Email Marketing - The Basics

Email Marketing
- The Basics -

Why you would communicate with your customers through emails?

Email helps build strong relationships with your customers. It helps keep them engaged, even when they are not in your store. It also helps keep you top of mind—when a customer needs something, they will think of you first.

Sending an email blast to all of your customers at once also helps you quickly and effectively spread the word about new products, sales, or in-store events. It can also generate revenue by driving traffic to your webstore or to your physical store.

Email is very cost effective and simple to execute. To get started, we’ll help you find ways to collect email addresses from your customers and choose an email marketing service to send your emails.

How to Collect Email Addresses

If you already have a website or web store, there are several ways to collect email addresses on the site.

Some of the simplest ways include:

1. A button or banner on your site that, when clicked, links to an email sign-up form
2. A dedicated landing page page on your site with an email sign-up form
3. A email sign-up pop-up that appears automatically
4. An email sign-up form on your About Us page

If you do not have a website, you could collect information directly from your customers at the time of purchase in store (with their express consent).

Email Marketing and Privacy

When collecting customer email address, you should make sure your website and email marketing programs are compliant with current privacy policies. Any email sign-up forms should include language with boxes for the customer to check agreeing to your terms & privacy policies and consenting to receive your promotional emails. Please note: We are not lawyers, so please consult a legal professional for further advice regarding privacy policies.

Choosing an Email Marketing Service

An email marketing service is a tool that allows you to manage your email list subscribers and easily send them professional-looking emails. Some tools are as low as $10 per month, depending on the size of your email subscriber list.

We’ve found a great summary of the top email marketing services which you can read here. Across multiple recommendations online, the top five services for ease-of-use and value are:

1. Constant Contact
2. Sendinblue
3. Aweber
4. Drip
5. Mailchimp

For even more information on email marketing, we’ve found an all-inclusive blog. And, we’ve even reviewed this blog for you and made comments specific to Equestrian Retailers—click here to download a PDF with these comments.