Grocery marketing emails are a necessary evil. The good news is they don’t have to be evil! Just like with any other marketing emails, you can use them to build a relationship with your customers and drive business.
They Are An Opportunity To Engage With Your Audience
Grocery marketing emails give you the opportunity to engage with your audience. The problem is a lot of people see them as a one-way broadcast, where you tell them what you’ve got and don’t bother to ask them if they’re interested in what you’ve got to offer.
You can use your grocery marketing emails to ask questions about what your customers want and need. Maybe you’re curious about whether or not they’d be interested in a diet plan for dogs, or if they’ve ever tried a gluten-free product before and if so, how they liked it. In these cases, the respondent isn’t even sure what the question is because they haven’t been asked before – but that’s your problem, not theirs. You’ve got an opportunity to educate them and make them feel like they’re contributing to your business instead of your product.
A Variety Of Scenarios
Grocery marketing emails give you the flexibility to address a variety of scenarios, some predictable, others not. For example, if you sell a lot of bottled water, you know that you’re going to get a lot of questions about bottled water. If your product is seasonal, like pumpkin spice everything during the fall and winter months, you can bet that you’re going to get a lot of questions about what’s available during those times. If you’re unable to prepare special offers and discounts based on seasonal items, you know that you’re going to have to find a way to constantly remind your audience of your special offers without relying on the season to do it for you.
On the other hand, some companies thrive on the anticipation of the unexpected. If you’re starting a new store and you don’t have much experience in retail, you might not realize how many different scenarios you’re going to have to deal with. One of the best things about grocery marketing emails is they give you the opportunity to be prepared for anything – including something completely unexpected and that would’ve never occurred to you before.
They Can Be A Bit Repetitive
Grocery marketing emails can be a bit repetitive. After all, you’re basically telling a story or answering questions about your product over and over. However, since stories and questions tend to be the most effective ways to engage an audience, you can bet that your customers are going to keep coming back for more.
To prevent yourself from getting bored clocking in endless hours writing the same thing over and over, make sure that you’re always learning something new about your product. If you truly want to master this skill, sit down with your staff and ask them to help you come up with interesting tidbits about your product that you can include in your next email.
They Can Be Monetizable
In theory, at least. Companies like HubSpot and MailChimp make money through a combination of viral messaging and affiliate marketing. These businesses exist because of the value that they provide to marketers. For a small fee, you can set up automated emails to push out to your contacts or list of subscribers as soon as a new product is launched or updated. You can also use the tool to track the effectiveness of your campaigns, driving more revenue and expanding your business.
Since we’re on the subject of revenue, let’s talk about one of the most valuable things that you can do with your automated emails: building a list of subscribers who are interested in what you’ve got and are willing to give you their email. If you can grow your list to be even a small percentage of your overall audience, you’re going to see an increase in business – and revenue.
They Can Be Memorable
In many cases, the effectiveness of your grocery marketing emails is going to depend on how memorable they are. The best way to make an effective email is by using stories and anecdotes to draw your audience in and make them interested in what you’ve got to offer. If you want to be able to pull off an email that sticks in your subscribers’ minds, you might want to consider including photos of people and places that are related to the story you’re writing.
Memorability is especially important if you’re aiming for a larger audience. If you’re sending your emails to a list of subscribers who aren’t particularly interested in your product or service, they’re not going to remember much about what you wrote – unless you include something unusual or compelling to hold their attention.
They Can Be A Way To Differentiate Yourself
Although it’s important to provide value, it’s not always important to do so at the expense of being completely unique. If you truly want to stand out from the crowd, you might want to consider sending your customers a truly unique piece of marketing material. In exchange for their email, you can give them something that no one else is offering.
At the end of the day, unique products and content attract new customers, while traditional methods of marketing bring in the foot traffic. No one wants to be the only one in their industry doing something different, which is why differentiating yourself is sometimes more effective than being the best.
Once you’ve mastered the art of the grocery marketing email, you can use the same methods to market a variety of products and services, proving once and for all that you are indeed the best. Just make sure that your email doesn’t come off too much like a marketing spiel – your customers are going to find that very annoying.