The offline retail landscape has been in turbulence ever since more online retailers took over the market.
Aside from more ecommerce sites now offering products and services to customers from around the world, the customers themselves are more accustomed to shopping for the products (and services) they want online.
Still, offline retailers are now turning to digital marketing as a way to attract more walk-in traffic. Digital marketing campaigns are combined with offline activities and in-store promotions, creating more impact and making offline retailers more competitive. In this article, however, we are going to go through some of the basic ways that retailers use email marketing to gain an advantage.
Why Use Email Marketing?
There are a lot of reasons why email marketing is the best digital marketing instrument for retailers. At the top of that list, there is the fact that email marketing is the best way to deliver promotional offers and other relevant information straight to the target recipients.
Today’s top newsletter software can deliver thousands of emails in a short period of time. Tools like SendinBlue are even equipped with automation features and tracking tools, allowing even the simplest newsletter campaign to turn into an effective digital marketing effort.
There is also the fact that email marketing is the best digital marketing instrument for high conversion rates. Instead of using social media or content marketing, retailers can achieve more of their objectives and convert more potential customers with the help of email marketing.
Of course, email marketing is also very similar to direct mail, which is something that businesses in the retail industry have been using for years. Direct mail is a proven way to attract customers; email marketing is even more effective and offers higher return on investment or ROI.
The Right Recipients
The first key ingredient of a successful email marketing campaign is a mailing list. For the newsletter to reach the right target audience, retailers now use their online and offline marketing prowess to get more recipients to join their list.
This is why we now see interesting offers for new subscribers. New subscribers usually get special discounts and other great offers as incentives for subscribing. The incentives are then promoted on offline spaces and circulated using other digital and conventional marketing methods.
With email marketing, however, getting subscribers is only the beginning. For the newsletters to be effective, there are also ways to get to know the target audience better. This involves using tools such as read receipt, hotspot tracking, and more to understand how each recipient reacts to the content.
On top of that, there are also metrics that today’s top retailers as well as the smaller establishments track to gain more insights. Tracking metrics such as time spent reading the newsletter and whether the newsletter is accessed from a mobile device is made possible thanks to tools like SendinBlue.
Automation as the Way Forward
Next, we have the wealth of automation tools that are being added to the best email marketing software on the market. Today’s newsletter software – at least the best ones on the market – are capable of monitoring the metrics mentioned earlier and optimizing the newsletter automatically.
Automation also eliminates most of the maintenance tasks. When businesses need to refine their mailing list, for instance, no manual work is needed. The software will check read receipts, monitor bounced emails, and automatically flag emails that aren’t receiving the newsletter.
Other parts of the email marketing workflow can be automated too, which means there are more ways to customize the entire newsletter without doing more manual work. For retailers trying to be competitive on the market, this is a valuable feature nonetheless.
Personalized Content
Last but certainly not least, retailers are investing heavily in the content of their newsletters, including content personalization. Sending the same content to all recipients isn’t the way to go – not anymore at least. Instead, retailers are tailoring the content of their newsletters based on the personal or group preferences of their recipients.
It is also interesting to see a growing trend of integrating loyalty or membership programs with customer relationship management (CRM) and email marketing. At the heart of that integration, lies automation as the glue that ties everything together. The result is something that is now transforming the retail landscape like never before.
The more retailers know their customers, the more they can deliver personalized newsletters with handpicked content and suitable calls to action. As the email marketing campaign gets more refined, offline retailers gain a huge boost in traffic and conversion. Digital marketing really allows retailers to be more competitive on the market.
It all starts with a simple email marketing and newsletter program. Even getting started with setting up a newsletter becomes easier thanks to online tools and other digital marketing resources available today. Not utilizing email marketing as a way to reach and convert new customers would mean getting left behind by retailers and offline businesses who do.
