The Google Analytics for Local Businesses Study revealed that only a few local businesses use email to drive traffic. In fact, the share of local businesses using email for advertising and promotion was only 39.4%. Moreover, It was intriguing to know that just 4% of businesses received more than 100 monthly sessions through email.
Small businesses often consider email marketing a strategy that’s just for the giant businesses. However, it certainly isn’t the case. Email marketing can help create a strong customer relationship while building a better brand image, irrespective of the size of your client’s business. Well, 91% of marketers already consider email as an imperative tool for their content marketing distribution. So, if your client wants to make the most out of their marketing strategy, they ought to invest in email. Here’s how email marketing can take your client’s small business to the next level.
How Email Marketing Can Boost Growth for Your Local Business
1. Credibility
With its ability to send relevant and informative data to the subscribers, business email templates can help to build credibility along with getting ample trust and recognition from the customer base. It will create a strong and long-lasting relationship with the subscriber.
2. Brand visibility
Emails can be sent from anywhere and anytime. It doesn’t require any physical location to function. All your client needs is an email id and they are good to send the relevant message to their customer base, thereby improving the visibility of their business.
3. Cheaper than paid advertising
Emails, undoubtedly, are the cheapest marketing channel with the highest ROI. A business can earn $44 for every $1 spent on email marketing. This surely makes email marketing the most profitable digital marketing channel. Moreover, with 65% of marketers already finding their email marketing ROI excellent, it is high time your client’s business leverages it too and gets an edge over its counterparts.
4. Increase online as well as offline traffic
Emails are sent to persuade prospective customers and convert them into loyal ones. Therefore, email marketing, if leveraged correctly, can increase your client’s website traffic along with enhancing the subscriber engagement with their brand. In short, a successful email marketing campaign wouldn’t only encourage your client’s subscriber to click-through the email and redirect to a landing page or a physical store but, also accelerate the sales and revenue.
5. Humanize the marketing
90% of consumers find marketing content personalization appealing. So, if your client wants to be successful in the long run of business, they must take steps towards humanizing their email marketing campaign. In fact, email marketing is considered to be a dynamic personalization tactic. From analyzing the online behavior of the customers and their sales funnel position to keeping a check on their preferences and demography, there are a lot of ways that your client can use to leverage the personalization strategy. Using the first name of the customer is a great way of striking a personal chord with the customer. Take a look at this email from Product Hunt.
6. Improve the conversion rates and convert the customers into evangelists
A customer might forget a business after purchase. However, email marketing has the ability to create a long-lasting customer relationship. Since all the customers are in your client’s email list, it is easy to keep in touch with them. This wouldn’t only promote repeat purchase but also improve the conversion rates and turn the customers into evangelists.
These are a few of the many ways that can help your client boost their business growth. However, before starting the email marketing campaign for your client’s local business, it is important to have a robust list of local subscribers.
Let’s discuss some ideas that can help them in doing the same.
How to build the list of local subscribers?
• Partner with businesses in the local area
Businesses in the local area have an impact on local customers. So, leveraging it can be great for your client’s business. All they need to do is a partner with the right business. For instance, if your client has a restaurant business, partnering with the local food joint can surely bring a lot of local subscribers in their email list.
• Host events or online contests
Hosting events and conducting online contests can attract prospective customers to your client’s brand. The temptation of enjoying events and winning contests will encourage buyers to participate in such activities. As a result, the visibility and awareness around your client’s business will increase. Consequently, the email list will grow too.
• Invite social media followers from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to join the email list
Social media plays a big role in the success of a business. So, why not extract its benefits to the core? Your client can do so by inviting their social media followers to join the email list. However, it is critical to have a strong social media presence for achieving the goal. Your client can do the needful by being consistent and posting regular and relevant posts on their social media handles. Engaging with customers through comments and messages is also a great way to have a one to one connection with the customers.
• Incentivize the subscribers with an attractive offer
Everyone loves attractive offers and deals. A timely offer can work wonders in increasing traffic and sales both along with your email list too. In fact, 64% of customers already find email as their preferred channel for receiving offers and discounts. So, your client should leverage it to the core and offer discounts, coupons and complimentary gifts for increasing their email list. See how 1-800 Printing does it like a pro.
Once you have an impeccable list of local subscribers, you can further polish your email list by delving deeper into a few more local business email marketing tactics. Take a look.
• Draft engaging newsletters
Once a customer signs up to your client’s email list, they should put their best foot forward and send a warm welcome email to the customer. Drafting an engaging custom email templates will also do the needful. It can include anything from local event announcements, localized guides on certain topics and tips on how to do certain things. For instance, a restaurant can leverage newsletters by engaging customers through their local food recipes and giving them tips to cook. They can also organize local food fests and inform the customers through newsletters to get the desired footfall.
• Highlight your rewards or loyalty program
As mentioned already, everyone loves great deals and rewards. Your client as a marketer can use it for their benefit by highlighting their rewards or loyalty programs. A coupon, buy one get one free offer or loyalty points can provide instant gratification to the customers, thereby helping your client flourish their local business like never before.
• Promote case studies and customer testimonials
Customers always look for assurance when opting to buy a new product or indulging in a new service. This is where promoting case studies and customer testimonials can come in handy. After all, when a customer would have reviews and feedbacks to know a product or service well, their confidence and trust in your client’s brand will increase. So, every time a customer buys anything, make sure to get a testimonial or feedback from them. Do it the way Squarespace does.
• Send surveys or polls to get user-generated content
Surveys and polls play a great role in extracting the user-generated content. It doesn’t only involve the customer with the brand but also allows the business to get hold of the first hand and genuine information of the customer base. Here’s how Handy goes about it.
• Include local discount offers
Discounts always work. Your client can entice its local customer base by providing relevant local discounts such as coupons or vouchers for a store nearby.
Wrap up
Email marketing is a cost-effective approach that lets small businesses build their customer base with ease in the local area. By using strategies like personalization, discounts, surveys, polls, offers etc, your client can easily leverage the varied benefits of email marketing and make their local business top-notch. In short, as the word spreads about their brand, they would be able to increase their sales as well as enhance their ROI.
