Connect with your clients: How to make email personal

 
Personal services professionals are a diverse group. You run a wide range of businesses, read different publications, and target different types of clients. But whether you subscribe to "Cat Fancy" or "Breaking Muscle" magazine, folks in the personal services industry do share some key traits:

You need to efficiently run your business

As a business owner, you likely have limited time and financial resources and need low-cost, easy-to-use solutions to manage business processes like payroll, scheduling, and billing. No matter the size of your business, you need technology you can rely on

You’re mobile

Personal services professionals aren’t chained to their desks. On the contrary, you’re spending time working directly with your clients.

You strive to provide top-notch customer service

Personal services businesses live or die by word-of-mouth and online review sites like Yelp, Google places, and Angie’s list. One poor customer experience can really affect what the client tells their friends, so you work hard to give your customers service they’ll rave about.

You know fostering personal connections with customers is crucial

Email is one of the best ways to connect with people in a direct, human way. In 2014 email marketing was cited as the most effective digital marketing channel for customer retention in the United States. So whether you’re using email to send out appointment reminders or letting folks know that their favorite karate instructor has added a new class, make sure you’re in close communication with your clients in a way that is useful and relevant.

Connect with your customers

So how can you use email marketing to strengthen relationships with existing clients, grow your business, and even increase revenue? We’ve written a detailed description of how to use Pike13 and MailChimp (and did you know that we integrate with Emma too?)

Here’s a high-level look at some things you can do using email marketing no matter what platform you use.

Build your base

Capturing your clients’ email addresses should be a no-brainer. If you don’t have an online registration process (which Pike13 lets you do! And check out our paperless client registration kiosk!), be sure to give customers another way to sign up for newsletters and updates, whether it’s by using an online app like Chimpadeedoo or even just a good old pen and clipboard. Also make sure you’re getting email addresses for people who may drop in for a class or a service—these are definitely people you want to stay in touch with!

Create good content

You’re an expert at what you do, so don’t be afraid to share your knowledge with your clients. Have any good tips or information that might be relevant and interesting for your customer base? Share it! Letting your customers know about special offers or new classes and introducing new staff members are also all great newsletter material.

Follow up

You can use automated email to send reminders and birthday greetings or celebrate special achievements or milestones. Marketing automation (email that you set up to send out automatically based on certain triggers) makes it easy to connect with your clients in this way and fosters a nice sense of personal connection, like celebrating their anniversary as your client.

Make it shareable

After all the work of creating and sending out a great newsletter, you’ll want to ensure that it’s easy for others to share. Make sure to add a “Share this” link in your newsletter and link to your social sites.