How best to use email marketing for small businesses
Email marketing may seem old fashioned in these days. What with everyone talking about social media and mobile marketing all the time, some may see email marketing as redundant. However, it’s always important to maintain an open mind on these things – after all, studies repeatedly demonstrate that email marketing IS in fact the most effective way to reach and keep customers. One study from a globally famous consulting firm revealed that email marketing is 40 times MORE successful than using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to spread your brand’s message.
We helpfully decided to come up with what we see as the best email marketing solutions you can use to create, send and track emails…
MailChimp
MailChimp is one of the most popular tools out there, offering advanced features for highly effective email campaigns. There’s an easy-to-use drag-and-drop email creator with built in image editing and mobile-optimised emails. Tools include subscriber profiles and segmentation, as well as monitoring subscriber activity and improving sales as well as analytics that track everything from open and click rates, to growth demographics. MailChimp is free for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month.
CakeMail
CakeMail is an email marketing app that offers businesses a way to easily create, send and track email campaigns by choosing from a collection of templates. You can even design your own from scratch if you so wish. The idea is to make this as simple and as user-friendly as possible. Engagement can be measured, analytics can be analysed and in-depth reports created. One major plus is that it’s free on CakeMail to send up to 12,000 emails a month to some 2,000 contacts.
GetResponse
This email solution tool lets users create responsive newsletters and emails with autoresponders, as well as landing pages. GetResponse also allows users to gather email intelligence using analytics. A preview feature is available so users can see what emails look like on different mobile devices. One standout feature is that GetResponse helps businesses grow their lists by allowing them to connect the system with a wide range of business apps, such as content management systems, social and e-commerce sites like Salesforce; FreshBooks; Zoho; Facebook; Twitter; Joomla; WordPress and more.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact aims to help small business owners reach people in record time. The toolkit offers templates for newsletters and emails, as well as social media promotions, event management and landing pages that integrate with email marketing campaigns. Other features include real-time reporting so options can be tracked easily such as clicks and purchases.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign can help you automate your email marketing campaigns by creating engaging newsletters and email campaigns. You can include content, images and branding materials using this email tool’s customizable drag-and-drop email designer. As well as this, you can embed live product data from your website, blog posts or online store; as well as videos you’ve used in marketing.
Write About Now (WAN)
Write About Now is another email marketing tool, similar to MailChimp but with a more personal approach. The team at WAN will typically design and build a bespoke e-template for your business and help you send your campaign each month. This service is ideal for businesses that do not have the time or technical know how to put together and send the campaigns.
If you decide to go for email marketing, we hope that these tips have been useful. We thoroughly recommend using this method of marketing to increase your customer base and engage more effectively with your clients.
Thanks to Business Division for this guest post.