If you’re only using e-mail marketing to gain new customers, you’re only reaping half of the benefit. Once a client is acquired, he, she or the business entity must be part of a consistent e-mail marketing campaign in order to continue to engage that client, nurturing the relationship that you worked so very hard to obtain.

How can you engage your clients with e-mail marketing? If your company offers a new service, you might invite your clients to partake in that service. By including relevant information, you can continue to educate your client. Perhaps your company issued a press release about your new light bulb recycling program detailing how customers who recycle their light bulbs through your new service can receive a discount on new light bulb purchases.

If your press release contains links to your website that your client follows to learn more or perhaps even purchase your new service, then you have successfully engaged your client.

Suppose that instead of sending your message with e-mail, you call your client on the phone. He or she is thrilled to hear from you because they’ve had positive experiences shopping for light bulbs with your company, but without the link to the new service right in front of their eyes, easily accessible, your new service may be forgotten.

Including an option for your client to forward your informative e-mail to others could generate new business. Your client already likes your company, or they’d take their business elsewhere. Why not present them with a quick and easy way to tell friends and colleagues about how your company always packs light bulb shipments so that the bulbs do not break and about your money-back guarantee and free-of-charge rushed shipping if a damaged bulb is received.

E-mail marketing to clients is an effective way to make sure you have the most up to date information because a steady flow of communication between you and your client is imperative to retaining that customer.

Including a simple reply-to e-mail address in your e-mail marketing campaign allows clients to effortlessly inform you of new contact numbers and names, new goals that they or their company might have that might fit into your niche and personal information that continues to develop your already stellar relationship with your client.

One of the most important benefits to use e-mail marketing for customer retention is the ability to track and view detailed reports. You can find out particulars such as who opened your e-mail, when, how many times they opened it, what they clicked on, and when they clicked it.

E-mail marketing reports allow you to continue to learn about your clients’ needs so that your next marketing campaign can suit them or their business to a finer point.

Sending a letter or post card through snail mail will hardly give you the same results. The only reports you can gain from direct mail marketing are how many addresses are invalid and how many people actually bothered to call you. Take your carefully crafted letter and transform it into an appealing e-mail marking campaign that will strengthen the relationship you have with your clients and bring you new clients as well.