Keeping in contact with customers is important. Yet, many businesses aren’t taking advantage of a fairly easy strategy for doing so: email marketing.

If you work for a large, well-known company that has customers across the U.S., you need email marketing. If you’re a new business owner working in a small town where your customers live, you need email marketing, too.

Email is effective. It’s inexpensive. And, believe it or not, it’s sure to be one of your lowest business costs.

At this point, you’re probably thinking, Email? Are you serious?

Yes, I’m serious. And here’s why:

Today’s consumers have endless choices for who to do business with. If your company is too busy to keep in touch with customers, those buyers may forget about you or think you don’t value them. Next thing you know, they aren’t responding to promotional offers. You don’t see them interacting on your business’ Facebook page like they used to. Or you realize they only made one purchase months ago and haven’t returned for more.

Don’t Leave Email Marketing Up to Chance — Have a Plan

For most people who know me, I bet they’d say I’m someone who’s good at keeping in touch. I’ve always been wired this way, with a built-in tickler file system (that’s a throwback term, for sure), where my brain typically reminds me when it’s time to check in with a family member or friend. My internal calendar is also good at reminding me to follow up with businesses I work with, like when it’s time to check back on a marketing project I quoted.

Lately, though, something’s been weighing on my mind: I don’t have a formal plan in place for how to keep the relationship going with my customers. There’s some irony in this because when I tell people what I do for a living, I often mention email marketing as an area of expertise. And I do have deep experience in this area and understand its role in the marketing mix!

If I can develop an email marketing program for a client, why am I not doing it for my own business? I can’t leave this up to my internal tickler system any longer. I’m busier now, which is great, but the marketing work I do for others can distract me from my own marketing. But now I’m ready to address this.

Our Love/Hate Relationship with Marketing Emails

Have you ever said to yourself, Gosh, I hope I receive a lot of emails today? In general, we don’t love being on the receiving end of marketing emails. We often have a full email inbox — with a few important messages we want to read and many others we’d rather not. But a well-timed, thoughtful email from a company that considers me its valued customer? A company that sends me news or a way to save me money, time or frustration? I typically don’t mind those types of emails. You probably feel the same.

Email Marketing Done Well

Recently, I attended a webinar for advanced users of WordPress. (Side note: In case you’re not familiar with it, WordPress is a popular content management system for websites, like mine right here.) Two days later, I received an email from the company thanking me for attending and giving me a replay link if I’d like to re-listen to the presentation or forward it to a colleague. The email used a friendly tone, which I liked. (I’m always watching and observing how companies communicate. I think it’s because of my marketing background, but perhaps you do this, too.)

I give credit to the WordPress company for reaching out to me post-webinar. Sure, they already had my email address from signing up. But the owner or his marketing person spent time writing the follow-up message and sent it out in a timely manner. The message was well-written and included some value for me. I felt like my attendance was noted by the company — and, silly as it may sound, that made me feel appreciated.

Get your customers to stick with you by keeping in touch via email marketing. They’ll not only be informed and reminded about what you offer, they’re more likely to do business with you again and refer your company to others.

Email Marketing is Alive and Well

Despite what you may have heard, email marketing isn’t dead. It’s thriving, according to email marketing research curated by ecommerce provider Oberlo:

• The average expected return on investment is $32 for every $1 you spend on email marketing.
• More than 80% of small businesses rely on email as their primary customer acquisition channel and, for customer retention, another 80% make email a priority.
• The average open rate for a welcome email is 82%.
• Nearly 50% of consumers would like to receive promotional emails from their favorite brands. (If you’re in business, you are a brand!)

Need more convincing? Consider this collection of email-marketing stats from technology firm Campaign Monitor:

• More than 90% of online adults use email, with 61% using it on an average day.
• About 57% of email subscribers spend 10–60 minutes browsing marketing emails during the week.
• Think social media is more powerful than email? Think again. It’s estimated that 90% of email gets delivered to the intended recipient’s inbox … but only 2% of a business’ Facebook fans will see the company’s posts in their News Feed. (Yikes!)

Your Business has Something to Say

If you’ve not spent much time thinking about how you could use email marketing to keep in touch with customers, I’m here to help. You could communicate:

• Sales and specials: Don’t leave it up to chance that your customers will find this information elsewhere, like social media. Email them the news but keep communicating the sale or promotion via other media channels you depend on.
• New products and services: Have you added something new that your customers might be interested in buying or at least knowing about? Keep them in the loop via email. Share aspects of your products and services regularly so customers are better-informed about everything you offer.
• Partnerships you appreciate: Your business likely works with other vendors and businesses, so shine the spotlight on them occasionally. Cross-promoting partner companies is a smart, effective strategy. Let the other business owner know what you plan to communicate and ask if they would consider doing the same. Even if they say they can’t return the favor right now, you still get communication brownie points for featuring them.
• You’re making news: What you communicate to customers doesn’t always have to be about your products and services — it’s OK to talk more broadly about your company, as well. Has your company won an award, participated in an industry event or achieved a milestone, like completing its first year in business? Your customers should find this interesting.

More Communication Ideas for Your Business

I’m on a roll … so here are three more ideas that are great for email marketing:

• You’re growing your team: Is there a new person in your office who needs an introduction to your customer base? Or is there a long-time employee who deserves a shout-out? Share a brief note about the person’s role and include her/his photo and a fun fact about what they do outside of work.
• Where you do your work: Is your workspace unique? Are you proud of the area or city where you do business? Share your enthusiasm about your work environment and your customers will get to know and appreciate factors that shape your business.
• How you do your work: “Day in the life” stories let us take a peek behind the scenes to see how products get made or services get accomplished. What can you share about your company that others will find interesting — a unique process you follow or cool technology that makes work possible? Occasionally include these aspects in your email marketing.

You, as a business and business owner, are newsworthy. When you regularly share news and information with customers by email, it helps you stay connected and shows you’re interested in keeping the relationship going.

Email Marketing is Cheap — Err, Inexpensive

Are you currently capturing customers’ email addresses today? Or are they strewn about on paper documents or buried in your email inbox? Whatever your situation, take steps to get those email addresses into a content management system or email platform like Mailchimp (what I use), Hubspot or Constant Contact. Their fees are either free (depending on the email list size) or relatively inexpensive and likely to be your lowest marketing-related expense.

Though it will take time for you to corral those names and email addresses, it’s your first step in email marketing — and, candidly, it’s one that I’m still in the process of finishing. Recently, I set up a Mailchimp account, added a subscriber pop-up form to my website (you might have seen it) and am now adding customers’ names and email addresses to it. It’s taking time to complete everything, but I’m spending time on it each week … so I will complete things soon.

Prospects Need to Hear From You, Too

Here on my blog, you can look forward to periodic updates on what I’m learning from my own email  marketing and my experience helping companies with their programs. And if you sign up now (hint, hint), you’ll see what I’m doing when you let me deliver my email marketing right to you!

In a future blog post, I’ll talk about keeping in touch with prospects. They deserve some TLC (tender-loving communication) from your business, too.

If you could use my help in getting an email marketing program set up for your business, please get in touch with me.

Photo: Cory Bouthillette Via Unsplash