Industry Tips: Retail

[Abigail_S]

Whether you run an online store out of your living room, have a store in the center of town, or manage several stores across the country, you're trying to find new customers, sell your products, grow your list, and build customer loyalty. Constant Contact can help you do it all:

Email designed for success

• When creating your email, start off by using the search bar at the top of the template picker to find the templates that are specifically designed for retail. They are all fully customizable and mobile-responsive! Once you like the style of your email, use it to create a master template and save yourself some time creating your next email.
• Be sure to use a preheader with your optimized subject line to give your contacts a good reason to open your email. 
• These suggestions to make a great-looking email will help you use color, image placement, font choice, and personalization to get your contacts to read through your email.
• Deciding how to present your material can get tricky, but our Elements of an Engaging Email will give you an example that you can follow along with when you start putting your email together.
• Finally, these Email Design Tips can be downloaded so you can keep them on hand to remind you of the features that are available to keep your contacts interested and engaged with you and your content.

 

What do I talk about in my email?

It might feel tough at first coming up with ideas for email content, but there is always something to talk about! Have new items come in? Are you offering a new service? Let your contact list know in short, direct, and fun text blocks. You don't have to only talk about what's going on within your four walls. Are you offering your services to an awesome nonprofit? Tell your story! Did you see a cool article that you know will resonate with your contacts? Share the link to it in your email and on your social media accounts. Make sure to use your social media pages to their fullest by sharing your email in a social post.

If you need some inspiration to get going, check out some of these, organized by industry.

Selling Specials and Everyday Items

• Add a button where your customers can buy something right from your email. 
• Using emojis in your subject line can be fun, but only if it's appropriate for your audience.
• Images in your email will help tell your story and get your customers engaged. You're probably already taking beauty shots of your products, make sure upload them to your Library to use them in your emails.
• The Constant Contact mobile app can help you get your emails sent when you're out and about. Available for iOS and Android.
• If you use Shopify, connect it to your Constant Contact account with our Shopify integration. Then you can create targeted emails for the types of Shopify customers you have.

Building Customer Loyalty

Let your customers know that you care about them and appreciate their patronage.

• Greeting tags or contact details - add personal contact information right into the email.
• Welcome email - makes a great first impression.
• Recurring birthday email  - an opportunity to say thank you for being a customer (and maybe include a coupon to use during their birthday month). 
• Survey - get direct customer feedback to find out what your customers like or what they want. When using a survey, you can include a link to your survey in an email or send a dedicated Survey Invitation email to kick it off.