As a small business owner, I hope everyone is experimenting with email marketing. Even before Google Ads, I would recommend SMBs to start testing some email campaigns.
Opportunity to reflect back on what and why of your business
Just spending couple of hours on creating and distributing emails, makes you really thing the value you are offering, the customers you are targeting and the competing voice you have over the crowded market offering.
If any, trying email marketing makes you step back from yuor grinding work as a SMB owner and reflect on what you are really into.
Do you know your customers
The initial hurdles are not the technology, not the time, not even the ideas - but 1) getting email contacts and 2) worrying if your email will be non-professional and may not make it to their inbox or worst they might have a poor marketing impact.
Start with the known, you know more than you think
Start by collecting email IDs from your most favorable customers - customers to whom you have something to say every week that they are really interested in knowing. Usually, these will be your repeat customers. Most often the real opportunity is in customers who came looking for something (a product, a price deal etc) and end up asking you or the store manager for it - perfect place to ask for the email telling them that you will contact them when you have it in your shop (of course you will tell them that you will specially procure it just because they asked for it - right!)
Some simple email marketing ideas:
- when you procure fresh or new product
- when you reduce price of some of the ticker items because of supply or competition
- when you explicitly want to thank them for recent large purchase and offer a coupon
Start by sending emails to them through your normal email account with your ISP. Nothing fancy, remember, for known customers, the content matters not the presentation (in theory, true for all your future email as well.
Ask loyal customers what they want in the email
The important fact here is to ensure that majority of your emails, if not all, are being opened. If you are using your ISP email account, you probably won't know if the receiver opened the email. But, keep an eye on repeat business from the customer. Ask them if they received your email offer. Openly ask if they like to receive some other information in the email.
Test your skills
Now, expand your email reach.
- Put a 'forward this to your friend' message in your emails so that you get the viral marketing going (you are now a pro as you avoid SPAM and adhered to CAN-SPAM regulation !!)
- Add a 'Subscribe to email promotion' (not - subscribe to email newsletter!) in your web site and add that link to the emails, with as little intrusion to the main content as possible
- Ask walk-in customers to sign-up with their email so that you can send them new product, price reduction etc.
Getting hooked on this...
Most business owners, after the above simple start, really get excited about the change in their customer loyalty.
Next step, will be to learn some professional ideas and start using email service.
WARNING! - You don't want to be a marketer at the cost of loosing focus on being the owner of the business. There are many other parts of your business worth spending time on. So, automate this process with tools and tricks, and go back to what you do best (and why you are an SMB) putting a SMILING face to your customers and PITTY face to your vendors :-)
http://constantcontact.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/constantcontact.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1966
http://constantcontact.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/constantcontact.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1942&p_sid=V5Rpeatj&p_redirect=1
http://www.mailchimp.com/articles/
