Email Marketing For Retail: Proven Strategies To Use

Marketing in any business is really tricky. There's nothing more difficult than getting the attention of your ideal customers.

However, there are lots of effective and cheap marketing activities out there for the savvy businessperson. One of these is email marketing. Email marketing is, by far, one of the cheapest and most effective marketing activities that can consistently give you a high return on investment. This is especially true in retail marketing.

But what is email marketing, and how can you make a retail email marketing strategy work for you?

Keep reading this blog to find out some great retail email marketing tips.

What is email marketing?

Let's start with the basics: what is email marketing?

Email marketing is the process of sending email campaigns to customers or potential customers. These email campaigns can be anything from promotional material to transactional messages to updates and more. Email marketing remains one of the building blocks of digital marketing for retail.

Email marketing is a great way to keep your customers and followers up-to-date on what's going on with your business. It's also a great way to promote sales, events, and news within the business.

Is email marketing good for retail?

Retail businesses can really benefit from a well-thought-out email marketing campaign. These campaigns can be used for a variety of selling activities like promoting your latest sales, new offers, fun events, interesting business collaborations, and more.

Your email marketing campaigns will be the first port of call for many of your customers for information about your next sale or upcoming event.

A great example of good email marketing for retail businesses would be to focus on holidays. Black Friday marketing and Christmas marketing offer retail businesses massive opportunities to sell the customers over email at times of the year when they're primed to spend.

Benefits of email marketing for retail

It's important to make sure that your email marketing campaigns are well-planned and well-executed.

When done right, email marketing for retailers can:

• Increase brand awareness and loyalty

• Boost sales and revenue

• Improve customer retention

• Enhance customer service

• Help you reach new markets

• And much more!

Email marketing is an essential part of any retail business' marketing strategy. By following the tips and tricks in this blog, you'll be able to create email campaigns that will help you achieve your business goals.

Drawbacks of email marketing for retail

What are the drawbacks of email marketing? As with anything, email marketing for retailers has its fair share of pros and cons.

The main drawback of email marketing is that it can be quite time-consuming to create high-quality email campaigns. If you're not careful, your email list can quickly become unmanageable. It's also important to make sure that your email campaigns are targeted and relevant to your audience. Otherwise, you run the risk of coming across as spammy.

Another drawback of email marketing is that it's not always easy to track the ROI of your campaigns. However, this can be overcome by using email marketing software that provides detailed insights and analytics.

Yet another drawback of email marketing is that is may take focus away from your in store retail marketing activities. If you spend too much time and money on your digital marketing, you may end up neglecting other areas of your business.

Overall, though, email marketing is a great way to build customer loyalty, capture customers in your sales funnel, and promote your wares to everyone who may be interested.

Proven strategies for email marketing in retail

So, we now know that email marketing is great. If you're already sold on the concept, you might now be wondering how to best make email marketing work for your business.

Choose the right software

In order to get started with email marketing for your retail business, you need to choose the right marketing software. This software will allow you to automate your email campaigns, track their performance, and manage your contact lists.

There are a few things you should keep in mind when choosing email marketing software for your business:

• Ease of use: The software should be easy to use and understand. If it's too complicated, you'll never get started with it.

• Functionality: Make sure the software has all the features you need. This could include anything from automated campaign creation to detailed analytics.

• Price: Don't overspend on email marketing software. There are plenty of great free options out there.

One of the best email marketing softwares out there in Mailchimp. Mailchimp allows its users to craft stunning email marketing campaigns.

You can integrate Mailchimp with your retail POS system:

• Choose from over 100 email templates to create professional messages for customers

• Target lost shoppers to encourage them to finalize their purchase.

• Create custom messages based on your demographics

• Monitor email performance

Develop a brand voice

Every business needs a brand voice that helps them differentiate itself from its competition. This voice needs to appear in all your marketing materials, including your email content.

Your brand voice should be:

• Consistent: Make sure your tone is always the same across all your channels.

• Authentic: Don't try to be something you're not. Be genuine and authentic in your voice.

• Human: Write like a real person, not a corporate entity.

• Flexible: You need a voice for every situation you may encounter.

• Passionate: Show your readers that you're passionate about what you do.

In order to create a brand voice for your retail business, start by brainstorming the following:

• What are your core values?

• What is your mission statement?

• How do you want your customers to feel when they interact with you?

Using the answers to these kinds of questions, you can craft a brand voice that suits your company, appeals to your chosen demographic, and primes your potential and existing customers for selling.

Identify your audience

Before you can start creating email content, you need to identify your audience. This process will help you determine who you're trying to reach with your campaigns.

To do this, start by segmenting your customers into groups based on factors like:

• Age

• Gender

• Location

• Purchase history

• Email engagement

Once you have your customer segments, you can start creating content that is tailored to each group. This will help you increase your open and click-through rates, as well as your overall conversion rate.

Always grow your list

It's great to have an established list of emails that you can use in your marketing campaigns. But you should never simply rest on your laurels.

You should always be looking to grow your email list. Having a continuous stream of new emails coming in will help replace those customers or potential customers who unsubscribe. The more emails you have with the right kind of people, the more potential retail sales you'll be able to make.

There are a few ways you can grow your list:

• Add a sign-up form to your website: Make it easy for visitors to sign up for your email list. Include a form on your website, and make sure it's prominently placed.

• Offer incentives: Offer incentives to customers or potential customers for signing up for your email list. This could be anything from a discount code to exclusive access to sales.

