When you look into ways to market yourself online, you’ll find many different theories on many different methods. This is all well and good but it can make it confusing when it comes to knowing what to do. The best thing you can do is research as much as possible and then just try. A lot of the time the advertising and promotion that works well for you will depend on the industry you are involved in and who your target market is. As long as you monitor the advertising you are doing and look to see how people are responding to this then you should find it easy to work out what is working well for you and what you might need to leave behind in favour of something else.

One pretty solid marketing method that works across the board is email marketing. There are several reasons why it works well, but as long as you do it correctly it can definitely be a solid way to get the attention of customers and potential customers. So, as a small business, why should you be considering email marketing?

1 – Affordability and Budget

As a small business it is likely that you don’t have a big budget in order to get your name out there. This means you need to consider marketing methods that are cost effective – which email marketing most definitely is! Of course sending an actual email costs nothing, which is a lot less than sending out physical catalogues and leaflets to people. You might have a small cost for a piece of email software to make sure your emails are being sent correctly but when you look at how much other marketing methods cost, it is easy to see how much email marketing could be saving you. Loads of the big name brands still email their customers on a regular basis, so it obviously does work even for those who have a bit more of a budget at their finger tips for marketing.

2 – Success Rate

The truth is that email marketing works. Of course you need to invest a little time into getting it right and making sure that you are emailing the right people, but apart from that it does work. Any business probably wants to grow and ensure that they are as successful as possible and email marketing can most definitely help with this.  Email marketing can help to develop your brand and the trust you have with your customers, which can only ever be a positive move!

3 – It’s Immediate

Unlike when you send out letters or flyers, you know when an email will be delivered. Of course you can’t control when it is read but being able to send it and know it is available to the recipient is great. This means that you can put in call to actions for set dates because you know when it has been received. Generally speaking emails sent for a marketing campaign are mostly read within 48 hours of being sent – because we all have such immediate access to our email accounts.

4 – You Choose Who To Email

When you pay for a printed advert you don’t know who is going to see it. That means you could be paying for a lot of uninterested people to look at your advert. When you take part in email marketing you choose who to email – so you already know that they are interested in your product and what you have to say.

5 – It’s Easy

If you have ever sent an email in your life then email marketing is something that you’ll be able to do. Unlike other online marketing methods you don’t need to have lots of marketing or computer skills. As long as you set up the right software you should be able to do this without too much hassle at all – which can only be a good thing! Of course you’ll need to monitor what type of emails work and what doesn’t but that is all part of the learning curve, the rest – is easy!

Guest Post: My name is Nicola and I have a keen interest in social media, SEO and internet marketing.