Top 10 Small Business Marketing Mistakes - #10 Email Marketing Email Marketing and the Importance of

Top 10 Small Business Marketing Mistakes - #10 Email Marketing Email Marketing and the Importance of Collecting Email Addresses Email marketing, though often overlooked by many small businesses, is actually one of the more effective ways to get the word out about your company and its products or services. Email marketing when used properly can be effective marketing to both your current and past clientele – but as importantly to potential new clients. From activating your subscribers to nurturing leads, you can engage in a customer-centric strategy that drives them back to your brand time and time again. And, since it’s so cost-effective, you can spend more money on advertising overall and build up your client base faster than ever before through the use of social media and paid advertising. By creating content that is useful to your audience, helpful and relevant to their needs, you’ll build a strong rapport with your customers which will increase your retention rate along with word of mouth business.

Why Use Email Marketing and how does it work?

If you are a business owner who is looking to generate leads, build your brand, and increase ROI through marketing campaigns, then email marketing should be at or near top of your list. It’s one of the best ways to reach your audience on a regular basis, save money over time, and get more out of your current client base. You can use email lists to sell products directly, promote new offerings, provide company updates, drive traffic back to your website, notify customers about sales and promotions. If done correctly, an effective email campaign will reap rewards that far exceed the costs incurred in generating new leads or contacts for your business.

There are many strategies used to ensure an effective email marketing campaign like collecting emails.

The first step is identifying your ideal client. Once you’ve created a profile for your ideal client, begin by creating a landing page on your website specifically for those people. Make sure that anyone who visits that page can opt-in easily with their contact information (email address, phone number). Include some compelling copy about why they should sign up. Make it simple with no more than two steps involved in getting them to sign up. Use popups if you need to capture more information about your visitor so they can qualify before allowing them to sign up with you.

Important rules to follow when creating your email list that can make or break your email marketing campaigns There are important rules you should follow and implement from day one of building your email marketing list. If you have already developed an email list we highly recommend spending time going through your current list to modify it as much as possible. The amount of time doing that will be well worth it financially for you in the long term. Here are 4 rules you should follow: 1. Organize your list in as much detail as possible. Include name, email address, location, service/product your business provided along with any other details that will allow you in the future to specifically target that user in future email blasts. As an example, if that person purchased a certain product and a better one comes out in the future, knowing this information will allow you to specifically market that new product to that client, which will heavily increase your chances of conversion. This works for services, products etc.

2. Maintain your email list. It is important that you maintain it. Once someone becomes a paying client they should be switched from a potential client email list to a current client email list. The worst thing you can do is send out a "new client" promotion offering a heavily discounted price to a client that

has been paying full rate. It will cost your business money one way or the other. Segmenting your email list so that you can specifically market products or services to specific markets within your list increases your conversion rates dramatically.

3. Keep demographic information on your list. It is important to keep track of age, gender, location, how they found you etc. If for example you are offering a new service that specifically appeals primarily to men between 40-55 years old you should be specifically targeting these people with an email about the new service. These are your highest value clients for that new offering so it makes sense to spend more time marketing directly to them with a certain and specific special offer.

4. Have an automatic response when someone fills out your sign up form. Once someone fills out your sign up form you should have an automated email go out letting them know when/if they will hear back from you or when their information will be added. You can also thank them for signing up in advance which will lead to better conversions in the future when someone lands on your sales page since at that point there will already be that pre-conversion connection through email even if it’s just for that one time visit.

5. Automation. It is important you take advantage of all the automation that is now available with email services. Those companies have invested significant resources to streamline the process which makes your life easier and your marketing more effective. It might take a little extra time to learn the “new way” of doing things, but it will save you significant time once you know it – and increase the conversion rate of your email marketing.

The most effective ways to use the email list to market your business The email list is an often forgotten but immensely powerful tool that can be used to market your business. It’s worth considering how you are currently using it to make sure you are getting full value from it. Here are a few effective ideas to make your email marketing more successful.

