Building trust through e-mail marketing can bring loyal customers

Building trust through e-mail marketing is a good way for online retailers to win customer loyalty, says Reid Carr, president of Red Door Interactive. Red Door builds and operates web sites for e-merchants.

Many online merchants are concerned that customers will view their e-mail marketing messages as spam and shy away from their sites, Carr says. But by carefully crafting their messages, retailers can counter that impression, he says

One way to build trust is to send out e-mail newsletters rather than e-mail advertisements, Carr says. “The thing we communicate to our clients is to be generous with information rather than sending their prospects a weekly ad for their services,” he says. “They’ve got to think about their target, think about what they’re concerned about, and then tailor newsletters and e-mails that are going to enrich their lives.”

The use of double opt-ins also can convince customers that online retailers are concerned about a consumer’s privacy, another way to build trust and loyalty, he says. “Companies that do that tend to have higher open rates, higher click-through rates and a little higher deliverability.”

Carr counsels merchants to send out e-mails only once a month or every few weeks, unless they have something “really powerful” to offer consumers, for example, coupons or a link to a daily news site. Indeed, more frequent mailings could drive consumers away because they would be perceived as junk mail. “If you start doing it too often, people just get kind of inundated and have the perception that they get enough e-mail and don’t need one more that’s not going to be useful,” he says.