How Offline Retail Businesses Can Use Email Marketing Effectively
How Offline Retail Businesses Can Use Email Marketing Effectively
There is nothing particularly advanced about the Yellow Pages or the pamphlet system used to advertise local businesses, but these marketing and advertising methods still share one thing in common with online marketing practices: they are effective.
Nevertheless, with the right approach, offline retail businesses can use online marketing practices to deliver results that are much more powerful than their offline efforts. These tips are based around one of the most effective online marketing forms for offline retail businesses: email marketing.
Advertise Special Online Offers or Discounts
With a comprehensive email marketing database, shifting excess products from inventory to sales can be as simple as writing an email, attaching pictures, and hitting the ‘send’ key. Online presences should not compete with physical retail outlets but complement them. A good way to make sure that happens is to keep new inventory in stores and promote old ones online.
Whenever a retail store is trying to clear out old stock, owners should experiment with full-price online sales before they try their luck with a slash n’ burn retail discount sale. They should leverage on the “no longer in retail stores” message before settling with the “buy now at low prices so that we can get rid of them” type of messages. There are always people out there ready to buy, and with some dedicated attention to email, business owners could end up finding them.
Collect Email Addresses and Alert Power-Buyers and Top Customers of Opportunities
Almost every business experiences the 80:20 effect – an interesting phenomenon where 20% of customers, clients, or brand evangelists end up providing 80% of the sales, service orders, or marketing power.
Once retail businesses have found their own 20 percent, it is vital that they keep in touch with them. They can use email marketing attention to keep the power customers attached to their stores. It is best to segment them from regular buyers in order to take special care of them. With a specialized and separate mailing list, retail businesses will be able to give these customers extra attention and even better online deals.
Online marketers that deal with large numbers of retail clients or retail entrepreneurs looking to establish their companies through email should take note of tips for future success. Although there are a number of different ways to use email marketing successfully, these two are among the most effective for offline retail businesses.