Email marketing isn’t going anywhere; it’s not fading away or dying out and it most certainly hasn’t been killed by social media or instant messaging. A Constant Contact study, which surveyed over 700 small businesses and nonprofit organizations, found that almost 60% of respondents are trying to grow their email subscriber list “at all times.” A continued emphasis by small businesses on growing their email lists indicates that with a larger list, small businesses are seeing success and a positive ROI from investing time and budget into their growth efforts. Skeptical about how a larger email database can help your small business? Don’t be.
Small Business Email Stats
Small and medium-sized enterprises are becoming more focused on making data-driven decisions. Data from this study is sure to influence your email marketing strategy. When small businesses ranked the reasons why they choose to focus on growing their database, 44% cited bolstering repeat business or donations as the primary reason, while 39% said customer relationship building and 12% said engaging customers for referrals. Other key findings from the small business survey include:
- 42% of small businesses collect business cards for contact list-growth purposes.
- Almost six in ten small businesses collect contact information at events via sign-up sheets.
- 64% of respondents indicated that they actively seek customers for their contact information directly, but only 35% of survey respondents use a sign-up sheet at their point of sale system.
- Of those using online growth tools, 92% of respondents collect email addresses via sign-up forms on their website and 46% offer similar capabilities on their Facebook pages.
Steps to Grow Your Email Database:
Engaging customers is key when it comes to retaining current customers and compelling audiences to become new customers. A Business.com email marketing post explains how businesses can use email to convert prospect to customers. Email marketing allows businesses to reach both segments. More than two-thirds of the survey respondents said that they train employees to request customer contact information at points of interaction. Email list growth needs to be a companywide initiative in order for that database to meet its growth goals. Here’s how your SMB can grow its email database.
- Use a tool such as Pippity Popups to offer content in exchange for an email address on your site. Joe Pulizzi, from the Content Marketing Institute, in a recent webinar said that he used this tool and saw a steep increase in new visitor sign-ups.
- Ask for business cards at networking events or as part of a promotion. One option is for your small business to ask for contact cards and emails as entries into a contest, an opt-in email list, and then use those entries as new email subscribers.
- Make the most of sign-up sheets at your POS terminals and events where your business is planning to have a presence. When it’s as easy as writing down a name and email address, you’ll find your business is able to collect email contacts without much effort.
- Use social media. Without breaking the bank on social spending, you can use social media to direct followers and fans to a sign-up landing page. You can also promote special offers, coupons and the value of newsletters with an occasional tweet, status update and pin.
It isn’t just about growing the database for a larger number. By focusing on continuously growing the email list, businesses are able to avoid the natural degradation. According to Hubspot, email marketing databases degrade by about 25% every year. As Constant Contact found, email addresses are a key component of many small business marketing initiatives across the board. The best step your business can take to collect email addresses is to provide customers with something of value, whether it is a coupon or new blog posts, and require them to submit an email address in order to receive that incentive.
