In the past few years, social media has gotten all the attention and focus in the marketing world. So much so that I’ve seen countless small businesses stop sending emails to their existing customers and not even bothering to grow their subscriber list. But this is a huge mistake, and here’s why.
Despite the prolonged popularity of social media marketing, research shows that email is one of the most effective ways to reach people and it has an impressive ROI!
Email allows businesses to reach a large number of customers at a low cost (or even NO cost) compared to traditional marketing methods. In fact, for every $1 spent on email marketing, data shows that it averages $36 in returns.
What would happen tomorrow if you woke up and your social media accounts had disappeared? Would you have a way to reach your customers? Unlike social media platforms where algorithms decide who sees your content, email is a direct line of communication with your customers/subscribers.
The business owner (that’s you!) owns the email list and has control over when and how to send messages. You do not own your social media following, and that audience can be taken away at any time if you lose control of your account (due to hackers) or even if good ole “Al” (the algorithm) decides to restrict the reach of your posts.
So even if you are spending the majority of your marketing efforts creating content for social media, don’t forget about your email list!
One of the most frustrating things (in my opinion) about social media is that it’s hard to tell who is actually responding and engaging with your content. Sure, you can see who likes or leaves a comment, but anything beyond that you have to dig for. Email makes measuring the results of your efforts SO easy.
Every email service provider worth its salt provides you with analytics to track open rates, click through rates, conversion rates, you name it! Did you know you can create follow-up campaigns to the people who actually clicked on a specific link so that you are further targeting your communications to the people who are actually interested in a topic or product?! This is incredibly valuable intel and allows you to optimize your campaigns.
Automation features will save you more time and resources than you can possibly imagine. Someone joins your newsletter? They get an email. Someone makes a purchase? They get an email. Someone abandons their cart? They get an email. Someone has a birthday? They get an email. And this can be anything from a single email to an entire email sequence.
Using triggers and automations allows you to set something up ONCE, and every customer that triggers it will receive the email in their own time. It’s a complete time saver.
Email marketing can accomplish so much, and as a small business owner, it is definitely worth your time and attention!
This month, we’ll be diving even deeper into email marketing, so please let me know if you have any questions that I could help you answer!
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With over 15 years of experience, I've worked with countless small businesses just like yours. I can provide you with the tools and resources that will help make marketing less overwhelming.