Email marketing is one of the key pillars of modern marketing tactics, and you’ve probably worked with them before in some way or another. Either you’ve been on the receiving end or you’ve been creating your own mailing lists.
Fun fact that you might not know, though: 91% of adults like to receive promotional emails from companies they respect and work with. That’s about as high an approval rating as you can get when it comes to marketing tactics. (Source)
As someone who's passionate about the power of marketing tools for small businesses, in today’s post, I’m going to break down some of the reasons you should be capitalizing on the power of email marketing for your business!
Ready to dive in? Here are some no nonsense, practical reasons why email lists are worth your time.
Generate Leads
One of the best things about email lists is that you can create a timely, inexpensive messaging point that gets to a potential customer right when it needs to, which will result in more leads coming into your funnel.
Say you’ve got a holiday special going on: send the email with information out and suddenly you’re going to get actual, real live people on the phone, especially if you back it up with a strong call to action.
Create Brand Awareness
One of the coolest things about email marketing is the additional points of contact you get with your customers and potential customers.
Every time you email someone on your list, you put your brand and your message in front of that person. Do this a few times, and you’ll have done something nearly impossible: you’ll achieve brand visibility in a sea of product noise.
No small feat, trust me.
Learn Your Best Messaging Practices
An important aspect of email marketing is the data aspect.
Changing up subject lines, email copy, and design styles will result in different open rates that tell you about your clients. Are they morning people? Do they like clean, modern styles or jazzy, colorful ones?
The data tells the story- just be sure that you’re only changing one thing at a time and that you analyze how you perform thorough A/B testing your campaigns!
Reach Contacts Where They Like To Be Reached
Email’s a fact of life, and we all have to check it. What the consumer gets to control is where they open their emails. Maybe they do it at a computer, or on their phone, but your email will get seen wherever your clients like to see it.
Email marketing isn’t like a radio ad or a TV- customers expect to see it and there isn’t as much resistance.
Build Credibility
Thoughtful, well-written email copy, even if it’s very simple, sends a clear message to your customers: we’re professionals and we take this seriously.
Most companies have email lists, so small businesses that have their own give off the impression of professionalism and care. Who doesn’t like looking nice?
Cut Costs
As far as marketing goes, email marketing can be done for very little money. If your email list is very small, you can use the free versions of sites like Constant Contact or MailChimp, and the paid versions are reasonable for what they are. All you need is the message in the email, a few minutes to get the formatting right, and you’re off to the races.
Start a Conversation
The nice thing about email is that your customers can reply directly.
This can result in leads, but it can also result in productive conversations that build an emotional engagement with your brand. Social media isn’t the only platform you can use to talk to your customers and prospects!
Emails are also easy to forward, which can grow your client list.
Save Some Time
Email campaigns are easy to set up ahead of time if you’re using software to do it, so you can bang out a few campaigns in an afternoon, schedule them, and let it sit! You won’t have to schedule a lot of time into getting a good return.
To sum it up: email marketing is a cheap, effective way to build loyalty and engagement with your current customers and your potential customers, and it doesn’t take a lot of time to set up.
Local businesses can and should send marketing emails out, and you’ll start to see the results!
