Collecting customer's e-mail addresses: how and why?

Garden Centres are using e-mail marketing more & more, realising that it's more effective, cheaper and greener than sending physical letters by post. But how do they build up a decent database of customer email addresses?

Firstly, they start with the company website, which should be attractive enough for customers to have confidence to sign up to a newsletter, ideally promoted near the top of the home page. If the website is outdated, advertising last months promotions (or even older!) it's unlikely to encourage customers to sign up for a newsletter. Giving an email address is not just a signup process - it's about brand building. If your customers sign up, they are trusting you to deliver a good, regular product, and that you won't abuse it by selling it on, or by sitting on it and not sending regular newsletters. They also expect to benefit from the information they will receive, through useful gardening information, special offers, invitations etc.

They want to feel they receive something special – and if they do, they are highly likely to act upon it. Your customers are trusting you – all you need to do is deliver a really good service to them, perhaps giving them an exclusive advantage to thank them for trusting you with their email address – this will build enormous goodwill with that customer.

Apart from online sign-ups, there is plenty of opportunity to sign up customers in-store. You can have a sign-up list at the checkouts, with your sales staff encouraging it to be filled in – or give them a flyer to show them what they get, and ask them to go online when they get home to sign up. Whatever you do, with e-mail marketing, there are enormous cost savings to be had, whilst increasing the amount of times you can communicate with customers.

As you develop you can establish very useful information from customers, and use that as part of your marketing mix. By finding out who are pet owners, who has a pond, a lawn, a balcony etc, you can target products to specific customers, maximizing sales opportunities whilst showing yourself to be a leading Garden Centre in your area. Email is by far the cheapest and most effective way to communicate with your customers. The possibilities are endless if you make sure your website and e-marketing is as good as your business!