Considering how cost-effective email marketing is, we’re often surprised that more business owners don’t use it. Common explanations we hear range from “It’s too confusing to set up” to “I don’t have the time to do it consistently” to “it won’t work for my market.”
And while it’s true that email marketing won’t work for everyone, it is our opinion that email marketing is a potentially valuable element of almost every business’s marketing mix. Here are five reasons why we believe this is the case:
A “Second Chance” to Convert Website Traffic
Most visitors to your website won’t convert into sales or even leads on their first visit. However, if they’re even marginally interested in your products or services, they are often willing to learn more. Signing them up to your email database gives you the opportunity to open up a slower-paced dialogue that may eventually turn them into a customer.
Research indicates that the average customer takes up to nine visits to a store, website or business before they decide to make a purchase. This includes exposure to advertising, even traditional television advertisements, so it can be hard to hook a customer immediately. Email marketing gives you the opportunity to “set the hook.”
Improve Per-Customer Value Through Upselling
If you’ve been paying attention to these articles, you know that generating more sales to existing customers, rather than looking for new ones, is one of the most effective ways to boost income. Email marketing gives you an automated, non-intrusive way to do this. If you have customers that aren’t aware of everything you offer, you’re literally leaving money on the table. Email marketing is a great way to ensure that your customers know what you can do for them.
Generate Feedback
For small businesses that don’t have the time to run focus groups and perform sophisticated market research, it can be difficult to figure out what’s working and what isn’t. Email marketing is a great way to test a variety of messages in order to figure out what resonates. They won’t tell you explicitly, of course, but by paying attention to open rates and click-through rates, you can figure out what appeals to your audience and what doesn’t.
Precise, Personalized Targeting
Email marketing gives you the opportunity to set up messages that are tailor-made for specific users. Simply beginning a message by greeting the customer by name can make a big difference. Even more importantly, virtually all email marketing programs allow you to segment your database—allowing you to target your audience with the information that is most relevant to them. You’ll want to communicate differently to current clients than you do to leads generated through your website, for instance, and segmenting your database is the way to do this.
Cost Effective and Efficient
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to market your products and services. There is very little overhead cost, and once you’ve created a system, very little time is required on your behalf. In fact, by creating a sequence of autoresponders, you can ensure that potential customers receive a sequence of messages precisely targeted to their interests… and it will happen 100% automatically.
Questions or comments? Please feel free to contact us for more information!
Spotlight Branding
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