Update 3-29-10: Since only 18 entrants participated in this Giveaway, there is no free prize to be awarded. Thank you to those who participated and sorry that there couldn’t be a winner. But folks, read the comments anyway. There’s some valuable info there for us all.
Happy Wednesday! And it’s Wacky Wednesday too…how lucky can we get??
Wacky Weds is our free Giveaway for consignment, resale, and thrift shop owners/ managers.
This week’s question for consignment and resale shopkeepers, which makes you eligible for our free Giveaway is:
Share with us (as short or long as you like) your experiences contacting your clientele via email.
- What do you tell them?
- How often?
- Which graphical email provider do you use (or do you not use a service?)
- How and where do you collect email addresses?
- What puzzles you about the whole process?
- How have you learned (via statistics for opens and clicks or via people actually coming in to your shop) to do better?
- If you used to do it and have slacked off, why?
- If you DON’T have a planned email campaign, why not?
This week’s Giveaway: A free copy of The Constant Contact Guide to Email Marketing. Direct from Kate’s library of resources to help the reale industry.
Read the rules for our giveaway. Your comment must be posted by midnight Eastern time Sunday March 28 and we must have at least 20 entries (so contact your resale buddies and ask them to enter too!) Read previous Wacky Wednesday entries and GREAT responses from consignment, thrift, and resale shopkeepers.
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
We collect email addresses several ways. New consignors can give their address when they begin consigning, we have a signup sheet at the front counter, we also have a sigunup button on our homepage of our website, and we have a “Services” page on our website where people can sign up for our mailing list, sign up for our wish list and also let us know about large items they want to consign.
The biggest use of our email is when a consignment is entered. When we enter a persons items into the system, we immediately send the listing to the consignor. It includes a listing of the items and the expiration date. We notate on their bring in sheet that we have emailed them.
We use Constant Contact for other type emails–like sales, special events, etc. I’ve found that keeping the email short with a coupon at the bottom seems to generate more coupons being redeemed. If the email is long, they don’t read to the very end, so they miss the coupon.
I usually send about one email a month. I find that if I do too much more than that, I see more people unsubscribing. I also recently found out that not putting your subject line as your sale seemed to get more opens. Example–instead of using “Dollar Sale at Childish Things”, I used “Did You Hear??” and we had a much greater open rate. I guess people like the mystery!! I just wish I were more creative with interesting subject lines.
Thanks Kate! I am now emailing that information to myself : ) … LOL
Oh… One more thing that we do to get emails: We have a sign-up button on our webpage.
@Tanya: Here’s the PERFECT way to “interface” Constant Contact email w/ Twitter & Facebook:
* When you start creating a new email, the first screen you hit is Email Message Settings
* On that screen, last choice is Include a link to view a webpage version of this email Check it.
* When your email is sent, that line will link to a webpage version of your email. Use THAT (shortening the URL nicely with http://www.tinyurl.com or a similar utility) and Twitter it, with a message like “Did you hear…our latest MyShop newslr’s at [url]” or even better, highlight the most motivating thing IN your current issue.
For extra points:
* Be DARN sure to not only include a “subscribe” button in that email, but even make it more impt…that way you’ll gain nl signups direct from Twitter.
* To have it show up in FB automatically, avail yourself of one of the many tools for this. You can also do this bass-akward, posting in FB first (if you’re a fanatic, you can even grab a screen shot of your newsletter and use it as a graphic in FB to motivate click-thrus.)
I would assume that other graphic email programs have a similar way to do this…
Only drawback, is that the CC-hosted webpage is only up for 30 days, but by then you’ll have done another. 😉
Use: Constant contact
Frequency: Up to 4 times a month (not less then once a month)
What we say: 1) Story 2) Call-outs 3) Promos if any 4)sponsored business to business give-a-way – this could also fall under promos 5) Local tidbit or happenings 6) forward this email to a friend
How we request emails: 1) Contract 2) Give-aways 3) WishList requests 4) signage in store and dressing rooms promoting email newsletter
Puzzling aspects: We think CC templates can be tempermental and grumpy— would like CC to interface with twitter and fb
What we have learned to do better: Make em laugh, tell them what is happening at the store as well as what is happening locally…. We always get a mention that they came in because of the email. Still NEED to get better at mentioning our fb fan page, website, blog and calendar on our emails
When we have slacked it is usually: Working on a different active project that has to do with the store, or scheduling challenge…..
email campaign: yes… and shock it is written down somewhere LOL… usually relates to the local happenings OR … movie event … upcoming pre planned events for the store.
Hope that helps!
I use Constant Contact and send out emails about once a month. I try to have at least one tip or non commercial type link or article in each email. We collect emails from consignors when they fill out the consignment agreement and collect from customers when they enter for our 2, $10 gift certifcate monthly drawing.
I don’t have a planned email comapaign, I am just not that organized. Many of my ‘events’ are planned just a few weeks ahead. I (like most of us) need two of me.
MollyB!
I strongly dislike doing emails to our consignors because it is so time consuming. Seems like I’m at the computer enough as it is. Same thing about Facebook and Twitter. I know, I know – good for business BUT I am getting heartily sick of the ‘new media’. (Of course, I’ve always been sort of a contrarian) Anyway, this growing grumpiness is showing – I have totally slacked off on all of it. I did a spring newsletter the ‘old-fashioned’ way – and it is in the stores with signage (includes coupon, tips, news etc) and is used as a bag stuffer
SO gave me a framed sign for Christmas for my office. It says,
‘Turn off your computer and GO OUTSIDE!’ In the newsletter, on the front it says ‘Turn Off Your Computer, Get Out of the House and Come Visit Us!’ (we’d love to see your smiling face and talk to you in person!) It gets lots of comments and laughs. (And, sigh, yes there is a reminder to sign up for email list for special sales etc in it – and strangely lots of people have)
Ok – ole grumpy is going off to work….
