Why email is the perfect way to increase your sales

When you are a small business, your marketing budget is likely to be limited. You might not have the capacity to run full-scale campaigns. Consequently, finding a route to reaching your customers that offers the most significant return on the investment is crucial. Therefore, an email could be precisely the strategy that you are looking for. Here we provide all the justification you need to set up your email marketing campaign.

 

One-to-one conversations with a lot of people

Manufacturing a means of having a personal conversation with a lot of people is the prized goal of any small business owner. Your size is your superpower in many respects, and people likely come to you to feel known. Therefore, finding a way you can build rapport and strengthen relationships is through email.

Most people today have an email account on their smartphone. This means your email appears directly in the pocket of your client. You can address them personally, with an appropriate subject line and salutation – making the person feel that you are talking directly to them. Better still, if your website tech is smart, you can send them bespoke offers that clearly speak to their needs.

The email itself feels personal because it arrives directly with them. Unlike other media, like a leaflet, newspaper advert or poster, the email is a communication from you to one other person – or so it feels. If you get the personalisation of the message spot on, use potent stories, a compelling subject line and a clear call to action, you will maximise click-through and conversions.

 

High return on investment

The cost of setting an email campaign will likely be a little more than you think – but it still offers a high return on investment.

First, you will want to hire a copywriter who can tailor an email campaign that prompts action. There should be a series of emails that tell a story and guide the customer to an eventual sale.

You will then want to gather the email addresses organically. You want to appear as a welcome presence in someone’s inbox. You can spam a thousand people relatively cheaply, but you are in danger of causing more damage to your reputation and will get a limited impression on the market. Consequently, you are going to have to spend some time gathering the email addresses and the permissions to send these emails. In so doing, you will appear in the primary inbox and not the spam folder and make the impact you hope.

 

A daily check-in

You might think that social media offers a better opportunity to reach the most people. Indeed, making use of Instagram stories and Facebook business pages is a valid and relatively cheap way of marketing. However, your marketing is at risk of disappearing from view before your client has seen your post.

With an email, the customer will check these every day. Although there is the risk that they will just instantly delete the message, they have still registered the name of your business. You will have entered their consciousness that day, even if they did not choose to click-through and make a purchase. The person has also actively interacted in a small way with your marketing. Much of social media marketing is received passively and may not even register with the customer.

 

Powerful metrics

Email campaigns can be managed effectively through software. The same software can then present you will all the metrics you could need to improve your email marketing campaign. We live in a world where it is essential to be agile. We need to seek out the results of our efforts, reflect, iterate and then send out the improved messaging. You will quickly work out what is useful and what isn’t and adapt accordingly. The lead time for this marketing is, therefore so small that the risk of wasting your money is limited.

 

One customer, one view, a lifelong relationship

Modern marketing techniques cannot be put into silos. You cannot keep your website separate from your emails and then separate from your in-store and call centre interaction. You need to follow your customer around your company, creating a cohesive view of this client. This is the best way to build a relationship that will eventually lead to upselling and cross-selling.

Emails are an essential component of this omnichannel approach to marketing. Your emails can respond to activity on your website, they can follow up on items in the basket, and they can seek feedback after a call to your shop or call centre. In short, it is the essential cog in the wheel that brings all other interactions with your customers together.