Did you know that 81% of small businesses rely on email as their primary customer acquisition channel? The benefits of email marketing are not always obvious especially if your inbox always looks like it’s being raided by promotional emails. However, according to DMA Insights, for every $1 you spend on marketing emails, you can expect an average return of $38. This means a business’ ROI increases 3800%, making it one of the most effective marketing options available.
Is your small business using email marketing as a way to attract more customers? If not, you could be missing out on a huge opportunity. Let’s delve into the top 6 benefits of email marketing for small businesses and why you should take advantage of this marketing channel.
6 Benefits of Email Marketing
1. Reaching the right audience
Email marketing allows you to reach the right audience and target your ideal customer. You have complete control over who you’re sending to. Research also shows that people spend between 30-50% of their time checking email. Even though research proves that people still read email, it doesn’t automatically mean you should blast your audience with emails every day. With the right messaging, you can send your audience effective and innovative emails that they will want to read.
2. Tracking metrics over time
With the right email software, you can track metrics over time. Knowing what works is great but knowing where you can improve is even more powerful. Your open rate and click-through rate can tell you a lot about the performance of an email. For example, if you receive incredibly high clicks on an email image, it’s evident that a compelling image is necessary for your next email. Or if a certain email had a significantly higher open rate than another, it means one subject line was more convincing than the other.
3. Consistent outreach & increased awareness
Email marketing is an easy way to stay in touch with your audience and increase your awareness. Consistent outreach is key but make sure not to confuse that with over emailing. For example, emailing your audience twice a year to promote your product or services will not be as effective as sending a weekly email newsletter with educational content.
Focus on regular communications that contain content and resources that are relevant to your audience. With applicable content, you will be positioned as an expert and prove to your audience that you care about them beyond making a sale.
4. Build strong customer relationships
Since making hundreds or even thousands of phone calls to customers is quite unrealistic and sending mailouts is costly, email is the best channel to stay in touch with your customers at any time. The latest product launch, any news about your services, or any promotion are all great topics for regular newsletter content. When a customer opts into receiving emails from you, don’t be shy about consistently staying in contact. That doesn’t mean over emailing either.
5. Cost-effective method (Time & budget)
Email marketing is affordable and saves time. Small businesses face many time and budget constraints so it’s important to use marketing channels that don’t waste money and time. Like I mentioned earlier, for every $1 you spend on marketing emails, you can expect an average return of $38. That is a large return to anticipate. Professional email marketing campaigns take much less time and money to deliver than, let’s say, a mailer. It allows you to access your audience’s email inbox without having to pay the costs of direct mail.
6. Effective calls to action
Email marketing is one of the best opportunities to include an effective call to action. Have you ever watched a commercial and by the end of it you’ve forgotten the company or even how to get in contact with them? An effective call to action will help you generate sales quicker and email marketing is the perfect way to incorporate a clear and concise message.
Email Marketing on the Surefire Local Marketing Platform
All in all, email marketing is the simplest and most effective way to reach your potential customers, grow your revenue, retain your current customers, and increase your brand awareness. While a combination of marketing channels should be incorporated into your strategy, email marketing is one that will help set you up as an expert without breaking your budget.
At Surefire Local, our custom-built platform is a cost-effective and scalable all-in-one solution that grows with your small business. It helps you take flight to thrive and grow your business to new heights while reducing costs. Email marketing is one of the many capabilities integrated into the platform. With the Surefire Local Marketing Platform, you’re able to:
- Engage and nurture leads with targeted email campaigns
- Send automated responses to new leads for immediate follow-up
- Nurture leads to become lifetime customers with automated campaigns
- Engage past customers to drive repeat business and referrals
- Stay top of mind by sharing relevant, personalized messages
- Spread awareness around a special promotion
Request a demo of the Surefire Local Marketing Platform to see how you can use the email marketing tool to broaden reach in your local market.