• Host contests: Hosting a contest is a great way to get people interested in signing up for your email list. Make sure the prize is something that would appeal to your target audience.

Be strategic with your email gathering activities, and be sure to follow the correct privacy regulations in your jurisdiction.

Automate the process

Email marketing can be a time-consuming process. But it doesn't have to be. There are plenty of ways to automate your retail email marketing, from using autoresponders to setting up drip campaigns.

Autoresponders are emails that are automatically sent after a certain amount of time has passed, or after a customer takes a certain action. You can use autoresponders to send welcome emails, thank-you emails, and other types of messages.

Drip campaigns are a series of emails that are sent out over a period of time. They're typically used to nurture leads or build relationships with customers.

Both autoresponders and drip campaigns can be extremely helpful in reducing the amount of time you spend on email marketing. But you need to make sure that they're properly configured, or else you could end up doing more harm than good.

Be mobile-first

With more and more people using their mobile devices to check their email, it's important to make sure that your campaigns are optimized for mobile. This means using a responsive design, as well as making sure the subject lines and call-to-actions are clear and concise. This will ensure your campaigns are seen and interacted with by the largest number of people that use mobile devices.

It's also a good idea to use short codes in your email marketing. Short codes are abbreviated phone numbers that can be used to sign up for your email list.

Including a short code in your email signature is a great way to get more people to sign up for your list. And it's an easy way to make your email marketing more mobile-friendly.

Get personal

There's nothing worse than getting a form email. The anonymity of a mass-produced email can turn off your potential customers. Few people want to be addressed as if they're part of a crowd. Most will want to be called by their name.

You can use personalization tags to insert a person's name into your email. Most email marketing platforms will have a way for you to do this. Once you have the person's name, you can use it throughout the email, in the subject line, in the body, and in the call-to-action.

Personalization can be a great way to make your email marketing more effective. But you need to use it sparingly. If you use it too much, it can come across as overly familiar, and that can lose you customers.

Optimize your subject lines

Your subject line is one of the most important elements of your email. It's what determines whether or not someone will open your email. So it's important to make sure that your subject lines are clear, concise, and to the point.

There are a few things you can do to optimize your subject lines:

• Use actionable language: Use language that encourages the reader to take action. For example, "Sign up now and get a free ebook."

• Make it personal: Use the recipient's name in the subject line. This will make the email feel more personal, and will increase the likelihood of it being opened

• Keep it short: Keep your subject lines short and to the point. This will help ensure that they're not cut off when someone is viewing your email on their mobile device

By following these tips, you can optimize your subject lines and increase the likelihood of your emails being opened and read.

Integrate with your other channels

Email marketing should be just one part of your overall marketing strategy. It should be integrated with your other channels, such as your website, social media, and offline marketing.

Your website is a great place to collect email addresses. You can use sign-up forms, pop-ups, and exit-intent pop-ups to collect email addresses from your website visitors. Once you have their email address, you can add them to your email list.

You can also use social media to collect email addresses. You can run ads on social media that encourage people to sign up for your email list. You can also include a link to your sign-up form in your social media bio.

Offline marketing is another great way to collect email addresses. You can use business cards, flyers, and postcards to promote your sign-up form. You can also collect email addresses at events and trade shows.

By integrating your email marketing with your other channels, you can increase the number of people on your email list.

Provide great value

If you're going to send people an email, you need to give them a reason to read it and open it. The best way to do this is by providing great value.

Your email should provide the recipient with something that they want or need. This could be a coupon, a freebie, or helpful information. If you can provide value, you'll increase the likelihood of your email being opened and read.

You can also use your email to provide people with a taste of what they can expect from you. If you have a blog, you can include a link to your latest post. If you have a product, you can include a link to a landing page.

By providing great value, you'll increase the likelihood that your email will be opened and read.

Track your performance

If you're going to do something, you need to make sure it's successful. Otherwise, you're just throwing things against the wall without seeing what sticks.

It's important to track the performance of your email marketing campaign. This will help you determine what's working and what's not. Most email marketing platforms will provide you with data on your open rate, click-through rate, and unsubscribe rate. It's important to keep a history of your campaigns to help you better understand what works best for you.

This data can be very helpful in optimizing your email marketing campaign. If you see that a certain subject line or call to action isn't performing well, you can make changes to improve your results.

You may also want to compare other metrics, such as:

• When the campaign is sent: You may find that your customers are more likely to open your email at certain times of day or week.

• What type of content is included: You may find that your customers are more likely to engage with certain types of content, such as images or videos.

• Design: Some emails are just better designed than others. Experiment with different types of emails until you hit on a design that you feel performs well.

By tracking your performance and making changes based on your data, you can optimize your email marketing campaign for better results.

Final thoughts

It's great to have an amazing email campaign. it's even better to have an amazing POS system that will help you take your retail business to the next level.

With the Epos Now retail POS system and our payment processing services, you'll be able to take control of every aspect of your business.

• Take advantage of our omnichannel management tools, for both employees and inventory.

• Use captured sales data to determine high products and employees.

• Sell online, accept payments from Google and Apple Pay with cut-price payment processing fees.

• Integrate with a fully loaded ecommerce platform that syncs with the best retail pos systems.

• Build using sophisticated business software, with apps for marketing, to bookkeeping, to payroll.

Want to learn more about our offer? Get in touch below!