1. Email Newsletters. An email newsletter gives you regular contact with your customers or users to keep them up-to-date on what’s happening in your business. They also provide an opportunity for you to promote new products, campaigns, services and events. These are typically broad and give general updates on your company and potentially new services or specials. However, it is important to segment your marketing lists as well and send newsletters or promotional emails to those specific groups also.

Many companies no longer have one giant “general” email list – meaning that all of their lists are segmented in certain categories. This is vital to successful email marketing long term.

2. Targeted Advertising. Facebook and other platforms allow you to upload a customer list of emails and target those specific people with specific advertisements. This gives you the ability to market specifically through social media to people that showed interest in your business. This is one reason you have to have an updated email list - you want to be sure you are marketing the right product or service to the right group. As an example, if you have clients that showed interest months ago but you have not heard from – this is a cheap and effective way to remind them you are there.

3. Do not send too many emails. It is important to not send too many emails to your newsletter list or marketing list because people will unsubscribe which is the last thing you want. You need to find the fine line of not over marketing your business to the point of losing potential business. The answer of how much is too much is really on a business to business basis. But tracking is important – it is common to lose subscribers here and there – but if you start seeing a mass exodus then this may be one of the factors.

4. Send Birthday Emails. You can send out birthday emails to everyone on your list and remind them of how wonderful they are and thank them for being a loyal customer. This type of email will ensure you stay top-of-mind with potential clients or customers who may not have purchased from you in some time. It also will impress them that you remember. Another reason you need to keep as much information on the list as possible.

5. Have a call to action in your marketing. A Call To Action (CTA) should be included at all times within your email campaign. If there is no call to action, then what is it you want them to do after reading your email? A CTA is the most effective way to get someone to take immediate action or steps. This might be clicking a link, signing up for a list, buying a product, or anything else. CTAs are important because they help focus your email recipients' minds on what they need to do next. There’s a reason you see CTAs in emails everywhere, especially in email marketing campaigns. They’re one of the most effective ways to get someone to take immediate action.

How to grow your email list?

Here are 5 ideas to grow your marketing list.

1. Have a newsletter sign up throughout your website. This can be a simple form that users fill out to subscribe to your mailing list or an actual email collection box at checkout or on any other page on your site where you want visitors to opt in for future offers. Surprisingly, many businesses do not have this on their website.

2. Promote your newsletter specials on social media to gather email addresses. Facebook offers an excellent way to collect emails, as well as Twitter and Instagram, both of which allow you to build a list through advertising campaigns (which is super affordable). You can also use social media to post interesting and relevant content, people will be more likely to be interested in your business and follow it. Occasionally you can promote the benefits of signing up for your email newsletter like more detailed information, pricing specials, events and more.

3. Use pop-up forms. Pop up forms if used correctly can assist. The most effective type is an exit pop up form. This is used for when people move their mouse toward the back button or “x” on your website in order to exit. A form then pops up saying something like “don’t leave yet” and a few reasons to join your business newsletter. This can be effective to gather information prior to them leaving your website.

4. Create a landing page to promote your newsletters and offer a discount or coupon code in exchange for an email address. This is effective and an “old school” marketing tactic that does work. Offer a benefit for an action. If the offer is right and if they have potential interest in your company, then the chances are high they will take a few seconds to sign up for your newsletter and special offer.

5. Have a share with friend function on your newsletters. This makes it easy for them to send to their friends and family so that they can take advantage of the same offer. This will get you in front of more people and increase your word of mouth business.

Review the statistics on every email marketing piece sent Once you send out your email, the email marketing company you use will have statistics on who opened the emails, where they clicked along with a wealth of other information. This is vital because it will tell you what is and what is not working. We recommend reviewing the statistics two days after you have

sent the email because it will allow you to get a full grasp of all the openings. This is also effective in learning when to send emails, what times most people open, what days are best to send and so on.

Follow the statistics - they will tell you the best time to market your business and the information that is and is not working.

If you need assistance with email marketing campaigns SayWhat Consulting can help you. Visit www.saywt.com or contact us here.