How to develop an effective email strategy for crafting businesses

Let’s face it we are living through some challenging times. As a small business owner you may have experienced some sales drop-off and are wondering what else can you do to keep buoyant.

Rarely is there 1 single thing that makes a huge difference and drives loads of sales. It is usually a combination of things that add up to make significant changes however the most basic way of keeping the orders coming in is to keep your existing customers.

Make keeping existing customers a priority by staying in touch

It is much easier to sell your wonderful products to your existing customer base. They have already bought from you and therefore know what to expect and if you made a fantastic first impression why wouldn’t they come back?

It also takes less effort to offer your fantastic products to your existing customer base so let them be the first group that you focus your marketing efforts on. Do this by keeping in touch with them and let them know that you are still around. There are many ways to do this and email messaging is one of the most useful tools.

Email marketing is still a powerful means of communication

A great way to keep in touch is via email. Email marketing which is basically reaching out to your customers or potential customers to communicate with them can be incredibly powerful. Yes you have heard it before but it is the perfect platform to develop relationships with your customers so that they will know like and trust you.

The honest truth is that so many businesses are so bad at email marketing. There is usually no proper strategy behind it and it shows with constant offers and discounts and filler content being rammed into your inbox. But you can send emails to keep in touch with your customers on a regular basis with purpose with an easy and manageable strategy.

If you do not have an email list don’t panic. It is never too late to start.

Why is email marketing so important for small crafting businesses?

• 1. As long as your customers are subscribed to your email list you have a direct line of communication to your customer base that only gets cut off if they unsubscribe or you remove them from your list. The only challenge is to get them to open your emails, read them and then follow your call to action.

• 2. You own your email list. No one can take it away from you. Unlike social media platforms there are no pesky algorithms that prevent your customers seeing your messages. Social media platforms can change their terms and conditions and start to charge you for getting in front of your customers. In the worst case scenario these big platforms might freeze your account or ban you altogether. These barriers do not exist with email marketing.

It can be devastating to businesses when social media platforms suddenly block them especially if that was the only mechanism they used to contact their customers. Some online entrepreneurs have had their businesses wiped out over night because they were blocked or demonetized by some social media platform.

If this is scaring you then good. I don’t like being scary but it is better to have your email list and I will stress again YOUR email list that you own that you can fall back on as insurance. It belongs to you and gives you the most control over how and when you reach your customers.

Develop an email strategy using the 80/20 rule

“There are so many things that I already have to do. How can I make writing and sending emails easier?“

Remember the goal of email marketing is to build and maintain a good relationship with your customers so that your customers will know, like and trust you. Once that is established they are more likely to want buy from you because you have made it clear that you add value to their lives.

But don’t fall into the trap of sending only promotional emails. This will seem too salesy and may annoy your customers so that when they see your emails they ignore them or worse just delete them. Use the 80/20 rule. 80% of your emails should be used to add value to your customers lives. Here are some ideas

The 80% Rule – Topics to Help You Create Emails that Add Value

• Educate your customers on issues related to your business

• Tell them something about yourself or your business i.e. what inspires you, how you create your products or pieces

• Talk about something topical and of interest to the customer

• Send them an inspirational message to lift their spirits (we all need that from time to time)

• Talk about something light-hearted and humorous (we all need that too)

• Write an email based on answers to questions from your customers. If one customer has asked a question then other customers might appreciate knowing that information as well

• Ask your customers questions about which products they like the most, what they would like to see in your shop

The 20% Rule – Topics to Help You Create Promotional Emails

• Send an email promoting a new product telling your customers the benefits of this new product and how it will benefit them.

• Let them know about a discount.

• Send an email containing testimonials from customers and how they found your product useful

Using the ideas outlined can help you to generate lots of ideas for both email and social media content easily and quickly. Remember to send 4 value messages and then 1 promotional message. The 80/20 rule.

How often do I send an email?

Most experts recommend at least once a week. This can be a challenge for some so at least once a month should be a minimum but this will vary according to you and your situation. But think, if you are sending emails as a way to build relationships with your customers then wouldn’t you want to say hello and get in touch at least once per week or more?

Bonus Tip

The Personal Touch – Reaching Out to Develop Stronger Relationships

Now another way of reaching out to your customers via email is to directly contact specific individual customers. You could pick 10 random customers and contact them and ask them how they are getting on with your product. That process of selection is easy and does not require too much effort.

Or you could target certain customers based on a set of criteria that is important to you. Think strategically. Below are some ideas to help you get started.

• Reach out to those that you made something specific like a customised item. Because it was made specifically for them it would be useful to inquire as to whether the product met their specific needs.

• You could contact customers that placed orders for a specific range of products i.e. unfragranced cosmetics to find out why they chose them and if they were helpful.

• You could select customers who come back frequently or those who haven’t bought in a while and start a conversation. Not every one will respond but customers will respond if they are motivated.

Now that I am sending a personal email to a customer what do I ask them?

Simply ask them how they are finding your product. Did it meet their needs and if so how? What were the best things about the products they bought and the shopping experience? Also ask if there were areas that could be improved? This gives the opportunity for fuller responses because the questions are open ended instead of generating yes/no responses.

Then once you have made that first contact, started a conversation and answered any questions your next interaction could be to make them aware of similar or new products to those they have previously purchased.

They might even want you to recommend a product based on a specific issue or on what is popular at the moment. You could also offer them a discount on products that they have bought before or their favourite products.

This strategy can seem a little pushy but trust me simply saying hello and asking a customer how they are and how they felt about your product is very different from contacting someone and cold selling them something. Still feeling uncomfortable with this idea?

Focus on building and developing the relationship. Someone trusted you enough to buy your product. You are reaching out to find out if it met their expectations and potentially offer them a deal on their favourite stuff. Have a go you might be pleasantly surprised. You don’t know if you don’t try.

It might feel a bit awkward reaching out to people at first and sending emails but try to think of it as simply starting a conversation and developing good relationships. Some customers will open your emails and respond but there is a strong likelyhood that most will not. That is okay. It is to be expected.

It is normal in the world of email. We all live busy lives and have ever decreasing attention spans because we experience information overload so you are competing for peoples’ attention and that can be hard. Don’t take it personally just be consistent and patient and your efforts will start to pay off God willing.