If you have one or more brick-and-mortar locations of your business, using email to get customers into your store is a useful strategy. It works for retail, restaurants, professional services, and other brands with a storefront location. And thanks to the speed with which email can be written, sent, and read, this is also a great option for reaching people during slow times.
Of course, to be successful in this, you have to first develop an opt-in email list of people who are genuinely interested in your company. This list can be a powerful marketing tool in many ways, from boosting brand awareness to generating leads to driving more sales. When it comes to the latter, here are are some ways of using email to get customers into your store.
How to Bring Customers in with Email Marketing
- Send word about a spur-of-the-moment discount or special offer to people who come in within a certain amount of time of receiving the email.
- Deliver a coupon that expires in the not-too-distant future (the same day, within 48 hours, at the end of the week, etc.).
- Give your email subscribers early access to a sale or other special offer.
- Alert your customers to low stock on a popular item to generate a sense of urgency and fear of missing out.
- Put together an in-store event and send out invitations to your email list.
- Send an email with an offer or advertisement that references a real-time event, like a cold front or a storm, local sports event, minor holiday, etc.
- Onboard your customers into a loyalty rewards program via email, and send them email notifications when they’ve earned a reward.
- Create a referral rewards program through email, providing customers with a simple, unique code they can have other people use; notify them of rewards by email too.
- Send a promotional email to tip your customers off about new products or services; combine the notification with a limited-time deal on the new offering for better results.
- Put together an occasional compilation of good reviews and/or testimonials to send to your subscribers; consider assembling a group that all mention one particular product or service to spur its sales.