The Retail Doctor's Blog

Imagine you’re at home with most of the lights off watching Game of Thrones. You’re enjoying a nice glass of red wine when you hear a knock on the door.

It’s been said it costs seven times as much to attract a new customer as it costs to retain an old one. This post will give you five ideas for how to use email to talk to your customers - those who have purchased from you  - and four others to get them to return more often.

Trends become opportunities. That’s what I heard when I was an invited guest at IBM’s massive Amplify conference in Tampa a few weeks ago. 

This is the first of a three-part blog with tips all retailers can use to build their marketing and omnichannel sales. 

Are you doing everything you can when you are marketing your small business?

If you still use Hotmail or other free email providers, I would suggest not.

Most people use a @Hotmail.com, @Yahoo.com, @AOL.com or similar account because it’s free and they’ve had it a long time.  

And while you may have had a happening mullet hairstyle in the 90’s, just because you got it then, doesn’t mean you should keep it now.

The idea for this post came from someone who was trying to download a piece of content from my site, and when it wouldn’t let her register because it was @hotmail.com account, she complained,  “What do you have against Hotmail?  Why should I incur yet another expense for my small business if I can get email for free?”

The four weeks prior to Christmas are when all hands are on deck in a retail store.

Results from all of your buying trips, all of your meetings with vendors, and from all of your early buys mean merchandise is going to be arriving several times a day.

All of your training – or lack thereof – will be on full display to thousands of new customers.

All of your personal skills at remaining calm, positive and encouraging will be needed to get the most out of this most wonderful time of the year.

All of your efforts to get people into your database, to like you on Facebook or to follow your updates now come to your rescue.