Best email marketing services for a small business. It is important to have returns over cost because that is where you get paid
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Table of contents
The trouble with email services
A most valuable asset is your customer list from which you take your email addresses.
If this is not serviced properly, clients or customers opt out of your list for their own reasons.
Once they are gone it is difficult to reinstate them because of difficulty with Spamming laws in every country.
The time I spammed
For one example I moved a small section of my list to another carrier because the price was outwardly better.
I composed a couple of newsletters and sent them out to see what would happen. Quite a few bailed because they thought they were being spammed due to the large advertising block on the footer of the mail. Not my advertising it belonged to a carrier and had an animal picture proudly displayed.
Clients that had been with me for years reported this as spam, the carrier banned me from any further activity because of the result. Furthermore, I had trouble recovering what was left on the list.
I email up to 10,000 addresses sometimes twice a month and have almost no trouble. There are always exceptions. I was recently reported for spamming by a guy that had opened every email for two years, it must have been a bad hair day.
People bail for many reasons and we consider it as a cleaning benefit.
Paying by email or client, which is best?
Carriers differ in their pricing regime with both having benefits depending on how you market.
- You can pay by the number of addresses you have in your base
- Or the number of emails sent
Because it is an email service I don't want to be hesitant in sending out mail because of cost.
Bulk mail is all about percentages and the more you send the greater the return.
Therefore I would always select pay by the base and email them twice a month.
Your email server can do a lot more than the basics
- Single email
- Bulk email
- delayed email
- Newsletter
- Auto responnder
- Surveys
- Websites
Plus a few more items as well depending on your choice of carrier.
Your Autoresponder is a great service and everyone should use it if you want to capture all those incoming leads. Set up a stream of mail released overtime to bring your customers to a buying decision.
Newsletters
Many consider that this does not work however done correctly it can deliver sales as well as any media and at a smaller cost.
Newsletters are not a sales tool however they help to sell. Let me explain.
Internet marketing is all about consistent customer interaction. In fact, the more ways you use to touch a customer the greater the returns you will get.
Newsletters are all about information, entertainment, and showcasing your products.
Your readers want to be entertained because this is the long haul. It may be months or even years before you get a reaction however it will come. That time is when the buyer is ready and that is why we always have a subtle call to action.
So Newsletters can sell but they are there to provide customer interaction.
Best Email Marketing Services for a Small Business and your Database.
Your data base is valuable
The value of your database can be reflected in the number of addresses contained within it. The oft-quoted figure is $5 a month per customer in sales. every month.
One of my bases sells a product that will pay me Over $500 in a year. Therefore just two sales on a base of 5500 will cover all my email expenses. I generally mail twice a month and have an open rate of about 20% which for the industry is reasonable.
Gathering additional income from your Newsletter
I market a business product however I also blog on small business ideas in general.
Every newsletter has a link to my latest blog thus increasing traffic and affiliate sales.
They are basically in the same business but have entirely different income streams.
The result is beneficial because I get a better result on the site and many clicks to my blog. Plus readers stay with my Newsletter because they like the blog.
Does your carrier offer all these alternatives?
You may not use all the options every time however they are there when needed.
The additional benefit is the tracking results. You can find out exactly who is doing what and the actions they take. Who opened an Email, who clicked, and who opted out.
You will get clients that take no actions ever, these are in target for your cleaning duties to be deleted they are a waste of time.
Sometimes this is just a wrong address and can be attended to.
I have a friend who is a receptionist in Dental surgery. Her first job of the day is to delete every email that is not about clients. Therefore the Dentist will never see your work and no one will ever read it. Say goodbye because they are costing you time, space and results
My choice of providers
I have tried many providers and ways to do email however have settled on Constant Contact as the best in many things. However, there are always problems and CC is not without them.
Customer service is awful, to say the least. They are not the cheapest kid on the block and the service is sometimes a bit hard to navigate.
Having said that I believe the benefits far outweigh the negative issues.
Extremely reliable, no spam issues, a full range of services, great stats page and you can send as many emails as you want when you want.
Conclusion
Dollar for dollar this is the cheapest form of high contact and consistent marketing that you can do.
Having used Email marketing with Constant Contact for many years I am a convert that will not be moved. My cost is about $0.01 per contact or less depending on the frequency of my mail.
You do need to retain your skill levels and continue to improve so as to not be boring by repetitive material.
Be confident in your mail.
Best Email Marketing Services for a Small Business by Peter Hanley
