A customer email newsletter communication shouldn’t be lengthy or overwhelming instead it needs to have consistent elements and imagery and ultimately it should have a clear purpose. You can create valuable customer connections by promoting solutions and information, not just products and sales.
Here are my latest TOP TIPS for creating email newsletters for best practise customer communications.
The first step is to define your objective for the communication.
Naturally you will want to create a personal connection with your customers and build their trust and confidence in your garden centre brand but there are other objectives you should be clear about. This maps out how you communicate a “call to action” to “measure the effectiveness” and “garner customer insights” for future resell and upsell opportunities.
Consult your team members; ask them what customers have been most interested in (or review EPOS data to track fast sellers)
The answer to content often lies within your own team, they can feedback what customers are asking for, the help they need with current gardening issues or a variety of plant many have been interested in finding.
Put the most important news and/or image at the top
People are busy so instant connection and engagement is essential for interactivity between your customer and your email content. Assume that many will only read the lead piece, so make sure that it is a connection-builder.
Contain just enough information for people to read in minutes.
Don’t confuse a newsletter with your website. Don’t put every possible subject in your weekly email. Resources, random links and too many articles or without a specific purpose just increase the noise level. Less is often more.
Mix your content up
You don’t have to stick with the same length for every newsletter so don’t hesitate to occasionally go with two or three photos or a simple announcement. Customers can often stop opening newsletters if they are always the same-old, so it’s helpful to occasionally be surprising and limit content to a specific message in addition to being helpful as every email newsletter should be. It is always important to retain the presentation of images and text consistently and on brand and within a defined template structure.
Create a call of action that is easy to understand.
Firstly, what are the call to actions? Is it easy to understand what the customer needs to do? Can you create a call to action that solves a customer’s problem? “Do your container plants die while you are away? Come in to see our selection of low-maintenance plant varieties for creating stylish and drought-tolerant pots”. The call to action can be a click to online shop, voucher, top tips by a team member, ask for a store visit.
Use a subject line that attracts your customer.
Does the subject compel you to open this email, is it too vague, is it too specific, can it entice interest?
I have been working alongside garden centres for more than 13 years in the content creation and creative execution of their email comms. If you would like me to audit your current email communications without any obligation; please just drop me a line vanessa@springmarketing.co.uk.