Email Marketing for a Small Business

There is a difference between ignorance and stupidity.  There are a lot of ignorant business owners out there.  There are a lot of small business owners that have an asset that they do not use.  A companies customer list is an asset and should be used to not only drive more revenue but also help your customers.

Small business email marketing is the solution to using that fore-mentioned asset.  The main idea with email marketing is NOT to sell.  The reason is to communicate and build a relationship with your customers.  Think about yourself for a moment.  Do you immediately delete sales emails you get, many times without even opening them?  Is your attitude different when you get an email that provides you information and relevant content.

Ideally you will send an email on a monthly basis that contains information that your customers can use.  If you own a garage, talk about maintenance schedules and why they are important.  Discuss the reason that oil needs to be changed.  Have a question and answer area that answers readers questions.  Make the email informative.

Sending it more than once or twice a month makes you a bit of a pest and quite frankly adds to your workload to come up with fresh content.  However, you do want the customer to remember you.  In our service garage example, when the customer has a problem, you want them to remember YOU, not the other garage they went to last year.  Even more important is that when your customers friend has problems, you want your name or business rattling around in their memory.

The main cost is the time to create the content.  The actual cost is nominal.  The cash outlay is probably one of the best bangs for your marketing dollar that you will ever find. 

The idea is to leverage the asset that you have or should have in the form of customer email addresses.  Become more than just the place that they go to when having a problem or needing a product.  Put yourself and your business in a position to be a trusted source.