As a stall or local business, email marketing can be a powerful tool to inform your customers about your products and promotions. Email marketing is a cost-effective way to reach out to your customers directly, and it can help you build stronger relationships with them. 

In this post, I will explore ways you can use email marketing to inform your customers about your products and promotions.

Build an email list.

The first step in using email marketing is to build an email list. You can do this by collecting the email addresses of your customers. You can ask for their email address when they make a purchase using a QR code at the till point, or you can offer an incentive, such as a discount or a gift, in exchange for their email address on your online store. You can also collect email addresses through your website or social media pages.

It's essential to get your customers' permission to send them emails. You should clearly explain what they will receive from you and how often they will receive emails. You should also make it easy for them to opt out of receiving emails if they no longer wish to receive them.

Choose an email marketing service.

Once you have built your email list, you must choose an email marketing service. Many email marketing services, such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Sendinblue, or Klaviyo, offer templates and automation to make sending emails more accessible. These services allow you to create and send professional-looking emails without technical knowledge. 

When choosing an email marketing service, look for one that offers important features to your business. For example, if you want to segment your email list based on your customers' interests or purchase history, look for a service with segmentation tools. If you will automate your email campaigns, look for a service that offers automation features.

Create engaging content.

The key to a successful email campaign is to create engaging content. Your emails should include information about new products, sales, promotions, and events. Ensure the content is exciting and visually appealing, with images and links to your website or social media pages.

Your emails should also be personalised. Use your customers' names in your emails and segment your email list based on their interests and purchase history. This will make your emails feel more personal and relevant to your customers.

It's important to keep your emails concise and to the point. Your customers are busy and don't have time to read long emails. Use short paragraphs and bullet points to make your emails easy to read.

Be consistent.

Consistency is vital when it comes to email marketing. Plan to send emails regularly, such as once a week or once a month. This will keep your business top of mind for your customers and help build relationships with them.

Finding the right balance between sending too many emails and not enough is important. If you send too many emails, your customers may become overwhelmed and unsubscribe from your list. If you don't send enough emails, your customers may forget about your business and not be aware of your promotions and sales.

Monitor your results

Once you start sending emails, monitoring your results is important. Use analytics tools provided by your email marketing service to track the success of your email campaigns. This will help refine your strategy and improve your email marketing.

You should track open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. Open rates measure how many people opened your emails, and click-through rates measure how many people clicked on the links in your emails. Conversion rates measure how many people took action, such as making a purchase, as a result of your emails.

By monitoring your results, you can see what is working and what isn't. You can change your email content, frequency, or segmentation strategy to improve your results.

Use email automation.

Email automation is a powerful feature that can save you time and improve the effectiveness of your email campaigns. With email automation, you can set up a series of emails to be sent automatically based on specific triggers, such as a customer signing up for your email list or making a purchase.

For example, you could set up an automation series that sends a welcome email to new subscribers, followed by emails introducing your products and promotions. Or, you could set up an automation series that sends a reminder email to customers who have abandoned their cart on your website, encouraging them to complete their purchase.

By using email automation, you can deliver targeted, personalised messages to your customers without manual intervention.

Offer exclusive promotions and discounts.

One of the best ways to keep your customers engaged with your email marketing is to offer exclusive promotions and discounts. This can include discounts on products, gifts with purchase, or early access to sales.

Offering exclusive promotions and discounts to your email subscribers can make them feel valued and appreciated. It can also encourage them to purchase and continue subscribing to your emails in the future.

When offering promotions and discounts, include a clear call-to-action in your emails. This could be a button that links directly to your website or a coupon code that customers can use at checkout.

Solicit customer feedback

Email marketing is not just about promoting your products and services. It's also an opportunity to solicit feedback from your customers. Email surveys can gather feedback on your products, customer service, or website.

By soliciting customer feedback, you can gain valuable insights into what your customers like and dislike about your business. This can help you improve your products, services, or website, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Follow best practices

To get the most out of your email marketing campaigns, it's important to follow best practices. Which includes:

• Personalising your emails with the recipient's name and other relevant information.
• Keep your emails concise and to the point.
• Using a clear and compelling subject line to encourage people to open your emails.
• Include a clear call to action in your emails.
• Testing your emails before sending them to ensure they display correctly on all devices.
• Avoiding spammy language and tactics that could trigger spam filters.

By following best practices, you can increase the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns and avoid common mistakes that could hurt your results.

Email marketing can be a highly effective way for local businesses to inform their customers about their products and promotions. By building an email list, choosing an email marketing service, creating engaging content, being consistent, monitoring your results, using email automation, offering exclusive promotions and discounts, soliciting customer feedback, and following best practices, you can build a strong relationship with your customers and grow your business.

If you'd like help setting up, maintaining and sending email marketing. We can help. 

Local Marketing Made Easy is a full-service local marketing agency based in Greenwich, London. We can show you how a good marketing strategy can increase sales - ultimately putting more money in your pocket.

To see how we can help your business, call us on (0203) 303 0625 or book a callback request via the form below.