When you’re sending marketing emails, you don’t want to bombard your customers, but you do want to communicate with them regularly to ensure you’re top of mind. For 2016, commit to sending frequent emails. Send your emails at the same day and time each week. This way you’ll train your customers to look forward to your email.

While we recommend sending emails mid-week mornings, check out your reports to track your open and click-through rates. If you notice your open rates are dipping, dial back the intensity.

Just like with emails, you want to stay top of mind with your customers on social media as well. When you have a bunch of things to say, parcel them out on a calendar so you’re only sharing one thing a day. The worst thing you can do is to post five times in one day and then go dark.

Also, make sure you’re interacting. Social media is social. When someone takes the time to respond, be sure to reply, even if you just say a quick, “Thank You!”

It’s helpful to have a baseline of how many subscribers and Facebook fans you have, but what’s more important is how many people interact with you. Know about how many people on average are reached by your Facebook posts and how many comments you have. Keep track of your email open rates. Try to replicate the posts and emails that performed well to keep growing.

If you have a website, install Google Analytics and check in monthly to see where the traffic to your website is coming from. When you know your numbers, you’re able to be more intentional about where you spend your time.

In 2014, tweets with images received 18% more clicks and 150% more retweets while Facebook posts with photos had the most engagement with 87% of total interactions on posts with photos.

Make sure you have plenty of photos taken in both portrait and landscape to help illustrate your point. Use our SnapRetail app to upload photos directly from your phone. If you need some help taking professional photos with your phone, check out our Guide to Mobile Photo Basics.

Open houses are a great way to welcome new customers into your store to learn about you. Host an open house to share a unique part of your business with customers. For example: if you make stained glass, you can give a mini-lesson to help showcase your classes. If you scrapbook, host a Make & Take event.

Use a calendar to plan out your timeline so you know when to send out emails inviting customers and schedule social posts to reach out to prospective customers who aren’t on your email list. Need a hand with your timeline? Read our blog post Make Your Next Store Event One to Remember.

Bonus: Try something new.

Are you intimidated by Instagram? Twitter making you twitch? Not sure how to use coupons? It’s natural to be apprehensive of things that are new, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Seek out ways to educate yourself (may we suggest the SnapRetail Resource Center and our educational webinars) and make regular education a habit.