Article written by Lane Harbin, Campaign Monitor
Most entrepreneurs consider one key factor during every business decision: growth. After all, businesses are created with the intention of success and expansion.
If growing your business is your primary business goal, email is one of the best tools you can use to achieve this goal. With its 4,400% ROI, email marketing can definitely help you expand your brand.
If you’re still unconvinced, it may be time to consider some ways email marketing can lead to growth. Here are four reasons why you should use email marketing to grow your small business.
It can help you turn website visitors into paying customers.
As a small business owner, you’ve most likely set up a website for your business. If it’s a fairly new website, you might get a few hundred visitors a day and even fewer sales.
Luckily, you can still encourage these visitors to purchase from your company. This is where email marketing comes into the equation.
Entice users to circle back to your site by placing email newsletter subscription forms on various pages of your website (homepage, blog page, products page, etc.). When visitors subscribe to your email list, you can start sending them newsletter content that helps to communicate the value of your product or service.
Email newsletters are an effective way of building long-term relationships with prospective customers. Readers may not make a purchase based on a single newsletter, but over time, it’s likely they’ll see the value in what you’re offering. Down the line, you can be sure they’ll make a purchase from you instead of one of your competitors.
It allows you to nurture relationships.
You can use a specific type of email to get a good start on your relationships with new subscribers (aka future loyal customers).
Enter the welcome email. Welcome emails have an average open rate of 50%, so it would be a mistake to not leverage that power for your small business.
Whenever a new subscriber joins your email list, send them a welcome email immediately. Doing so will make a great first impression, and subscribers will feel valued from the beginning.
Save yourself time by automating your welcome email. You can easily do this by using an email marketing service. Simply implement a rule that sends a welcome email to new subscribers upon signup. This way, you don’t have to spend valuable time sending emails. You can just focus on running your business.
You should also consider using email templates. They can help you create well-designed, professional-looking welcome emails that will instantly appeal to your subscribers.
It boosts your revenue.
Welcome emails are also great for boosting revenue because subscribers who open your welcome emails are much more inclined to make purchases. In fact, research shows that welcome emails generate 320% more revenue per email than other types of promotional emails.
Take advantage of this increased revenue when possible. Include an exclusive “new-subscriber-only” offer in your welcome email. There are several ways you can encourage new subscribers to make their first purchase, and it all depends on what kind of product or service you’re selling.
Some simple yet effective ideas include offering a hefty discount, free shipping, or loyalty points that can be collected and used as in-store currency later on.
It can help you expand your reach.
If you’re already sending email newsletters regularly, you can use them to reach new audiences, and therefore more prospective customers.
Maximise the potential of your high-quality newsletter content by placing social media sharing buttons in the body of the email. They should be highly visible and clickable, both on desktop and mobile, so they can easily be shared.
When loyal customers (brand ambassadors) share your content on their social media profiles, it can work as an organic recommendation to their friends and followers (possibly those who are still unfamiliar with your brand). These people will see your small business as a reputable one, which will make them more willing to engage with you.
Wrap up
Email marketing has proven to be a powerhouse in recent years. It’s no surprise that it’s one of the go-to digital marketing strategies for numerous businesses, from small brick-and-mortar stores to Fortune 500 companies.
When you use email marketing for your small business, you can be sure it will help you gain new audiences, build better relationships with your customers, and increase your revenue—all the things you need to achieve your goal of growing your business.