Monday, August 17, 2015

Monday Marketing Blog: The Power of Email Marketing



Email is one of the most versatile tools in any entrepreneur’s tool kit. It gives you the ability to reach out to a customer, a supporter, or a prospect almost instantaneously . Effective use of email marketing begins with understanding its abilities beyond its most frequent uses. Most people think of email in the context of contacting another individual in an electronic format. As an individual, I use email to correspond with my team members in a direct 1:1 manner. However, email has a variety of uses cases that are more useful than its conventional usage. 
Before email, when business owners wanted to reach out to customers and prospects, they utilized direct mail to send flyers, proposals, and brochures. The cost of preparing marketing materials and sending them through the mail was expensive and it was incredibly difficult to ascertain the ROI (Return on Investment) for a specific campaign. If you sent a flyer for a Buy One Get One promo, you only really knew how effective the flyer was by how many people appeared at your store to take advantage of the promo. You had no way of knowing how many people discarded your flyer in the trash. You didn’t have a clue whether people actually received your flyer either. 

With email, when entrepreneurs want to reach out to customers and prospects, they are able to utilize email in a variety of use cases, all designed to engage with individuals on your email list. Relative to the cost of direct mail, email is an incredibly cheaper and more effective way of communicating. Email also allows you to track the journey of an email from when you send it to when they receive it. Business owners are now able to track the open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, un-deliverables, and the time spent on reading the email.  With this additional information, we are now able to pin point which of our prospects and customers are really interested, somewhat interested, or not interested at all. Through email, you can also send monthly newsletters that contain relevant industry updates or company news to your customer and prospect base. And you can also utilize email marketing software like Mailchimp to send out auto-responder emails and drip email campaigns.  Keep your eyes out for a blog post that delves into further details about auto-responder and drip email campaigns!
Email marketing is a tool that any business owner should use religiously. The example I provided above is only a sample of its capabilities. With iVirtual Business Services, we can create and implement email marketing strategies that are streamlined and simplified. Consult with me for 30 minutes and I can show you how iVBS can create value for you through a customized email marketing system. Schedule your appointment with my timetrade schedule!

iVirtual Business Services is your Operational & Administrative Solution…because you deserve work/life balance. 

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