Using email for marketing is considered to be one of the most powerful strategies that is being used today. Email is extremely potent when it comes to generating interest and driving sales for any business. It’s no surprise 85% of US retailers believe email marketing to be one of the most effective customer acquisition tactics.
So what is email marketing?
Email marketing can be any interaction by email with a potential or existing customer.
Email marketing is widely used and there are many companies that only specialize in offering email marketing services. There are also many marketing tools and apps that are designed specifically to help small businesses and marketers maximize their email marketing efforts. I’m sure you’ve heard of many of them including Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor and many others.
Benefits Of Email Marketing For Small Business
Email marketing offers many rewards when used by small businesses. Take a look at some of the benefits of using email marketing.
- Builds credibility – Email marketing helps build trust with your customers. The more helpful information you send them, the more they learn to trust you and the more loyalty you gain.
- Helps to generate sales and traffic – When you send out emails to the right persons at the right time, you’ll get a response and see a spike in traffic. Most small businesses see the results whenever they send out emails.
- Responsiveness – when you have built trust and loyalty with your customers, your emails generate engagement and get the response.
- Strengthen the relationship between your business and customers – your emails enable you to keep in touch with customers. They become invested in your business, you are not out of sight.
- Constant communication – with emails, the lines of communication are constantly open to you and your customers.
- Brand recognition – by sending multiple emails over time, businesses build brand recognition and loyalty
First Steps In Email Marketing
Before you start sending out emails, there are some guidelines you need to follow and rules you have to observe to maximize your email marketing efforts.
These include:
- Respect people’s space by getting their permission – this would include getting permission on whether to include them in your mailing list, what kind of material/information they expect to get, and when and how often they would get said material.
- Ensure that the content of your email adds value and involves a call to action.
- Get whitelisted – This just means that you are added to the recipient’s friend list. This would ensure that your emails are not listed as spam or added to junk mail.
Conclusion
Email marketing is extremely effective in generating sales and driving traffic, but only if it’s done right. With all its benefits, email marketing can also be quite challenging. It’s also getting more and more competitive and reaching customers’ inboxes is getting harder every day. That is why it’s important to know the facts and be aware of the challenges facing you.
To learn more about email marketing, check out this infographic from WebsiteBuilder. It’s loaded with facts, stats and details to help you maximize the benefits of email marketing.
