Filed under: Small business
Email marketing can be quite effective. According to a report from the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing returned $51.58 in sales for each dollar spent. This compares to $17.07 for newspaper ads and $15.64 for direct mail.
The good news is that there are cost-effective email marketing tools, such as from Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT).
But what are some useful strategies? Well, I had a opportunity to speak to Trynka Shineman, the senior vice president of North American marketing for VistaPrint (NASDAQ: VPRT). Let’s take a look:
Getting Action: Try to cross-sell customers, such as through an order confirmation email. You can provide a special price and a link to a splash page to a relevant product offer.
“It’s also important to create a sense of urgency,” stated Shineman. “Customers need to know not only that they are receiving something targeted to them, but a date encourages them to act swiftly versus delaying the decision.”
In the mood: Create a campaign that’s tied to certain times of the year or specific events, like President’s Day.
“During these times, consumers are in the frame of mind for shopping so the emails fit with their pattern of behavior,” stated Shineman.
Time of the day: When does your customer have time to read your emails? Basically, you need to understand the patterns of your customers.
In the case of VistaPrint, its customers are primarily small businesses. As a result, email campaigns are usually conducted during work hours or early in the morning.
“If your customers are homeowners that need landscaping work, consider when they are most likely on their home computer,” stated Shineman. “Saturday mornings or early evenings during the week are good bets.”
Referrals: Try to encourage your customers to refer new customers. You can offer bounties or just make it simple to forward an offer.
“You can also work with similar/complementary partners whose customers are opted in for partner offers,” said Shineman. “If they send an exclusive offer from your company to their customer base it can feel like the partner is endorsing you, which can in turn generate results.”
Tom Taulli operates SmallBizMix.com.
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