July 20, 2016

Improving Email Marketing for Retailers

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Michael Jenkins
Michael Jenkins

CEO - Shout Agency
[email protected]

Overview

In the competitive realm of retail, fostering meaningful customer connections is pivotal. Amid the digital evolution, email marketing remains a potent tool for nurturing these relationships and driving conversions.

Retail revenue depends on a steady stream of customers coming back to your store continually over time. However, instead of constantly reinventing the wheel to find new clients, getting return customers can be more valuable over the long-term.

This is where improving your email marketing can be beneficial.

Your email marketing can become the lifeblood of your store if you choose. Below we go through the best practices for improving your email marketing for retailers.

From crafting compelling subject lines to segmenting audiences strategically, we navigate the landscape of personalised, impactful communication. Discover how to harness the full potential of email marketing and embark on a journey of heightened customer loyalty and retail triumph.

5 Strategies to Improve Email Marketing for Retailers

1. Welcome Email

According to Search Engine Journal (SEJ), 60% of retailers do not believe they utilize their welcome email fully. Therefore, let’s talk about a few strategies to improve your welcome email.

To make your warm welcome email work, you need to be engaging your list from the start.

Invite them to share feedback with you about how you can help them. Ask them what their biggest challenge is at the moment.

You can even use a poll to tailor the message. Different feedback mechanisms work best for different audiences. However, whatever you do you should ask for their input at the beginning. It can be invaluable.

2. Thank you

In addition to the feedback, the biggest thing you can do in your welcome email is thank your subscribers. In fact, do not just thank you them at the beginning. Sprinkle thank you throughout your email campaign.

Let your subscribers know how much you value them joining your list, and show them how you intend on repaying that trust and faith in you.

3. Stay memorable

SEJ also noted a disturbing trend. 40% of email marketers do not engage with their prospects in the first 24 hours.

Subscribers will not remember you if you go quietly into the night. Respond quickly to them with your auto-responder. That way you have at least one touch at the beginning.

Additionally, be memorable in your actions as well by regularly putting out content they can appreciate.

Do you have trouble making memorable email marketing campaigns? Then give us a Shout to see how we can help you today!

4. Deliverability

Campaigner stated that 47% of retailers feel the most damaging thing to their brand is their emails landing in the spam folder.

The wrong software here can truly damage your campaign. This is why you need to let your subscribers know immediately after they subscribe that your email needs to be white listed on your email system.

That can decrease the chances of your email going into spam.

While it is not a surefire solution for all of your subscribers, it can decrease the percentage that do go into spam.

Quality content is one of the best ways you can ensure long-term deliverability. That is because email services like Gmail and Outlook monitor the responses from their email users to determine whether they enjoy the content being sent to them.

The more content they ignore, the more likely Gmail and Outlook will place your content in a spam folder.

5. Timing

Finally, as you continue to send emails it is important to understand timing. Usually the best time to send an email is either in the morning or midday.

However, this can vary by industry.

For example, if you deal with a millennial group you might be okay sending out emails around 3:30 or 4 PM. By the end of the day, they might be bored at work and flipping through their phone.

Perfect excuse if you have a diversionary email for them to read then or maybe on the train as they go home.

However, if you work with a senior crowd, you might discover that 9 or 10 in the morning works best when they first log onto their computers to check their email for the day.

The more you understand your audience, the more you can accurately time your emails. This can even be a question in your welcome email survey.

Final Thoughts

The more you engage with your readers, the more you improve the quality of your emails, the more they want to purchase your products.

Details matter in email marketing. That is why deliverability and timing can make or break a campaigns success rate.

If you need help implementing the right email marketing strategy for your retail business, set up a free consultation session with one of our experts at Shout.

Book a free 45 minute consultation today.

    Book a free 45 minute consultation today.

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        As Founder and Director of Shout Web Strategy, Michael Jenkins is at the forefront of digital marketing. Since it’s inception in 2009, Shout has built a strong reputation as one of Australia’s leading strategic SEO agencies, assisting online businesses to formulate, implement and track successful marketing strategies. Michael is a respected thought leader and digital strategist, specialising in online strategy, corporate SEO, Google retargeting, email and conversion rate optimisation, and online reputation management. Follow Michael on Google+, connect with him through LinkedIn or visit the Shout Web Strategy website.

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