Posted by Do you own an online business or is it a more traditional “Brick and Mortar” store? Either way, you need to be using email marketing for your business. It is important that you be in regular contact with your clients, whether it be to communicate a special promotion or simply to give them interesting information related to your market and product. Skeptical? Then have a look at these five reasons for using email marketing in your daily business activities.
1. Inexpensive: Email marketing is the least expensive marketing tool you will find. You have a wide selection of programs which you can install on your PC to manage the whole process or you can use web based services such as Aweber, iContact or ConstantContact – (I mention these three services as they are ones I personally use but there are plenty of other choices – just use Google to search for “Email Marketing software” and you’ll find quite a few options!)
2. Quick: It takes a simple matter of minutes to get as much information about your contacts, as it does to send information to them with email marketing. You want to ensure you never let an opportunity to ask for a client or potential client’s contact information slip away so that you can contact them again for promotions or new items. The worst they can say is no, but there is an equal chance they could say yes. If at first you don’t succeed, try again!
3. Higher return on your investment: By using what is known as a double opt-in method on your website or blog, you are able to collect subscribers to your mailing list. These people will have been to your site and are already aware of what you have to offer. You will therefore be narrowing your targeted group. Now you have the perfect opportunity to offer them pre-release sales on new products and/or services. As they have dealt with you in some capacity in the past, they are likely to do business with you again. It’s all about building trust!
4. Increasing sales with personalized email: Building a mailing list for your business is a simple yet effective way you can increase your sales. With the collection of subscribers’ names during the sign-up process or following a purchase, many email sender programs will insert these names into a mass email. Your e-mail message will start out addressing each customer personally, like “Hello [your customer’s name]”, and will arrive to each recipient personalized with their own name. You even have the option of inserting the name in the email subject line – a definate winner for increasing the open rate of the emails you send out.
5. Increasing traffic to your website is another way you can achieve a higher sales level. By using targeted email campaigns such as newsletters or sales announcements with a link to your website you have a better chance of obtaining a new customer, a sale or both. Use words and content that will attract the attention of your readers and keep them engaged, ensuring that they will read the whole mail. There is little point of going to the trouble of sending out a mass mailing if its not going to get read! I know this seems obvious but you’d be amazed at the rubbish that gets sent out…
As I mentioned earlier, email marketing is a very cost effective way to keep in contact with your clients and for obtaining more sales. Try setting up an account, you’ve got nothing to lose – ok maybe an hour or so – but the benefits will make it worth your while, I assure you! This opportunity is a powerful way to bring your business up a notch and really start to make the most of your existing customer base. Aweber, iContact and ConstantContact offer free trials – just click on the links to try them out!
Sign up today for a 15 day free trial. Try iContact now!