May 2018 - Ron Kness Writing

Why Email Marketing is Important for Businesses

I promised to be back and here we are, with possibly the most important discussion about why email marketing is important for business. Let’s get right into that.

Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets have certainly become important avenues for online marketing campaigns, but good old fashioned email marketing still holds a great deal of value for organizations and businesses of all sizes.

In fact, email marketing even has a number of advantages over some of the more “cutting edge” marketing techniques that some tend to focus on. Here are a few of the top reasons why email marketing is important for businesses today.

Email Marketing is Personal

Email is a personal and direct way of initiating a “one to one” conversation with prospects and existing customers.

Based on the information you request on a sign-up page in addition to the email address, you may be able to make sure you’re targeting that individual most appropriately.

For example, you might ask a prospect to check boxes indicating their areas of interest while signing up, and then use this information to decide what types of email messages to send to them later.

Email Marketing is Trusted

Since reputable businesses only engage in email marketing to individuals who have signed up to receive emails, this marketing channel is inherently trusted by the recipient. The individuals you’re marketing to have already decided that your business is one they’re interested in hearing more from – that’s why they signed up for your email list. (Don’t be tempted to send unsolicited emails to people who haven’t signed up with you; you may find yourself on a spam list, and getting off that list can be very difficult.)

Email Marketing is Measurable

Measure Email Marketing

Because the action items in each email generally consist of links back to your website (or to your Facebook page), you can set up special landing pages in order to measure the “click through” rates for each of your communications. On average, click through rates are generally in the 4%-5% range, so being able to measure your response rates and improve performance even slightly can have a significant benefit to your bottom line.

Email Marketing Works

This is perhaps the most important factor for a business to consider when deciding whether to use email marketing is its effectiveness. Industry surveys continue to confirm that email marketing generally has the highest return on investment of all other marketing tactics. Simply put, email marketing works.

Email Marketing is Affordable

Email Marketing is Affordable In relation to the benefits you’re likely to receive back, email marketing is one of the most affordable methods for marketing your business. If you have a very small list you can consider administering it manually. However, once your list grows to a certain size you may wish to take advantage of a professional email list management service. Most of these services are quite affordable, and provide you with a variety of pricing options.

In the next post we’ll take a closer look at some of the leading services, and the pros and cons of each. It’s not always easy picking the right service (hint: there probably isn’t a perfect autoresponder unless you code it yourself), but at least we’ll cover some of those details so you can make an informed decision.

Meet Andy Johnston, Our New Guest Blogger

If there’s one thing for certain, email still makes the online world go around. Despite the doom and gloom many have predicted for email with innovations like RSS and social media, email still rules the day. It’s a crucial marketing medium for the success of any online business (or any business at all), so I’ve brought in our guest blogger, Andy Johnston, to take you through all the important aspects of email marketing.

I’ll let Andy tell you a little more about it…

Hello to all and thanks for the welcome. I am looking forward to sharing a whole lot about email marketing in the coming weeks. I plan to cover everything from why email is important to all the nuts and bolts stuff you need to know to make email marketing successful for you business.

Here are the topics I’ll be covering for you:

– Why email marketing is important for business
– Choosing an autoresponder service or software
– Understanding the difference between autoresponder and broadcast emails
– Should you use confirmed / double opt-in?
– Your first steps to setting up a mailing list
– The importance of the opt-in / squeeze page
– Surefire ways of growing your list
– Engaging your readers and delivering exactly what they want
– Email conversion tips

If any of that terminology isn’t familiar with you, don’t worry, I’ll explain everything. We’re going to cover a lot in the next few posts, and I look forward to helping you turn your email marketing into an important profit source for your business.

Attract New Customers with a Business Blog

For a business owner, a new year means putting new strategies in place to accomplish your goals for that coming year. You’re probably asking yourself how to grow your business, operate more efficiently, pay off debt or maybe even expand to a new location.

What can you do if that list of goals includes growing your business by attracting new customers online? One of the best places to start is by creating a business blog.

There are plenty of reasons to start a business blog today, but here are the ones I see as being most important.

Blogging for Traffic (and Dollars!)

The more you blog and create relevant and informative content, the more website traffic you will receive. Writing about topics important to your prospective customers casts a wider net of opportunities for your site to be found online.

Let me explain how this happens.

While your website may be found on Google by typing in the name of your business, it doesn’t guarantee your site shows up for terms related to your business that could attract new customers.

If you’re a new company that sells luxury pet items for example, web users won’t be searching for your store name, but instead for the term “luxury dog beds” in Google. (In case you were wondering, the keyword “luxury dog beds” gets searched approximately 8,100 times per month.)

