A retail business is just like any other business – great marketing will bring great returns. Although most retails businesses aren’t strangers to email marketing, many are overly reliant on more traditional forms of marketing, like newspaper advertising, TV and radio advertising, and direct mail coupons and flyers. All of these can be good marketing strategies if done correctly, but it is hard to overlook the high ROI of email marketing. The ability to send unlimited emails has made email marketing very inexpensive, but email still reaches most of the online publication and can translate into sales for your business.
Here are a few tips on how to improve yours...
1. Mobile is key – If there’s one reason why retail businesses need to focus on email marketing, it’s because of the rise of mobile. Auto responders enable you to send emails at any time of day to as many groups of your recipients as you’d like, so sending an announcement for a sale or a limited-time offer at the time of day can translate into sales that only certain kinds of other advertising (like TV or radio) can provide. Just make sure your emails are written with mobile devices in mind – size and content are very important here.
2. Find clever ways to get email addresses – I’m in no way suggesting that you trick your customers into providing their email addresses, but you’d be surprised how willing many consumers are to give out their emails when they feel they’re getting something in return. Contest or promotions are often easy and inexpensive ways to get all kinds of emails, as is the simple act of asking for an email at checkout so that you can provide couples or special deals to customers. Remember to treat this permission with respect, however, and don’t spam your recipients with too many sales pitches.
3. Integrate with social – Social media is a great way to create buzz around your store and products and to time your announcements for the mobile crowd. A strong bulk email application will seamlessly integrate with Facebook and Twitter so that you can post updates to your accounts while simultaneously sending emails containing that content. Linking these two marketing campaigns under one umbrella is a great way to save time and energy while magnifying the effect that each would have on its own.