I love email marketing for small business owners, low start-up and maintenance costs, incredibly high return on investment (ROI), and its efficiency. It’s quick, easy to use, conserves time (which always seems to be in short supply) and it gets the message across. Here are my Top 12 Reasons to love email marketing:
- Email is a multi-tasker – Once transmitted your messages can be shared, forwarded, answered, printed, or saved.
- No middlemen – your message goes directly to your intended recipient. Even busy, powerful people, who won’t ordinarily take or return phone calls will read an email. Plus getting past secretaries, receptionists, and other gatekeepers can be murder.
- To the point – Unlike face-to-face or telephone encounters that necessitate time-consuming preliminary “small-talk”, email gets right to the point and encourages brevity.
- Clear and precise – You can clearly convey precise information that often gets butchered in telephone messages, such as numbers/formulas, technical terms, URLs, or other links.
- Highly targeted – you can laser-focus on potential customers. Unlike print advertising, you can choose who receives your marketing messages.
- Ultra cost-effective – the average cost is only .08 cents per email sent without the expense of printing, postage, and design/typesetting fees.
- ROI – According to the Direct Mail Association the average ROI is $1 to $46. TV, Radio, Billboards and other forms of traditional marketing can’t even come close to this!
- Engagement – Its reply feature encourages recipients to respond with direct questions and comments. While you may not be able to meet with your past, current, and potential clients for coffee each month you can certainly stay in touch via email.
- Social Media – It integrates beautifully with Social Media channels. Many email marketing services automatically link to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
- Follow up – Email makes it easy to send short, gentle reminders of your upcoming specials and/or events.
- Increased traffic – By linking to content on your website you can drive more traffic to your site.
- Photography – A picture is “worth a 1,000 words” and often evokes an emotional response; with email marketing, you can easily add an eye-catching photo to your marketing message.
Bonus: Email marketing delivers even when unread! Suppose a recipient doesn’t read your lovingly crafted and beautifully designed email. Don’t fret they will still see your email address in the inbox (which hopefully includes your domain name) and read your subject line before hitting the delete button. At a minimum, email marketing works like a “drip campaign” and keeps you on the recipient’s radar screen, reminding them that you are still in business and available if they need you.