Case Study: Brick-and-Mortar Business Takes Advantage of Email Marketing

For the past few months, we’ve been working with a local business that has a brick-and-mortar store and an online presence. Traditionally, this client has made nearly all its sales in-store, so our goal was to help the business leverage email-marketing and increase online sales during the time of year when foot traffic is slower in stores.

The Email Marketing Approach

Since June, we’ve set up the client’s automated email sequences and have been sending out one newsletter per week to their email list of about 4,400 subscribers. While the client had an email list before we started working together, they weren’t actually sending out any emails. Because of this, we focused on re-engaging their email list over the past several months, removing unengaged subscribers, and growing their list with new and engaged subscribers.

Over the course of 6 months, we’ve maintained an average open rate of 28% and a CTR of 2.7%. While these numbers meet (and exceed) the industry average, it’s our goal to consistently see these data points increase in 2023. Due to the fact that their email list of approximate 4K subscribers didn’t receive email communication from the brand–some for up to two years–it’s expected to see lower engagement rates at the beginning. This just goes to show how important it is to show up consistently for your email list! We’ve been hard at work to re-engage subscribers, clean up their list, and grow their subscriber base with new and interested customers.

The Data

Since beginning regular newsletters in June and launching automated sequences in October, the client has generated over $14,600 in total revenue through email marketing. During that time period, they’ve also added 200+ fully engaged subscribers to their list.

Newsletters alone have generated more than $10K, and the sales per newsletter have been steadily increasing as we continue to remove unengaged subscribers and replace them with customers who are eager to be on the list.

The Black Friday Sale

Black Friday is always a HUGE deal for product-based businesses, and it was no exception for this client!

To promote their products, they offered 20% off everything, plus an extra 20% off sale items. Email subscribers got access to this discount a full day early via a discount code. This is exactly the kind of exclusive deal we love to see in email marketing. After sharing this special promo on Instagram, the client was able to get plenty of new subscribers.

The Thursday before Black Friday, we sent just ONE email announcing an early-bird sale to all 4,400 subscribers. The email performed incredibly well, getting a 41% open rate and a 4% CTR–and generating $4,300 in sales!

The Impact of Email Marketing

Some brick and mortar businesses hesitate to invest in email marketing since they generate the majority of their sales from in-store purchases. However, email marketing will never detract from in-person sales! It’s another sales level to pull to increase the overall revenue of the business.  Email marketing helps you stay in touch with your audience, promote and sell your products to people who might find it more convenient to shop online, and gives you a source of passive income once you’ve set up your email sequences.

And of course, email marketing only gets better and more lucrative over time. Email marketing is a long-term marketing strategy. While this business has seen great immediate results from working together, the future will only get brighter! After spending several more months nurturing their subscribers, building a bigger and more engaged audience, and showing their followers all of the exclusive benefits of being on their email list, we can’t wait to see what Black Friday looks like for this client next year.