You have to promote the business, but with book shops the trick is to attract attention. Book shops are in an industry based on voluntary buying, and it's more important that people know where to shop, than what to buy.
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You have some choices in how you promote your book shop. There are a few standard approaches to marketing:
Thanks to the internet, the school books approach is on the way out, and it has to be said that only pushing one line of stock isn't always the best method of promoting your business. The things people really need to know about your shop are: |
That's easy enough to do in a letter, but because you're a generalist business, spraying promotional materials around can be expensive and useless. The best approach is an in store promotion. You give out your promotional materials with each purchase.
This has the added advantage that you can do a generic letter, a few at a time, and just modify it when you have new materials to advertise.
The example here is a local bookseller who wants to move some stock as special offers. This is written something like a newsletter, current information. There's no need to mass produce these letters, they can be used to target customers on a needs basis.
Example:
Business letterhead
No addressee
Contacts
Dear Customer
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