If that web user sees your blog post titled “The 5 Best Luxury Dog Beds Your Puppy Will Love” in the listings, clicks to your site, reads your informative article and then finds out you sell luxury dog beds, you are on your way to securing a new customer.

Your Blog Positions You as an Expert

Updating your blog frequently with industry-related posts demonstrates you know what you’re talking about. These posts then have the ability to be shared on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Not only does this social sharing bring you more web traffic, the shares themselves act as endorsements that you are an expert and that your content is valuable.

Why would you want expert status? First off, it makes it easier to do business with you. If you’re trying to secure new customers who are experiencing buyer objections, you can use blog posts that demonstrate your experience and credibility as reference points to help move the sales process along.

Also, achieving expert status makes you the go-to person in your industry. When people start turning to you for questions on a topic, ask you to blog about certain industry news or to submit a guest blog post to their blog, you are creating momentum that will drive more traffic to your site that turns into leads and customers.

Customer Success Stories for More Sales

A blog can also help you make the most of your current web traffic that isn’t converting into customers. It’s possible through what we call social proof.

What is social proof? Well, it might be helpful to ask this question in a different way.

When you’re thinking of doing business with a company, do you always believe what they say about themselves? Or do you look for reviews or testimonials that feature like-minded people sharing their experience with the company you’re thinking about?

We all do those searches. This is part of the reason for the success of places like Amazon that feature its customer reviews so prominently.

Having a blog on your site creates a chance for you to write about what you have done for customers and any successes they have had. If your current website visitors read these customer success stories on your blog that establish your credibility, they are more likely to do business with you.

While your blog should focus mainly on industry topics that answer questions or provide necessary information, having posts that showcase your customer success stories with your products or services is perfectly acceptable.

Are you planning on starting a business blog anytime soon? What are your concerns about getting started? Let us know by sending in a quote request or send us a message via our Contact Page!

Running a Successful Drip Marketing Campaign

Drip marketing, also known as email marketing, is a way of communicating with your client base on a routine basis where predefined messages are sent to them or “dripped” with a specific predefined action as a goal. It can be used to nudge the customer into taking some kind of action or you can use it to continue to increase their interest in your business by keeping your name in front of them. Through drip marketing, you can reach out effectively to your clients. However, to be effective, each drip campaign must have a clearly defined goal or outcome.

Sending the right message

The behavior and demographics of your clientele are most important as you want to send right message. Your messages need to satisfy a need of your viewers, but by sending the wrong message, or too many messages, you risk turning them off. But when planned strategically, drip marketing can be very effective.

What is the best approach?

Many businesses prefer to use a blog or other social media like Facebook or Twitter to contact their clients, however, by using these methods, you are relying on your customer to go to these places online to get your marketing message. With drip marketing, you are bringing you message directly to them via email. In this hectic day and age, your clients may forget to visit your blog.

Solve their problem

As a customer, there is nothing worse than receiving tedious, sales pitch. Drip email campaigns are not like that. When planned properly, they actually help people solve their problems by giving them latest information and best practices of your industry. For example, a drip email could talk about the advantages of using electric toothbrushes. In short, your content should be useful to them. If done properly, they will look forward to your emails as you are helping them.

Or another email might be based on some kind of new research information or study result in your industry that just came out, and you assessment of that information and how it may prove helpful to them.

Drip promotion can be analogous to irrigating your garden. You study the need when your flowers need watering and then you control how much and when you provide that water. It is the perfect picture of an email drip campaign.

Overall look Matters

Because you want simplicity in your messages, your content should not be overshadowed by flowery design and images; these things should be used sparingly and only support your drip campaign.

However, auto-responder programs, the software used to create and send your emails, have a variety of templates to pick from, so it is easy to get one that complements your message and builds your company brand.

Effectively using drip email marketing campaigns

Email campaigns are a great way to promote a new service or offer a discount or special pricing on a service or product. But not every email’s purpose is to “sell” something.

You will also want to use your campaigns to notify, discuss, and educate. Sending out some useful tips is always valued by customers as is creating a “how to” sequence of articles.

Ask them to participate in survey. Honest feedback can help change your future techniques and goals. Encourage your clients to forward, discuss and share your campaign with their friends, family, and colleagues. It can be a great way to increase your customer base.

With a well thought-out promotional strategy, your drip email campaign can achieve your desired goal; it will also enable you to focus on future strategies that not only engages your client, but satisfies as well.

Contact me to discuss how to effectively set-up a drip email campaign for your business.