Why Should You Use Email Marketing for your Business?

Email is Everywhere

 

In the age of Internet 2.0, social media and mobile apps, email marketing might look old fashioned and redundant but the reality is the opposite.

 

Despite all the advances in digital communication and online marketing, email is still considered the steady workhorse because it’s a cheap and reliable method of getting your message out there.

 

Up to 82% of businesses, in all sorts of markets, use email so if you or your businesses aren’t you need to consider, why not?

 

What Should You Send Out?

 

If you do decide to undertake an email marketing campaign you need to do two things to begin:

 

Start collecting your customers email addresses

 

Start thinking about what interests them and what you’ll actually send them

 

61% of online adults use email every day and almost half of them access emails on a mobile device. Keep this in mind when creating your campaign. It has to be attractive, easy to read and concise on even the smallest of screens.

 

Engaged Mailing Lists

 

When you do begin collecting customer email addresses try to do so in a positive fashion. The average email open rate hovers around 20% but if you focus on only collecting the addresses of those most interest it can rise to as high as 50%!

 

100 engaged interested customer addresses are far better than 1000 uninterested customers that just as quickly might unsubscribe. Don’t get bogged down in the vanity of numbers.

 

Finally, try to focus on those people that might be interested in hearing more about your products, services or events on a regular basis. 

Search Engines are Answer Machines

"Just Google It"

 

We’ve all said it.

 

What we actually mean is “Just ask Google” and we’re all searching for answers to our every day questions:

 

Where are the best walks in Northern Ireland?

What are cheap healthy food recipes?

How can I invest my money?

 

Think of the questions your customers might ask and then consider how well your website answers them.

 

Search engines will direct the searcher to the best answer. Is that you?

 

In thinking this way you can start to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of your website and begin the process of improving things until you provide Google, and other engines, with the best possible answers for your target customers.

 

Why Should You Care About SEO?

 

The number of people going online grows every day and they are constantly searching for the products, services, information and entertainment they want and need.

 

39 million people from the UK used Google alone in 2014 to search for what they wanted. In the same year 64% of all web traffic came from search engines.

 

6 out of every 10 visitors to your website is a big number. Are you providing them with the right answers to their search questions?

 

Search Search Search

 

What are people actually looking for online?

 

Well, as it turns out, we’re looking for absolutely everything. For example, over 40,000 people searched for “healthy recipes” in the UK in the last month alone.

 

No matter what your niche, there will be search traffic (although it could be tiny!)

 

Content-wise people are looking for answers and this could be great product pictures and descriptions, an in-depth explanation of your services or maybe just helpful tips within your niche.

 

Think about what your customer is asking on a search engine, then set about creating the best answers.

 

Digital Marketing for Northern Ireland Businesses

Don’t Be Scared of Online

 

I’ve spoken to a few businesses around the country that worry that by increasing their efforts online things might suffer offline – in the "real world".

 

This couldn’t be further from the truth and I’d love to see more local businesses out there truly grasp the power of their own website, social media channels and email marketing.

 

This can be done alongside your efforts in your store or business. It just takes a little time, organisation and effort.

 

A Year in Digital

 

Just before Christmas I spoke to one business in Ballymena who were starting to see the rewards of a little hard work online.

 

In January 2015 (exactly one year ago!) they decided to use their website as more than just a static shop window. They begin to add tens, if not hundreds of products, to their website and slowly built up a reliable online shop within their own niche.

 

As the months passed they started to see great online traffic slowly filter through to their website and even noticed funny trends.

 

These trends included a bad day in the shop, due to horrible weather, being replaced by a great day online with people buying from the comfort of their own (warm & dry!) home. Their shop and website were now complimenting each other.

 

They did all this without taking their eye off the ball offline in their store.

 

Start Today!

 

This doesn’t just apply to shops or businesses selling a product on a shelf.

 

Everyone including service-based businesses, restaurants, cafes, gyms and hairdressers should look to slowly build up a great online side to their business!

 

Get the ball rolling...

  • Take a look at your website and ask yourself “Does the content on here answer my average customer’s questions?”

 

  • Start asking your customers for their email address to send them exclusive offers and up-to-date information on your business