They aren’t paying attention, Part #1, talks about quick little messages to your clientele that go right over their heads or through their minds with no lasting impression of your business.

Go ahead, read that first. I’ll wait….

Oh, you’re back? Do I have your attention? Okay…

They aren’t paying attention Part 2: Make sure they know who you ARE.

Many broadcast emails I receive from consignment, resale, and thrift shops aren’t instantly identifiable. They either bury their shop name and logo deep in the email, forget it altogether, or the shop’s identity, for some reason, is not immediately apparent.

Some don’t even tell me what shop they’re talking about, and I have to look at the “from” email address…if I care enough to do so.

That’s crazy. Nobody but your mother (and probably not she) will devote that much attention to an email from you

What you need to include in an email, if you want the message to mean anything:

• Your shop name. In the subject line, the from-address, the header and the last sentence of the message. And anywhere else you can fit it without being totally obnoxious.
• Your logo.
• A link to your web site’s home page. Preferably several times: let your graphic logo be a link, use the shop name in the text as a link, include a “see our web site” button that’s a link.
• Another link to more info or for details, on another web site page (perhaps your “events” page? Your photo gallery?) or on your blog.

Something that is absolutely vital and which 99% of emails from resalers doesn’t include:

An identifying photo of your shop. What it looks like when someone’s approaching. Why? Because we are visual creatures, and seeing a photo or sketch of your store front remains in our memories long after the details of the message is gone. And after all, you want them to remember your shop.

(And you sure don’t want them thinking the message is from Cluttered Closet if you’re Cozy Cupboard. Make sure they know it’s you, and not your competition.)