Running a brick-and-mortar business in today’s digital world is challenging. You need to draw customers offline. Offline businesses tend to have a longer sales cycle than online stores, and it’s even more complicated to track ROI.
Many marketers face the dilemma of how to successfully promote their brick-and-mortar business in today’s scenario where everyone shops online.
The good news is that even though your business is offline, email marketing can work wonders for you. Compared to web stores, brick-and-mortar businesses have an advantage in offering customers a better in-store experience. As a result, your goal should be to tempt people into your store rather than selling to them – use email as a communication tool, rather than a sales tool.
Why should brick-and-mortar stores invest in email marketing?
It’s a common misconception among brick-and-mortar store owners that email marketing is exclusively for bigger brands and multinational corporations. This isn’t remotely true – so let’s dispense with the myth.
Even small, offline stores can yield great results by employing a solid email marketing strategy for their business.
Let’s take a deeper dive into how email marketing can work wonders for your physical store regardless of its size.
Email Marketing Has the Highest ROI
According to Search Engine Journal, email marketing has an ROI of 4,300%. ROI is obviously the ultimate goal of any marketing strategy, and email marketing can certainly help you get there in the most cost effective way.
Email Lets You Keep in Touch With Existing Customers
We know that attracting a new customer costs five times more than retaining an existing one. Moreover, past customers spend 67% more when compared with new ones. Email enables you to promote new offerings and encourage current customers to make repeat purchases. It keeps your brand and business top of mind by meeting customers where they are (email inboxes) and help to build long-lasting rapport.
Email Marketing Lets You Be the Master of Your Own Will
Social media and search algorithms are constantly changing, limiting the effectiveness of any effort you put in there. Emails, on the other hand, enable one-on-one conversation with your subscribers, period.
First Steps to Set Email Marketing Into Action
1. Build an Email List
The key to a quality email list is making the subscribe process as simple and seamless as possible. Design your website in such a way that the signup form is easily visible to your visitors. It’s also good practice to have a clipboard, pen, and printed forms to collect email addresses in-person at your physical store.
To ensure that your customers share the primary email address that they regularly check, incentivize them.
Here’re some ideas on incentives you can offer.
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Discounts upon purchase completion: You can offer a nominal discount when your customers complete the purchase and share their email address with you. Repeat purchases can drive greater ROI for your business, so the discount is well worth it.
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Discounts on next their purchase: Get people to subscribe to your email list by promising them an email coupon code redeemable on their next purchase. This not only incentivizes email subscription, but gives customers a reason to come back and purchase from you yet again.
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Exclusive offers and early access: Early access and special discounts are always loved by customers. These also develop a sense of exclusivity among subscribers, helping to entice new signups.
2. Categorize Your Customers
People, Products, and Problems are the three broad categories that you have to focus on while considering your target audience.
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People: Demographic details like age, gender, marital status, job title, interests, hobbies, etc. should be considered in this category.
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Products: This category is about the products or services you offer. Which products or services do people buy from you?
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Problems: As a last category, you have to take into account the reason why people come to your store and the problems that your products or services solve. Let’s assume that you have a toy shop. Segmentation could be according to the age of the child (birth year).
The aim is to draft hyper-relevant emails based on the category a subscriber falls into and deliver more value, thereby generating more conversions.
Types of Emails You Can Leverage
Welcome Emails
Send out welcome emails to new subscribers or customers to help them get better acquainted with your business – include facts about the business, top posts on your blog, testimonials, etc. Ask customers to reach out with any questions they may have and encourage them to start a conversation.
Referral Marketing
82% of Americans seek recommendations from friends and family before making a purchase. Tempt your existing subscribers to invite their friends and relatives to buy from you. A rewards program is always a good idea to leverage email marketing and find new business out of your existing client base.
Re-Engagement Emails
Segment your list into frequent buyers and one-time buyers. You can further sort them based on their last visit to your store and send re-engagement emails. Offer them an attractive coupon to make sure they visit your store again.
Cross-Sell or Upsell
To sell more into your existing base, send out targeted promotional in the email receipt after they complete a purchase at your physical store. Add product recommendations based on their purchase history and demographic details.
Occasion Marketing
Birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays are the best excuses to communicate with your subscribers. Offer coupons as gifts they can redeem at the store along with a sincere, personalized sentiment.
Replenishment Reminders
Send out reminder emails to let your customers know when a product is due for maintenance or renewal.
Wrapping Up
Email marketing shouldn’t be limited to e-commerce stores and Fortune 500 companies.
It’s a marketing channel that’s well-suited for all kinds of small and large businesses who want to maintain relationships with their customers and drive more sales.
