email marketing for retailers Archives

November 19, 2018 By Crystal Leave a Comment

One Simple Email Marketing Tip for the Holidays: The Modern Marketing Show, Episode 72

With email platforms like Constant Contact or MailChimp, it’s easy to broadcast to your list and let your audience know about what’s happening in your store. To help drive traffic through your doors this Thanksgiving weekend (and the rest of the holiday season), send your customers a special offer straight to their inbox.

Watch the full episode:

Not sure it’ll be seen because of all the other holiday emails that are already starting to flood our inboxes? No need to worry! Consumers are reading these emails searching for the best deals from brands they want to shop from.

Check out these stats from Constant Contact that prove email marketing is still a necessary marketing strategy:

72% of consumers prefer email as their source of business communication.
- Consumers rely on emails to learn more about the businesses they shop at and make informed purchasing decisions and this is why you should be sending out emails to your list consistently.
For every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $38. Email makes money!
People are twice as likely to sign up for your email list as they are to interact with you on Facebook (but this doesn’t mean you should start to ignore social)

You can catch new episodes of The Modern Marketing Show every Monday at 10 a.m PST on our Facebook Page. Replays will be available on the blog each week.

June 11, 2018 By Crystal Leave a Comment

Two (Fun) Tips to Increase Your Email Engagement: The Modern Marketing Show, Episode 19

Are you currently using email to market your business? We want to know because email is still one of the most effective ways to market your business, and if you don’t already have an email list I highly suggest you start one now.

Although email open rates have been on the decline since it was first launched – this has to do with the number of businesses fighting for our attention in our email inboxes – it’s one of the best ways you can engage with your customers and deliver them the information they want to hear. If your open rates are between 18-22% you’re doing a great job at catching your audience’s attention.

Watch the full episode:

Now for the people who are opening your emails, you want them to act! You want them to click over and watch your video or to head to your website and shop. That’s why you should implement these 2 easy tips into your emails to help increase your overall email engagement once they’ve opened an email.

Tip #1: Use Gifs that relate to your brand or the products you sell.

Gifs are images that have movement and you can embed these into the body of your email. By adding movement, this allows you to catch the readers attention, maybe make them laugh, or raise curiosity to what you have to say. These are easy to find online or you can get creative and make your own! You can do so at GIPHY.com.

Tip #2: Add a thumbnail icon when linking to a video.

In order to do this, you’ll need to screenshot a thumbnail image from the video you want to share. Then using Canva you can upload the screenshot to create a graphic with a play button. You’ll want to hyperlink the image in your email, so when people click on it they’re taken right to your video. This should improve your click-through rate significantly.

Remember, you should always send yourself a test before sending to your audience. This is to ensure everything looks good and your links are going to the right place.

Now it’s your turn to give it a try! These are super simple tips that can help increase your overall email engagement and get people clicking on your content. Feel free comment below and share your results with us!

You can catch new episodes of The Modern Marketing Show every Monday at 10 a.m PST on our Facebook Page. Replays will be available on the blog each week.

July 16, 2015 By Crystal Leave a Comment

Compete With Big Boxes Through Inboxes – 3 Tips

Do you use email to market your store and products? I hope you are! Email conversion rates are three times higher than social media*, three times! This is a channel retailers cannot ignore, but just sending a newsletter isn’t enough to compete and grow your business.
In this episode of Crystal Media TV you’ll learn three tips to help increase your email marketing efforts. There’s a lot to learn when it comes to successfully using email to market your business, so be sure to click the link below the video to check out the “Inbox to In-Store: Driving Traffic Through Email” training course.

Looking to learn more about email marketing? Look no further. Click here to see the “Inbox to In-Store: Driving Traffic Through Email” training course outline, which is inside of Social Edge.

If you’d like more information about Social Edge, click here. You can gain access to all courses today, for as little as $97/month.

Let us know if you have any email marketing success stories in a comment below, we’d love to hear them!

To the future,

Crystal Vilkaitis

* – Source: McKinsey & Company

June 9, 2014 By Crystal Leave a Comment

Use Social Media to Build Your Email List

In honor of National Email Week, which is the second week of June, today’s focus is using social media to grow your email list.

They say, “the money is in the list,” and outside of building your online presence, strengthening relationships and generating web and foot traffic, one of the best ways to use social media is to build your email list.

Because we’re already online, it’s easy to opt-in and typically we’re doing so to receive something special like a discount, free shipping or free product.

Just having an opt-in form on your website isn’t enough (but make sure you do have one!). You must have a form on your Facebook page through a free application that most email service providers offer like SnapRetail, MailChimp and Constant Contact. Then, you need to talk about, promote and link to the application to get your fans to subscribe.

One of the most effective ways of using social media to build your email list is by running a contest or giveaway. Simply tell fans on Facebook or Pinterest that to enter to win {prize}, they must follow you and give their email address.

Use a 3rd party application to collect the email address directly on Facebook, through a Pinterest contest or on your website or blog like WooBox.com, ShortStack.com or Rafflecopter.

Example of using WooBox to run a contest on your Facebook page

These applications cost money, so if you’re looking for a free alternative post the contest on your social media outlets, but link to your website or blog where people can opt-in/enter to win through a contact form.

For ultimate success, promote the contest on all your online outlets and in store. And consider using Facebook Ads to promote the contest to your current likes (which are your warm leads), and new people who live in your area and fit your perfect customer demographics.

Remember, when using Facebook Ads the more targeted the ad is, the less you’ll spend and the better your ad will perform. For additional ads training consider joining Social Edge.

Here’s a mini checklist to go through this week to use social media to grow your list:

Do you have an opt-in form on your website?
Is the opt-in form above the fold? Meaning, the website visitor doesn’t have to scroll down to see the form.
Does your form have text that states what the person gets for opting in, like a discount, free product or free shipping?
Does your Facebook page have an opt-in form?
Do you use graphics that ask your online audience to join your email list?
Can you run a contest to increase your email list? If yes which platform will you use/what will you giveaway/how long will you run it for/etc. Social Edge members log in to access a Facebook Contest Worksheet.
Is there another business you could partner with and run a contest together, or have them share your email opt-in to their audience and you’ll do the same?
Should you run a Facebook ad promoting your contest and/or email list?
Does your blog posts include links to join your email list?

Take this week to check your online presence to ensure you’re making it easy for your online audience to opt-in. Then, consider running a contest or giveaway and using Facebook Ads separately, or to support the contest.

If you have any questions please leave them in a comment below.

If you found this tip helpful, please forward it to a retailer friend and I’m wishing you a great National Email Week!