Tips for Building a Successful Email Marketing Campaign

Email marketing is still one of the most widely used local business marketing strategies. That's no surprise given how many benefits it has to offer.

Email marketing allows for instant contact with consumers, and it allows small businesses to reach a large and diverse audience. It’s also cost-effective, measurable, and provides the ability to segment and target specific audiences from an originating list.

Many local businesses attempt to use email marketing, but not all of them are effective. Some struggle to create email campaigns that communicate a compelling message and deliver the most bang for the buck.

What should your small-business email campaigns communicate?

The types of information you can share with an email marketing campaign are numerous, but whatever you share to be newsworthy and informative for your audience. Spamming your customers is never -- ever -- an acceptable business tactic.

You can share promotions, upcoming events, and industry news or content you believe your audience will want to know about. You can also use email marketing campaigns to follow up with consumers and to confirm that they received a purchase, to provide information, and to ask for feedback.

Email marketing should be used to nurture and grow your marketing list, so keep this in mind when sending out any email marketing campaign.

You also want to determine and communicate a clear value proposition. For example, are you promoting free or fast shipping, or premium customer service with a discount? Be clear, and share and promote your value proposition.

You can also include testimonials, statistics, facts, incentives, images, and design elements that support your claims when doing business. The goal is to provide what you can to support your business and attract attention and interest from your targeted readers.

Finally, you want to use your email marketing to deliver a specific call to action. Don’t assume that your readers will know what the next step is. You want to be very clear and conspicuous when providing a call to action. For example, you might say, “Call now and ask for a Free Estimate!" or “Forward to a Friend for a Free Sample.”

Email marketing doesn't need to be complicated. In fact it should usually be short and to the point to avoid losing a reader’s attention. Never forget your main goals: to retain the reader’s attention and ultimately to convert them into paying customers.