As you begin to establish your retail business and implement your marketing plan, one of your goals should be to build a customer list and use it wisely to communicate new products, sales and promotions to your target customers. Collecting names and email addresses can be accomplished in a number of ways – then it’s up to you to manage the list:
Setting up your list
- Purchase a list that matches up to the qualities location of your target market
- Create a newsletter and post it to your Web site, along with a way to subscribe to the newsletter
- Set up your “Contact Us” page in a form style that collects names and emails
- Ask for clients to sign up for specials via email when they visit your retail store
- Create a loyalty program that is email based
- Offer coupons or discounts via your Web site if they will register their email
- Require email as a part of online checkout if you sell online
- Add a survey to your Web site and ask for email information at the end
- Set up a contest or giveaway that requires email registration
Managing Your List
- You MUST include opt in/opt out choices for email subscribers
- Assure your subscribers that you won’t sell their information – and don’t
- Use your Outlook email program to add email contacts and create mailing lists or groups
- You can set up database in your customer management system
- You can hire an email marketing service to manage messages and marketing campaigns
- You can purchase campaign software and create your own personalized messaging
- Make sure that you have the tools or resources to keep your customer lists current and scrub out customers who have opted out or whose email messages bounce back to you as ‘undeliverable’
Interacting with your customers in a meaningful way should be a top priority. Use discretion with your interaction and honor your customers’ privacy at all times. As you create and manage your customer lists, make sure that your marketing efforts are not intrusive or gimmicky. Your customers will see right through it.
Remember staying in touch with your prospects and customers should be a number one priority in your marketing efforts. If you have a website and are not collecting visitor details and building relationships with them, you are committing online suicide. It's that simple.
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