4 reasons to discover the value of email marketing
Whether you’re selling a product or service, working from a home office, or from a business, starting an email campaign can be incredibly beneficial.
Consistently sending out newsletters to your followers gives you the ability to develop a “Know, Like and Trust” relationship with them that will dramatically increase your brand visibility and market reach.
However, many business owners and entrepreneurs pass up this golden opportunity to build relationships and increase sales. You are one of them?
In this week’s blog, I’ll share some reasons why your small business should create an email marketing campaign and offer some tips to help you increase open rates.
What is the value of email marketing?
Let’s start with 4 reasons why your small business should send out a newsletter.
1. It reminds people that you are there. As much as you’d like to see it happen, your customers aren’t sitting at their computer daydreaming about your brand. Sending them relevant content can keep you top of mind with your target audience.
2. You can be truly personal. For example, greeting someone by their first name or even using data from their past purchases to suggest complementary products or services can be very beneficial. In fact, open rates for personalized emails average 18.8% compared to 13.1% without personalization.
3. Increases your website traffic. Links within your newsletter drive traffic to your website and social media platforms, which means increased brand awareness, leads, and sales.
4. It is profitable advertising. By using a service like Constant Contact to create newsletters, you can easily design a newsletter to send to thousands of people. From segmenting your audience to managing unlimited marketing campaigns and lists, you can do a lot within a platform like Constant Contact.
Check out our recommended newsletter providers for more information. And remember, while it may be tempting to use a newsletter template, hiring a professional web designer to create a unique one that reflects your brand is better for your clients.
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Read: How to Target Your Ideal Customers with Digital Newsletters
Regardless of the size of your business, email newsletters are an efficient way to reach current and potential customers and easily measure the results of your efforts.
But before you send out newsletters for digital marketing purposes, you need to make sure that you are targeting the right people with the right messages. Here are 5 ways to get started.
Read more on our website.
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4 Email Basics to Increase Open Rates
Your open rate is the percentage of the total number of subscribers who opened your newsletter.
While open rates vary by industry, statistics show that the average is about 17.80%. So if you want to get that number even higher, here are 4 things to do when creating an email marketing campaign:
1. Determine your goals.
Like any page on your website, your newsletter should serve a purpose. Here are some common goals for digital newsletters:
â— To drive traffic to your website
â— To increase brand awareness
â— To build your authority in your industry
â— To increase leads and/or sales
â— To promote a product, service or event
As I mentioned in my last blog, you need a compelling CTA. What do you want your visitors to do on a particular page? Every page on your site should have a call to action that encourages your potential customers to do something.
2. Create a compelling subject line.
The subject line is the first thing people see and is what encourages people to open your ezine. It should be short and punchy, telling your audience what to expect when they open the email.
Obviously, you can’t cover every topic within your newsletter in the subject line. Focus on the meatiest and most important message you want your target audience to receive.
3. Give people a reason to sign up.
With so many messages flooding your customers’ inboxes, it’s hard to miss the noise. Instead of just saying “sign up for my newsletter”, offer your website visitors a discount, free download of content or something else attractive.
It’s also essential to remember that the purpose of sending out your ezine is to inform, engage, and entertain your audience. It is NOT a place to push for a hard sell. If you do that, expect to see your newsletter subscribers leave.
4. Learn from your data.
It is not enough to send email newsletters with the content that to think your target audience wants to see. To ensure the value of email marketing, you need to measure your efforts.
You need to look at your ezine metrics to see:
â— Who is opening your emails
â— Which links people click on
â— Who unsubscribes
Once you have some numbers around your emails, you can better tailor them to meet the needs of your audience.
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There’s no arguing the value of email marketing! Sending out consistent newsletters is one of the most effective marketing tools for your business and can increase your brand visibility and sales in a big way.
If you don’t feel starting an email campaign is the best use of your time or energy, find a professional marketing team like us who can handle the technical, writing, and marketing components. It’s the ideal way to further increase open rates, leads, and sales!
For the success of your business,
Suzanne
