In the age of social media, pay-per-click advertising, ads on YouTube, and remarketing, it’s easy to forget about the advantages of email marketing.

Yes, we all have email in-boxes crammed with junk. But most people still look forward to checking their in-boxes and they check them daily. Many regularly check even their junk mail. 

When your email campaign lands in a prospect’s in-box, he will check the sender and, at the very least, glance at the subject line before hitting the trash button.

This gives you a chance to capture his or her attention. And compared to other online methods of advertising, email marketing is inexpensive. 

Plus email marketing is flexible. You can create an elaborate campaign with a series of emails, or you can have a singular email as a lead to a landing page. You can even split test emails to see which ones are more effective. 

Or you can simply send out emails to say hello and stay in touch. 

When you do a stay-in-touch email, try to say something personal. It could be about yourself, your business, or something happy about a staffer. Or you could chat about something cool going on in the community, like the good works of a charity your store sponsors.

A stay-in-touch email — where you’ve made an effort to share something of value or a  personal tidbit — folks will open more often and even look forward to them.

Remember, your goal doesn’t always have to be for a sale. It can simply be to keep you front and center for when your customer does need your product.

Easy Web Tip 295: For stores competing with online retailers and big box stores, it’s important to keep that personal connection with your customer base. Let email help you.