Managing priorities in a small business is always tough, but one thing is for certain – email marketing is an essential tool. Although bulk marketing services abound, it can be difficult to get good advice about how to use limited resources in managing a successful email marketing campaign. Well, never fear. I’ve been a small business employee and seen first-hand how good email marketing can lead to great results, and how mistakes in email marketing can be costly. Here a few ways to learn from my experience.
1. Hire a full-time marketer – You don’t need an entire office full of marketing folks, but you do need someone whose job is to manage your marketing efforts. Depending on the size of your firm, this person can focus solely on email or branch out into other marketing areas. Trust me – if you’re the only one sending emails, you’ll spend too much time away from the core functions of the company.
2. Help your customers opt-in – Don’t just hope that customers sign up for your email blasting lists, make sure they do it by placing the sign-up prominently on your page.
3. Don’t be spammy – When you have a limited amount of time, it can be tempting to send blanket email sales pitches with identical content to your entire mailing list. Don’t do it – that’s an easy to land in the spam folder or cause your recipients to unsubscribe. Send your users regular updates, but make sure they are tailored to different groups and contain useful, educational content.
4. Content is great – If you can afford it, sending unique content, like articles, videos, or infographics, is a great way to drive traffic and interest to your site without resorting to sales pitches. Designers and other creative types can be helpful here, but feel free to contract this work out instead of hiring full-time creative staff.
5. Be vigilant about your mailing lists – With the ability to send bulk email online comes the responsibility of monitoring your email lists. Don’t send to inactive or disabled accounts as that is a great way to get labeled as spam.