Effective Email Marketing for Small Businesses

Despite the promised upturn in the economy, the recession has landed many smaller business leaders in a classic ‘catch 22’ situation: cutting marketing spend is used as a means to tighten budgets, yet survival through tough financial times is dependent on generating new business via marketing.

Hmm, tricky.

Smaller business marketers are now left with a dilemma: how is it possible to raise vital brand awareness on an increasingly smaller budget?

Effective email marketing has the answer

Enter email marketing, riding in on its white horse. Effective email marketing for small business provides a much cheaper alternative to other marketing channels and continues to deliver the highest return on investment - an average email returns around £20 for each £1 spent.

Email marketing is also less time consuming than direct mail campaigns, and provides a higher level of reporting than direct mail, telephone calls and advertising combined. The enforced budget cuts of this recession are actually helping marketers realise the full merits of email marketing, which is awesome news.

Email marketing solutions are not only getting more sophisticated, but are being offered to smaller businesses at rates that are affordable in the current climate. If you’re really lucky, you’ll find a provider who doesn’t tie you in to a long contract, so it’s also risk free.

Online clothing retailer Kew Online has increased sales through the use of promotional codes in an email marketing campaign that is adapted to customer demands throughout the year. Their online customer service manager had the following to say about the work they’ve been doing:

"We find that special deals such as offering customers free delivery the following week are really effective in boosting sales.

"The technology we use is fantastic as it enables us to track precisely how many click-throughs each individual item is receiving, helping us to gauge popularity and trends."

Timing is vital to the success of a campaign, as research has shown that the time of day you send an email will have a huge impact on the number of recipients who read your message. Features such as ‘Intelligent Time Sending’ will actually analyse when an individual is likely to open an email based on historical data. You can also check out our report on the best time to send your email - it’s been proving quite popular…

Creating a database for your small business email marketing activities

Although it is now relatively simple to put together an email marketing campaign, access to a decent database of potential customers is absolutely critical to get it off the ground. You can buy prospects’ details from list brokers, though make sure you check out the supplier thoroughly first.

These campaigns work best in conjunction with another marketing channel – for example, if an email is sent prior to a telemarketing call, the success rate can increase by up to 70% (according to the DMA).

You can also take simple steps to develop your own database by capturing email addresses at your various ‘touch points’ (I’d rate this method highly, but bear in mind it’s a longer term solution). You’ll have to think about providing incentives for signing up to marketing material such as newsletters (offering free whitepapers or guides is a nice touch), but you won’t have to break the bank to generate lots of email addresses through these channels.

There’s no time like the present...

Small businesses should be taking advantage of effective email marketing services as they provide a cost- and time-efficient way to communicate with existing and prospective customers. This can result in high returns of investment, not to mention the environmental benefits over direct mailings, which are heavy on resources such as paper.