How your brick and mortar business can get more out of an email newsletter. Click through to read more or pin to save for later!

While I take some time off to cuddle the new baby in our lives (and change 1,000,000 dirty diapers) I am thrilled to feature some stellar small business owners, marketers, and freelancers. These contributors have been right where you are: in the trenches of growing a business, creating products and services that resonates with their audience. They’ve got tons of great tips to share!

(If you missed it, check out Kara’s post on spending vs. saving when you start your business and Saskia’s post on improving your work/life balance.)

Today, I’m thrilled to feature a post by Abigail Fine on how brick and mortar businesses can take advantage of email marketing.

How to Promote Your Brick & Mortar Business With an Email Newsletter

Anyone who works at a brick and mortar store knows that it’s a lot of work.

Between buying, receiving, expanding inventory, organizing outside events, organizing in-store events, promoting these events, working with other local businesses on community initiatives, and oh, yeah, helping out customers, working in-store for a small business demands a lot.

And anyone who works in a brick and mortar store knows that the best way to succeed as a business is to offer a lot. All those events and community initiatives are what give you a chance to connect with customers, which is in turn what allows you to move inventory and stay afloat.

Of course, all the interesting events and cool collaborations in the world won’t do a lot of good if no one knows about them.

In this age of social media, one of the best ways to promote everything your small business has to offer is through an email newsletter. But how can you make your newsletter most effective?

These five newsletter strategies will engage your customers and effectively promote your brick and mortar business.

Set a Schedule for Your Newsletter

When I took over as Social Media Manager at the indie bookstore where I work, the store newsletter was sent out only once or twice a month.

Since taking over, I send newsletters twice a week: on Mondays and on Thursdays. (If we have a slow week or a holiday, such as Labor Day or the Fourth of July, I will occasionally just send one newsletter per week, but that’s rare.)

Our store typically has six or seven author events per month, pre-orders on upcoming releases, sales, promotions, and weekly events.

By sending only one or two newsletters a month, we were not adequately getting the word out on all that the store had to offer.

After all, would you remember an amazing event happening on September 26th if the only notification you received was on September 2nd? Probably not.

Sending frequent newsletters with at least two new pieces of information per newsletter will keep events fresh in the mind of your customer base, and allow you to ensure that you are adequately promoting everything your business has to offer.

Keep Your Newsletter Short & Informative

When we sent just one or two newsletters a month, the newsletter was far too full of information.

No one has time to read about seven events spread over the course of a month, story time announcements, promotions, sales, staff picks, and pre-orders in one newsletter.

If the newsletter becomes too long or wordy, your customers won’t read it all and might miss out on something of interest.

Rather than sharing everything at once, identify which events are soonest, which events might need more publicity (for example, if your customers are required to register or pre-order an item to attend an event), and which will likely draw the largest crowds.

Try not to include more than a week’s worth of upcoming events in any given newsletter.

You might also like: 11 Statistics You Should Know About Email Marketing

It’s also a great idea to look for current event tie-ins. For example, we started promoting Kristi Yamaguchi’s October visit to our store during the Rio Olympics.

As a general rule, keep your newsletter as concise as possible. Leave room to promote other aspects of your business.

Include a “Did You Know” Section

I typically include a “Did You Know” section in the newsletter, especially when I have fewer events to promote.

“Did You Know” allows you to highlight services that your business offers that might not be general knowledge. It also allows you to expand or alter your business’s branding.

For example, I’ve used this section to tell subscribers about our ability to ship items to anywhere in the United States, our ability to special order any title currently in print with fast delivery, and to advertise new sidelines, such as craft kits for toddlers.

This is also a great place to start letting people know about any rebranding or changes your business is making. For us, that means letting customers know we now have a large section of books for adults, whereas a year ago we only carried children’s books.

We’ve also used the “Did You Know” section to feature staff picks of adult fiction and non-fiction titles to remind customers that we are more than just a children’s bookshop.

No matter what sort of business you run, though, a “Did You Know” section of your newsletter is a great place to share changes, new offers, or facts about your business that can build their interest and loyalty.

Use Your Own Words

Your small business should have its own voice.

Think about your product, your audience, and your branding when deciding on your tone, what to highlight, and how to advertise services and events.

It can be helpful to subscribe to newsletters sent by other businesses in your field, but don’t try to copy the tone they set.

For example, the bookstore where I work primarily caters to children and families, so I would not choose highlight a book called Smut during our Banned Books Week promotions. However, an edgier bookstore in the area did just that, and their advertising worked perfectly for their target audience.

You might also like: 17 Ways to Make Your Brand Stand Out Online

Write as much of your own content as possible, even if the brands you stock provide blurbs or descriptions of products.

Customers will be more interested if they read an original description that conveys your passion for what you’re selling.

Pay Attention to the Details

Also known as, triple-check your work.

After I complete a newsletter, I have my boss proofread it. She almost always finds at least one small typo, such as a missing word or a forgotten punctuation mark.

Once these errors have been cleared up, I schedule the newsletter to send at a future time – somewhere between thirty minutes and twenty-four hours.

Then I check the newsletter again before it goes out.

I almost always find at least one incorrect detail that both my boss and I missed on the first go around. Sometimes these are important details, like the time of an event. Sometimes it’s outdated information that I forgot to update. Sometimes it’s nothing more than a small typo. But we are a professional business that trades in words, so accuracy is important.

If you’re making effective use of your email list, your newsletter will reach hundreds — or even thousands — of people. You don’t want a glaring error going out to thousands of subscribers.

Accuracy builds trust. Trust leads to loyal customers. And loyal customers sustain your business.

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