Small Business Email Marketing Made Simple

The Ultimate Guideto Email Marketing For Local Business

Use email marketing to inform customers of upcoming sales or special promotions. You can also use email to update customers on important news about your business that may interest them.

Even though you run a local business, you can still harness the power of email marketing to grow your business and communicate with your customers.

Why Email Marketing?These days, customers have come to expect online interactions with businesses — even local businesses. In fact, 70% of active Facebook users are connected to a local business. This statistic indicates that most customers want to keep tabs online with the local businesses than they frequent.

Don’t Be A SpammerInstead, it will provide value to your customer by giving them news they can use in the form of coupons or special events. More than half of customers will give you their email address, if you ask them. And the overwhelming majority of these customers (72%) do so to get special discounts.

Additionally, people love receiving email. Relevant email, that is. 72% of us check our email in bed. And, while 91% of all customers check email at least once a day, 77% of us check our email obsessively. As in, you’ve probably glanced over at your inbox once while reading this guide. It’s okay — so have I.

Deciding What To Send

The secret to getting customers to value your emails.Before you sit down to craft your email, think about what your customer wants. Once you know what it is, give it to them.

In one example, you use your email marketing to send a coupon to the customer. The customer gets a discount, you get revenue (minus the coupon), and the opportunity to upsell.

However, the same model of mutual benefits also works when you’re not giving a customer a discount. It may be that the purpose of your email may be to ask for reviews from your customers.

Instead of giving them a coupon in return (a questionable practice that may be viewed as unethical by some), you can simply appeal to the customer’s altruism, or sense of community.

How To Build An Email List

Buying an email list is just not a good business practice. When you buy an email list, you’re officially spam. Why? Because no one on that list knows who you are, and did not initiate a relationship with you. Jesse Mawhinney over at Hubspot gives eight compelling reasons why buying an email list can destroy the soul of your business.

When it comes to building a rich list of loyal customers, your best bet is to develop it organically in-house. That’s because the customers who visit you now are likely to visit you again, especially if you provide incentive in your email marketing.

In her video, local business expert Carmen Sognovi provides a simple strategy for getting customers to opt in to your email marketing. Carmen’s three step approach is: !1. Offer them something awesome; 2. Assume that they want what you’re offering; 3. Ask for the best email address.

Carmen’s sage advice will work like a charm, and definitely better than the ‘ole fishbowl of business cards strategy. !You can also capture emails on your website. Because 97% of all customers search out local businesses online, it’s a good idea to have a well developed website that provides basic information and an incentive to join your mailing list.

Copywriting is both a science and an art. Although I’m a big believer in hiring a professional copywriter for this job, sometimes budget dictates otherwise. If you’re attempting to write your own

copy, here are eight tips that you should stick to:

Writing CopyThat Converts

Research shows that goldfish have longer attention spans than humans. It’s a somber indicator that you shouldn’t prattle on and on. Get straight to the point in your emails. Lead with the most important news first.

Keep it short

Run-on sentences are confusing and hard to digest.Use Short Sentences

All email communication between you and your customer should have a clear purpose. If you don’t know what it is, the reader won’t either.

3. Always have a reason for writing

If you wouldn’t use the same words in your face-to-face interactions with that customer, don’t use it in your email.

4. Speak in a language that your customer understands

Customer love to read or hear about testimonials. Add these to your email as a way to persuade a customer.

5. Provide Social Proof

I know it’s about copywriting, but all text is no fun. Add images, or graphical elements that keep your email engaging.

6. Use visual interest

A bad subject line can send your email to the spam bin. In fact, 69% of people report an email as spam based on the subject line alone. The folks at GetResponse have some good advice for creating a compelling subject line.

7. Perfect on your subject line

A bad subject line can send your email to the spam bin. In fact, 69% of people report an email as spam based on the subject line alone. The folks at GetResponse have some good advice for creating a compelling subject line.

8. Include a Call-To-Action on every email

• Enjoy this Special Discount Tomorrow Only • New Arrivals This Week • 50% Off Email-Only Offer • Last Chance: Get 50% Off Today • Check Out Our Latest Flyer • Email Exclusive: • 5 Gift Ideas For Him • Here’s An Exclusive Offer For You • Share Your Stories For A Chance to Win! • Introducing Our Latest (Deal) • Tuesday Night is Family Night

Here are some examples of great subject lines to get you started:

Choosing the Perfect Template

Like the ones you send to your personal contacts. A business email should be formatted, almost like a one-page website. It should be aesthetically pleasing, engaging, and functional.

Never send out a bare-bones email

That means, the designed email template should be respond to each device that a customer views your email on. Avoid making customers pinch-to-zoom in order to read your emails by selecting a responsive template. !Here are a few templates to choose from:

Research shows that 48% of all emails are opened on mobile devices.

Choosing An Email ProviderThere are a lot of fantastic email marketing service providers out there, but our favorite is MailChimp. It’s easy to use and supports over 6 million users. We recommend MailChimp because its advanced analytics. You’ll be able to see the health of your email marketing campaign, who clicks on your links and who doesn’t, and you can see all of it in real-time.

How to Avoid Spam FiltersMailChimp wrote an engaging guide on how to avoid spam filters. !Follow email marketing best practices, such as never buying an email list. You want customers who want to be on your list. The people who find themselves on your list by surprise are extremely likely to hit the spam button.

Use email analytics, like the ones built-in to MailChimp, to determine the success of your campaign. !The averages vary, depending on industry, but here’s a few statistics to gauge by. Visit MarketingProfs for the longer list:

Tracking Your Success

Healthcare: Open Rate: 17.7% Click Through Rate: 4.8% Unsubscribe Rate: .11%

Business 2 Business: Open Rate: 18.7% Click Through Rate: 2.1% Unsubscribe Rate: .47%

Retail/ Wholesale: Open Rate: 14.0% Click Through Rate: 1.9% Unsubscribe Rate: .08%

Entertainment: Open Rate: 18.7% Click Through Rate: 2.1% Unsubscribe Rate: .47%

is a great way to share your products and services with your customers. Get started with these tips, and come back and tell us about

your

Email marketing

progress!

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