A Little Detail When Emailing Stores That Makes A Big Difference

Time after time we have heard stockists say that the biggest factor in determining if they are going to order from a new maker is if they feel that the product is right for them. The sooner you are able to help them see the beauty of what you have made, the better -- and since some of them won’t make it to your website, you need to help them out.

One simple way to do that? Add small images to your outreach emails to stores. 

Since the number of people who click a link in any email is so much lower than the number that open the email, adding 2 or 3 small images to your email is a great way for the store owner to get a quick glance at your work.

What you make can speak for itself.  A simple image can communicate that your work is a good fit for the store without you having to say so explicitly. This often works well because so many store owners understand themselves to be curators and sometimes don’t like being told what is good for their store.

People often say that no one reads on the internet and for makers who are emailing new stockists every week to grow their business that can be a problem.  A line sheet and website that tell your company’s story in a visually compelling way is one way to make that work to your advantage.

Of course your whole email needs to be well crafted and about how good of a fit your work is for their shop! The trick here is that by having a few great photos, you lead with that (even though it’s at the bottom people will glance down at them) and if they like what they see they can dive into your email and click through to your line sheet or website.

 

A few tips (to not anger your prospective customers) while doing this:

  1. We usually suggest attaching the images or embedding them at the bottom of the email, rather than weaving them into the body of the text. This allows it to be scannable and not visually broken up. Also, since you’re sending personal emails, you don’t want them to look so professional or overly structured that it looks like a mass email when it’s actually not.

  2. Use relatively small images; anything big can slow their email from loading. (A clear photo can be reduced to 15-25 KB and still look beautiful.)

  3. Test your emails with a friend or your personal address and make sure the images look good when sent.

  4. Make sure that the stockist will be able to access them, i.e. they’re not in an unshared Google Drive folder. #partyfoul

 

Try this out the next time you email a round of stores and let us know how it goes! And if you would like some feedback on your email feel free to forward it to us at [email protected]!

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