As a small business owner, I’m always looking for ideas on how to improve my service and save money. It wasn’t until I received an email from a company promoting a service that would buy back my old video games that I asked myself why I wasn’t using this marketing method. Needless to say, I used this service to sell video games, which prompted me to look into how I could use email marketing on my own terms to grow my business.
More than anything, I wanted to know–if that service could hook me as a customer with a simple email–how effective can email marketing be overall? I also wanted to find out what advantages it held for small business owners like me. Here’s what I found.
1. It’s effective. Email marketing is officially considered a ‘traditional’ form of outreach–older than social media advertising, commercial text messaging and other new tech ways of marketing. However, it still hasn’t lost its bite. In fact, a 2012 study released by Exact Target revealed that a solid two-thirds of Americans have made purchasing decisions influenced by an email.
2. It feels personal. If you’re looking for a way to build a strong relationship with consumers, nothing keeps them more loyal than getting messages from you in their inbox. Customers love getting newsletter updates, as well as exclusive promotional offers, and these marketing strategies successfully keep your brand on their minds. But most of all, email marketing gives you a chance to display your company’s ‘X’ factor–it’s unique personality–in hopes that it will click with some of your customers.
3. It’s more precise. There may not be a more exact way to target the kind of consumer you want than email marketing. While other marketing methods like broadcast commercials and printed ads are seen by a wide audience, email marketing allows you to build lists based on certain traits that your most loyal consumers are likely to possess, so that you can not only target your audience but also your message.
4. It’s fast! The turnaround for some marketing campaigns takes months, but sending out an email blast can get your results instantly. This benefits you as a small business because you can let your customers know about new products and services immediately after implementing them; and it works for your consumers because they don’t have to wait to get the latest information from you.
5. It’s inexpensive. This is the benefit that will appeal most to small business owners, who are constantly searching for ways to provide quality service on a small-scale budget. Using email in lieu of paper mailings cuts costs significantly, especially when you consider postage. Electronic mailings also make fixing last-minute typos or wrong information easier.