How Do I Use Email to Stay Connected With My Customers as a Retailer During the Covid-19 Crisis? | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, The Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

A lot of your customers are sitting in front of their computers a lot more these days so a great way to reach them is to email. If you don't have a regular monthly newsletter or you haven't communicated, now is a perfect time to start. If you have a monthly newsletter, I encourage you to make that a weekly newsletter.

Start off with a compelling subject line like “What to Do When You're Working from Home” or “It’s Too Early for Wine - What Can I Do to Lighten My Mood?” You decide. You can write to them on how to do so. Now, if you’re a bookstore, I can't think of a better time of talking to your customers. Invite them to share their best classics one day or to share their best for the next day on your site. If you’re a toy store or you’re a cookware store, you know how to do this. Hardware stores can talk about the top-five honey-do list items and what it takes to get them done.

Your message has to be really important though when marketing, so don't show pictures of large crowds or people high-fiving, right? Be cautious when choosing your images and if you post pictures of people in the store, it couldn't hurt to show them wearing gloves as a package orders or washing her hands really well to visually see that you are taking care of them right now. You should definitely be posting what you're doing to keep your place sanitary but also how you're doing curbside pickup, your store hours, and more.

With this marketing, you want to stay in front of your customers now to be able to build sales later.

If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!