So, you are at the point where your client base has grown and you want to start building a community around your brand. You’re business is growing, which is great, but now you need to start thinking about how to streamline your business so you have more time to run it. It is time you start looking for software that can easily communicate and stay in touch with your current and prospective customers.
Email marketing is a very powerful tool for brands looking to connect with their customers and increase engagement. Don’t listen to people who say email marketing is dead. Here are just a few statistics that prove email marketing remains one of the best ways to reach and convert your customers and leads.
– For every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return is $44.25
– 95% of online consumers use email
– 91% of consumers check their email once a day
(Source: Email Expert)
Here are the Top 4 benefits of implementing email marketing into your business strategy:
1.Engage existing clients and increase retention
So many businesses concentrate on getting new leads into the sales funnel without thinking about nurturing their existing relationships. While emails are great for new leads, you should also be updating your current customers with interesting and relevant information.
2.Target and personalize emails
No longer are the days in which mass broadcasting yields results. To attract and retain your customers, you have to show that you know and understand them. What better way to do that than by sending personalized emails with their name and targeted content? That’s where personalized, automated emails come into play. (Note: The personal data in your CRM will help develop personalized emails geared toward each of your leads and clients.)
3.Measure your impact and brand awareness
Email marketing is an effective way to gauge your audience’s interest in your brand. Not only can you see which contacts opened your emails, but you can also see who clicked on what links. This is a great way to re-engage non-engaged clients as well as learn more about what each contact is interested in. A few important metrics to measure include open/read rate, click through rate, and unsubscribe rate. These metrics tell you if your content is effective, interesting, and relevant.
4.Reach your buyers on mobile
It is important to be able to reach your buyers when they are on the go so you can stay top of mind. You’ll see from some expert advice below, mobile responsive emails are crucial. This ensures that your emails are being viewed properly on every device. Movable Inc reports 66% of emails opened are on a mobile device, so don’t ignore mobile responsiveness!
I also spoke with the GreenRope team and asked them what advice they would give to small business owners looking to implement email marketing into their strategy, here is what they came up with.
Top Email Marketing Best Practices
Tom Suchy, a GreenRope developer, has a few points on the matter. First, he strongly advises against buying lists. This is the first way to spam people because they didn’t opt-in. He also believes that less is more when it comes to sending messages, as they can overwhelm or annoy your audience to the point where they unsubscribe from your list. Finally, Tom recommends that businesses test different messages to different subsets of your audience to gauge performance. Doing so allows you to tweak your future emails to better fit the needs and wants of your customers.
“Automation is critical when implementing email marketing within a business,” says Client Services Manager, Austin. “Refining the structure of the automation will streamline marketing communications, rewarding the business owner with more time for separate activities.”
“Make sure the content is compelling and relevant to the brand,” says Client Services Manager, Dan. “Email marketing is crucial for brand awareness, as well as facilitating communication between the brand and consumer/client.” It’s important to make sure the look and feel of your emails match your website and overall brand identity.
“Definitely make sure the emails are built for mobile devices, and tested properly on those devices,” says Client Services Manager, Ryan. “Using a responsive design is by far the best option and where the industry is currently headed.” Always test your email in different email clients and on mobile because you want to make sure it looks good in a variety of email clients, browsers, and mobile devices.
Email marketing is extremely powerful, especially when you start automating the process. It is a great way to increase your productivity and efficiency when communicating with your leads and clients. If you are ready to implement email marketing, contact us and we will set you up with a demo and free trial.
View the original post on the GreenRope Success Blog.
Great article Tatiana! Since email marketing converts about 4 times better than social media, its very important for small business owners to utilize email marketing correctly. It can be frustrating and time consuming at first, but it’s definitely worth it in the long run.
Thank you Silke! I agree – social media is a great way to engage clients but email is best (just keep in mind they must be mobile optimized!)