Part 2: Email Marketing - How to Market Your Cell Phone Repair Store

You’ve opened the doors to your virtual storefront and now eagerly await your first visitors. But, like your brick and mortar store, flipping the sign from Closed to Open won’t be enough to bring them in. It will take some work. It will take some marketing.

Your first instinct may be to promote your store like crazy. In the digital space, this could be through pay-per-click ads or SEO for higher search rankings. And these are effective strategies for their purposes. But, here’s why you should focus on your email marketing strategy before you think about site traffic.
Picture this:
You run a big ad campaign that draws in droves of customers. They come in, take a look around, inquire about your services and buy your products. It’s a big success.

But now what?
Sure, the campaign brought in new business and may continue to do so. But what about turning customers into repeat customers? What about the people who only came to look and ask questions? What about turning them into customers? How will you reach those who have shown interest in your products, but left without making a purchase?
Maybe it wasn’t the right offer for them. Maybe it wasn’t the right time. Maybe they just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. The point is: You have no way of re-engaging them when you do have the right offer. Yes, you could run another ad campaign. But it could demand a large monetary investment. What’s more, there’s no guarantee that the right people will ever see it.

Enter: email marketing.
Email marketing is how you capture every drop of attention. It’s how you build your customer base and grow your business.

The Power of Email

In a nutshell, email marketing is building a list. A list of people who have given you their permission to send them promotional materials.
By first having your email strategy in place, you make sure none of your site traffic goes to waste. And if that’s not a good enough reason, here’s a few more:

It’s Cheap and Has Insane ROI

Email marketing has an average of 3800% return on investment. Which means for every dollar you spend, you’ll get $38 back. Not too shabby.

It’s also relatively cheap to set up. Your main expenses will depend on which email marketing service you choose. And there are, of course, free options.

It Allows You To Send Personalized Messages

Access to a person’s inbox is a privilege. Once they’ve subscribed to your list, they are giving you a direct line of communication. They’ve signed up. You know they’re interested. They will be more receptive to your messages.
You’ll also be able to send them targeted emails instead of using a mass-media approach. And a personalized message will always be more successful than a one-size-fits-all.

It’s The Way Your Customers WANT to Receive Messages

Marketing messages are ubiquitous online. Consumers constantly needing to rifle through a deluge of unsolicited banners and ads. But email is where customers expect to receive information about products and services.
In fact, a study found that 72% of people prefer to receive promotional content through email.

You Own it

Unlike social media or SEO where you don’t own the platform i.e. Facebook, Twitter or Google — you do own your email list. You aren’t vulnerable to a sudden shift in company policy or algorithmic change.
You own your list. Your recipients have given you their express permission to do with it whatever you see fit. You are unbound by the whims and decisions of other businesses.

It Will Stand The Test of Time

Even the greatest social media platforms have fallen after a long run at the top. Imagine building a strong presence, only for it to fall into obscurity a few years later. Email, however, will last. It is a true long-term investment that will pay dividends for a long as you invest in it.

Sending Your First Email

Now that you understand the why. Let’s talk about the how. Here’s how to set up an email marketing strategy for your cell phone repair business.

Step 1: Build Your List

Email marketing is all about building your list. That is, your list of contacts that sign up to receive your emails.
How?
By providing opportunities for your site’s visitors to sign up. You can offer to keep visitors informed about your business by:

• Providing the option for customers to sign-up for an account at the checkout
• Creating opt-in pop-ups that incentivize new visitors to provide their email addresses
• Offering discounts on incomplete checkouts in exchange for email addresses
• Leveraging your business’ social media presences to collect subscribers
• Offering gated content that requires an email address to access
• Using loyalty programs to reward repeat customers and prompt email sign-up
• Promoting email as your primary communication for customer service and support

These strategies will grow your list as you start bringing in traffic to your site. It’s about optimizing your lead generation efforts from the get-go.

Step 2: Figuring Out What to Put in Your Emails

The beauty of email is that it is a one-to-one communication channel (or at least appears to be). Don’t squander this by treating it like mass-market advertising. Communicate with your recipients on a personal level.

When deciding on the content of your emails, you must put yourself into the minds of your customers. You need to deliver relevant messages based on their buying habits and intent. Ask yourself:

• Where will my customers be coming from?
• What do they do when they come to my site?
• Which products or services are the most popular?
• If people are abandoning their carts, why? And when are they doing it?
• How often do visitors return after purchasing a product or booking a repair service?

