaction.
Role Seven: Maintain customer relationship
After an initial purchase, customers may not return to the site for awhile, or may even forget about it. Through email marketing, B2Cs can constantly communicate with customers and keep them in the forefronts of customers' minds. This feature is often carried out together with promotion email marketing.
