If you own a small business, you will be doing everything you can to not only survive but thrive and get ahead of your competitors. While there are a variety of things that you can do to market your small biz, one of the most effective ways – if done correctly – is through your email list. This is what we will be focusing on in this article.
Think about all of the visitors to your website. Of them, there are going to be very few who are holding their plastic in their hand, ready to buy. They may have fallen upon it by accident, or are browsing, or are looking to compare prices or see if what they need is available. What you need to do is warm up potential customers and prime them ready to follow through their visit with a sale.
Here are some actionable steps to get the most out of email marketing
- Have a calendar set up: Depending on the type of industry you are in, there will be various holidays and celebrations that you can capitalize on for your promotional email. Black Friday is a prime example of this but also think outside of the box. Planning can also save you the stress of sending a newsletter at the very last minute because (hopefully!) it will encourage you to be better organized!
- Have a signup form on the home page of your website: Try to have this ‘above the fold’ – before your visitor has to scroll down. Give an incentive for signing up if possible – exclusive offers only for email subscribers or invites to events, for example. Don’t only have it on your homepage though – put it on your ‘about us’ page or other high traffic areas.
- Stop emphasizing your social media pages and focus on your subscriber list: Remember, you have ownership of your email subscriber list. Facebook owns your Facebook page and can shut it down without a single warning!
- Build your list organically: don’t fall into the trap of renting an email list or taking details from elsewhere. Not only will this irritate people who haven’t given consent for their details to be harvested and used in this way, but it can also get you into trouble, especially if your customers are based in the EU where the GDPR is in place. Instead, build up your list organically through other forms of marketing – pay per clicks, social media and website signups.
- Use data: Following on from the previous point, you need to be using the data that your email service provider (should!) be providing you with. Track opening rates, click-throughs, forwards, unsubscribes and spam complaints, and adjust the content or frequency of your emails accordingly. This should also help you to choose the best subject lines.
- Have a welcome email: When someone signs up to your email list, send them a welcome email. A good time to do this is 24 -48 hours after they have signed up and can be done automatically, thanking them. Set expectations on email frequency and reassure them that you value their privacy. You may even want to think about including a special offer if you hadn’t already offered one as an incentive.
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