By answering questions, you will know which messages will resonate with your list. And the right messaging means more visitors and higher conversions.

Step 3: Develop your Email Marketing Flow

What is your email marketing flow? It is your plan of attack when it comes to which emails to send and when to send them. Here are a few to get you off the ground:

Confirmation Emails — Customer booked in a repair service? Don’t leave them in the dark wondering if they mis-clicked the submit button. Send an email thanking them for their business, complete with their service details.

Thank You Emails — If visitors have signed up to receive future emails from you, send a thank you. It’s quick, easy and capitalizes on an opportunity to start off on the right foot.

Welcome Emails — Someone has made the decision to accept marketing materials from you. Welcome them to the team. Show them you value their participation by providing value. It will cement the idea in their mind that they’ve made the right choice.

Your Order is on Its Way Emails — Keep your customers informed at each stage of the buying process. Received the order? Send an email. Dispatched the order? Send an email (with a tracking number). Order delivered? Send an email and offer support for any queries they may have about their new product.

Promotional Emails — Running a special offer and want to get the word out? Here’s where email marketing can really shine. Everyone on your list has opted-in. They want to hear from you. They want to know about your deals. They want to buy from you. Take advantage.

Step 4: Choose an Email Marketing Service

The right tool can save you from a lot of time and headaches down the road. Now look, you could operate your entire email marketing strategy manually. But realize this means manually sending every single email to every single recipient. It’s just not feasible.
An email marketing tool takes out all the grunt work. And like all things digital — there are many to choose from. There are also paid and free options. The paid options (usually) come with greater functionality and flexibility.

Here’s what to look for when deciding on a tool for your phone repair business:

Contact/Customer Management — You can’t build your list without collecting customer information. It’s not possible. Whether it’s at the point of sale, making a new repair ticket, customer profile creation or all of the above. Your tool should collect contact details at multiple points of the buying journey.
Flexible Automation/Notification Tools — Automation is the core of email marketing. Someone signs up? Bam! Automated welcome email. Someone books a repair? Bam! Automated confirmation email. At every point in the transaction, your tool should send a notification. So if they’ve made a purchase — it should send them a sales invoice. If you’ve completed a device repair — it should notify your customer it’s ready for pick up. It makes your life that much easier.
List Segmentation/CRM — This is being able to separate your email list into smaller lists. The ability to filter your customers by different properties can be invaluable. Why would you want this? Let’s say you’re running a limited-time promotion for iOS products. You could send different email variations to new and existing customers. Or by filtering your list, you could send your promotion only to known iPhone customers. More personalized = more business.
User-Friendly Content Tools — You want to be able to create your email in any way you see fit. Want images? Want to be able to structure the format of the page? Want your email to play the Happy Birthday song when it’s opened? Your email tool should provide the flexibility and ease-of-use to let you do it.
Detailed Reporting — Data is the backbone of marketing. To optimize your future emails, you need to know what did and didn’t work in the past. Your email tool should provide you with all this information. And provide it in an easy-to-understand and aesthetically-pleasing way.

Step 5: Optimize

The final step comes after you’ve sent a few marketing emails. Your email tool should have a treasure trove of data for you to inspect and mine. Open rates, bounce rates, click-through rates, unsubscribes and conversions rates. They’re all data points you can use to optimize your future campaigns.
Analyzing and refining your emails is an essential step in your email marketing. It is one of the driving forces behind email marketing’s ridiculous ROI. Put in the time to optimize your emails and you will reap the rewards.

Email is the Present and the Future

Email is a powerful tool for marketing your business. It is a direct link between you and your customers.
Putting your strategy in place after setting up your site is ideal. However, if you are a longstanding business looking to grow — email is still the way to go. It’s not about how many visitors come into the store. It’s about how much of their attention you can capture. And how much of that attention you can convert. Email helps you do it all.

I know what you’re thinking — it’s more work. Yes, it is. But it will help grow your business. And with the hordes of email marketing tools out there, you’re sure to find one that can bear the brunt of the workload. So whether you run a brick and mortar store or a mobile repair service,
Remember:
Email marketing is an investment. An investment that yields the highest ROI of any digital marketing channel. Period.