As a convenience store owner, you don't have the time or money to give for expensive print ads, and definitely not enough of a profit margin to even consider using ads in other forms of media like TV. But that doesn't mean you can't advertise to maximize sales. Email marketing is a cost effective way to bring your customers back to your store and have them there more often. In comparison to other forms of advertising, email marketing costs but a fraction. Print ads can run you anywhere from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands. This isn't an option for your store. Email marketing can cost as little as $10 for a thousand emails.

But who has the time for this? Your store is open early in the mornings and late at night to accommodate your customers. Plus, you need your free time to spend with the family.

Email marketing is anything but time consuming.

Email marketing only requires only a few minutes of your time, and what you get are professionally designed advertising templates sent directly to your customers.

So here's how you start. First, you have to collect a list of emails. There are a number of ways to do this, but one effective way is to collect business cards: At the cash register, you can place a fish bowl (or some other receptacle) with a sign telling customers to drop off their business cards so that they can receive discounts by email. What customers will do is put their business cards in the bowl with an email to contact them. Now you have the first few contacts for you email campaign.

The next step is to sign up for an email marketing account, create your first email marketing campaign and send it out to the people on your list. Signing up is easy, as most email marketing solutions are user-friendly.

Creating your campaign is an easy process also. Email marketing provides you with easy-to-use templates. All you have to do is type your text in (or copy and paste it), and add your own images.

Once your email marketing campaign is finished and sent out, you can track which of your customers were interested in your promotions. Plus, by adding a 'forward to friend' button, you can also extend your mailing list, and maximize your potential to gain more customers.

Things to keep in mind when filling in your email marketing templates: Do not use too much bolding, italics, and capital lettering in the body or the subject line of your email. Also, try not to put too many product images without adding content to support the images. Bolding, italics, capitalization, and a high image to text ratio, are all criteria that the spam filters detect. If you overuse them, your email will not land into your subscribers' inbox, but rather into their spam/junk box.

By using email marketing, your convenience store will have a greater customer return rate, which will drive up your sales. Email marketing can provide you with this added business in a very reasonable and time-sensitive manner. It can maximize your store's potential, save your money, and give you the opportunity to spend quality time with your family. Now that sounds like a sweet deal!