Using Email Marketing To Promote Your Retail Store

Are you sending out emails to notify customers of special promotions, sales and other events? If not, you are leaving one of the most effective forms of advertising on the table. Unfortunately, some businesses are still stuck in the mind set that email advertising isn't a necessary element for their retail store. While you might be able to turn a profit without it, using email is a powerful tool that will increase your store's revenue.

How To Gather Email Addresses

It's important to only gather email addresses from people who willingly give it out. The CAN-SPAM act prohibits individuals and businesses from sending out unsolicited emails. Sending out spam emails is unethical, illegal and it could end up costing you thousands of dollars in penalty fees. To avoid such heartache, only use email addresses that were willingly given out to your business.

So, how are you supposed to gather email addresses? There are several different ways to accomplish this, but one of the easiest methods is to ask your customers for their email address while they are checking out. Train your store's cashiers to say something like "Can we have your email address to occasionally send you special discounts and coupons?" People love to receive and use store coupons, so this is a highly effective way to willingly gather email addresses.

Another way to gather email addresses is through an opt-in box on your store's website. If you don't have a website, well you need to get one. When customers can't find the location or phone number to a store, they will likely search for it online. By keeping your business "offline," you are making it difficult for customers to find you. Launch a website and place an opt-in box for visitors to enter their email address.

Using Customers' Email Addresses

Now that you have your customers' email addresses, it's time to put them to use. The key thing to remember is that you only want to send emails out on occasion. Blasting your subscriber list with emails on a daily basis will either force them to unsubscribe or to stop opening them. Either way, it's a losing scenario for you. Instead, try sending out a single email advertisement with a helpful coupon or special promotion about once every 1-2 weeks. This will give your customers the impression that it's truly helpful and worth reading your emails. While you are doing this, constantly tweak and adjust your emails to see which ones perform best.