I’ve collected emails from a “wish list” and “sign up for newsletter” list that I had in my booth. I also list things on Craigs list from time to time and have people email me if they want to be included on my list for future sales etc.
It currently doesn’t work very well for me because I have to manually grab them whenever I want to send something (I’m sure it’s operator error and not taking the time to figure out if there’s an easier way to do this). I try to send something at least 6 times a year, this usually has a short article about some hot decorating trends or colors, a coupon for a discount at my booth, and a seasonal recipe, maybe some photos of specific items we are promoting. I’ve had a small amount of people redeem the coupons. I’m sure I could be doing a better job with this promotion tool.
We use Constant Contact and collect emails through our Frequent Buyer Program. With every sale we ask the customer if they have our Frequent Buyer card. If they do not we have them sign up and encourage them to include their email address if they would like to receive special offers and be notified of special events at our store. We send about 3 emails per month – a monthly newsletter and 2 promotional type emails. We have noticed that 2-3 days after an email has been sent, the store is typically busier so we try to be consistent with sending our emails. Emails are an easy and inexpensive way to promote your store and a lot of our customers will forward our emails to friends, family and coworkers to spread our message even further.
[…] reach out from your hammock or cozy armchair this weekend and make a comment on this week’s Wacky Wednesday Giveaway. You might win, but even better, you’ll be participating in our wonderful resale […]
I use constant contact. I collect e-mail address when people consign & I also have a sign up notepad on my counter. I use it when ever I am having a sale or other event. I probally don’t use it as often as I should especially during busy times.
Ouch! We are less than six months new and haven’t begun an email campaign yet. I am collecting email address’ from our consignors already but I still need to collect them from our customers at the register.
I’ll be reading your responses to get some ideas!
Thanks Kate.
We use Constant Contact and I like it’s ease of use. We send about quarterly emails but I am moving to monthly. We get some response from the coupons but it’s a great reminder to consignors and a great way to promote sales and promos.
Getting in similar businesses emails is a great way to advertise and you can often exchange ads that way. It has a lot of ability to analyze too!
We use Constant Contact and love it. It has worked great for us for advertising an event. We usually get a pretty good open rate and a good response back.
We started collecting email addresses back in 2007 when we first opened and have continued to collect them as we grow. We have a big sign on our front counter that says
“Did you miss our last sale?, Join our email list!” Of course the first response is always, “When did I miss a sale?” We respond with “Every day is a sale in here, but occasionaly we have special shopping hours/days or special events that we like to invite our favorites too. Would you like to join so you can be invited to all these events?” Then they gladly give their email address.
We also collect emails during our special event days such as for contests and gift certificate drawings. We also ask our facebook friends to join our email list too.
As far as how often we send one…well, that varies. Sometimes 2 in one month or one every other month or maybe 2 in the same week. It just depends on what’s going on and how much time I have to do one. It is time consuming but well worth it.
We use iContact.
We email 2 or 3 times a month – sometimes a “newsletter’ – with 3-5 topics like pictures of new items, links to our “most wanted’ list, a coupon, recall info, or a contest, or guest coming.
sometimes, just a “postcard” with 1 thing, like a coupon.
We get a lot of positive feedback.
I have peeked at the “click info” but haven’t spent a lot of time analyzing it.
our computer software lets us collect email addresses from consignors & customers – export to excel, then I upload to website. We also collect them thru raffles, and our facebook page.
I just started collecting email addresses, so right now I dont send out emails. People are really hesitant about giving out their email address, even after I tell them I have specials for email clients only.
We use iContact. We collect e-mail addresses from several sources. We have them fill out their e-mail address on their contracts, on entry forms when we have contest, ask them to go to our website on our receipts to sign up. Put flyers in their bag letting them know about our newsletters.
We send out e-mails on the average about twice a month. Sometimes it is informational and other times we will sent out a reason to shop, a coupon a contest or something to that effect.
Timing is everything when sending out e-mails. E-mails that are send out in the middle of the week are opened more than those sent on the weekends.
We gear our e-mails more towards our customers.
We use Emailcontact for our email service. Its quick, easy and it has the format that I really like. We do a monthly newsletter. It goes out the first week of the month and is re-published on our website. I will occasionally send a reminder email about a large event but not very often.
I don’t like the every week emails as they start to seem to be ‘spam’. Our monthly newsletters seem to get about a 65-80% read rate and we stress to new people signing up to READ THE EMAIL if you want to know what is happening for the month.
In less than a year we are over 800 subscribers that have signed up in the store. We collect emails with just a simple form on the counter and a spot to sign up on the website.
I love the way we use our email list. Its concise, easy to read and is quickly informational with the WIIFM attitude.
We maintain a “wish list” with customer email addresses so that we can contact them if we get something in that they might like or that we know they are looking for.
We sell furniture, china, art, antiques, etc. and also hold in-home estate sales. For our estate sales we use estatesales.net. When we talk with customers in the store we always ask if they are on our email list for estate sales and 99% ask to be added to the list.
Admittedly, we communicate more with our consignors via email than customers… but we probably need to rethink this!
Jaime, for being so honest, I am sending you FREE our Mailing List Kit from TGtbT.com’s Products for the Professional Resaler
Just print it out, put it in a nice clipboard somewhere in your shop, attrach a pen (don'[t forget to print out your choice of the signs, too!) and you can start collecting email (and of course snail mail) addresses tomorrow morning, 10am. Done!
What you do with them next is up to you though! 😉
I don’t have or use email to connect with my customers.
I am ashamed and I know that its a great way to communicate. My excuse is plain and simple. I am lazy and haven’t gotton around to collecting the addresses!
There. My secret is out