With increased emphasis on social media as a key marketing tool for small business owners, many people are overlooking one of the most effective marketing techniques: Good old Email.
While small businesses should indeed embrace social media as an effective promotional platform, email takes the cake when it comes to generating Return On Investment, despite predictions that it would be replaced or fade away.
While Email Marketing might seem a bit outdated, it brings in $44.25 for every $1 spent, according to Exact Target. This number puts Email well above other marketing methods in terms of money for value.
A great way to acquire new customers, drive traffic, increase sales and strengthen customer engagement, Email Marketing is something every small business owner should consider when looking to expand their company and grow sales.
If you’re still wondering whether email marketing is right for your business, we’ve put together a list of 7 reasons why you should embrace this undervalued marketing tactic.
1. It Works
Email might be one of the older methods of marketing out there, but there’s a good reason for this:
Quite simply, it works.
According to a study by Exact Target, 66% of people have bought something as a result of receiving a marketing message via email. That’s more than 3 times that of Facebook (20%), and more than 4 times (16%) that of text.
While newer modes of marketing are indeed gaining popularity, the simplicity and reliability of Email performance makes it an invaluable technique for any small business owner’s marketing tool kit.
2. Increases Sales
Email allows you to provide your subscribers with regularly updated content regarding your business. This means you can easily let them know about new products and services you’re offering and tell them when you’re running sales and promotions. After all, who doesn’t love a sale?
Promotional Emails are the perfect way to communicate new information to subscribers and pique their interest in purchasing your product or hiring your services.
By including links to a sale or new product in your email, you’re giving your subscribers a way in which to purchase the product quickly and easily. Think about it like holding open the front door of your shop for them!
3. You Don’t Need to Be a Marketing Guru
One of the best aspect of Email Marketing is that you don’t need to be a marketing buff to establish an effective marketing campaign for your business. Email templates are easy to create, and then it’s simply a matter of entering in the desired content and clicking send to your email list.
In saying this, it does pay to do a bit of research about the best way to utilise Email Marketing techniques in order to maximise your results, but with so much information readily available, this should be easy to find.
4. Allows you to Grow and Nurture your Customer Relationships
Your relationship with your customers should be thought of much like the face-to-face relationships you have in your everyday life. In order to have a positive, valuable relationship with someone, you can’t be taking from them all the time – you need to give a little something in return.
Consider this: Companies using Email to nurture their subscribers generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost.
Whether you’re courting new customers or engaging with loyal members, emails are one of the best ways to strengthen customer relationships, as it allows you to add value to their lives.
Emails that can help do this are referred to as Relational Emails and can include newsletters, referral requests, surveys and emails containing valuable blog content, free E-books or coupons.
5. Keeps you in the Forefront of Their Mind
These days, people have all kinds of advertising and promotions flying at them from every angle. This can make it tricky for a small business to find a way to cement themselves in the mind of potential customers.
Email marketing offers an effective and cost-effective way to do just this. Even just touching base with your subscribers 2-3 times a week can prove hugely beneficial in making you memorable, especially if you are correctly nurturing the relationship by providing them with free, valuable and interesting content.
By staying in touch with your email list on a regular basis, you’re increasing your chances of being remembered by your subscriber when they require a product or service you offer.
6. Increases Engagement
Maintaining customer engagement with your business and brand is crucial for any business, great or small. When a customer is engaged, they are likely to become a repeat buyer, increasing your chances of more sales.
Sending Email Campaigns allows you to regularly reach out to customers and provide them with helpful, engaging content. This will remind them why they value having you in their inbox and means they’re likely to turn to you when in need of a product you offer.
Think about an email like a human-to-human interaction. Just like bumping into a friend on the street can lead to meeting up for a coffee later, an email works the same way. The email is the spontaneous meeting, and a purchase is the result.
7. Helps Give Your Business a Personality
While it’s true other methods of marketing, such as social media and blogs, help develop your businesses character and personality, email performs this job just as well.
Emails allow you to establish an almost conversation-like rapport with your subscribers. Each email can be created to reinforce your branding and humanise your business.
You can choose to be chatty, funny, humorous, more informative or authoritative. Either way, this is a simple way of giving a human voice to your business.
Emails also allow you to create a personalised customer experience. By targeting segments of your email list with emails suited to their interests, or by using their first name in emails, you can increase your likability and their trust in your brand.
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Far from being an outdated method of marketing, Emails are still one of the best and most effective ways for small business to promote their services. A well-crafted email strengthens your relationship with customers, can increase sales, engages your subscribers and helps to humanise your business.