Small Business Email Marketing Guide

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Email Marketing for Small Business Guide
Read the article online athttps//www.aidanseo.co
m/5-step-guide-small-business-email-marketing/
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Introduction
On average, office staff of businesses receive
over 121 emails every day. Is your small business
using this to your advantage? Email marketing is
an essential element in todays business world.
It has replaced the circulars and flyers that
used to fill the mailbox. If you havent added
email marketing to your marketing strategy, you
need to take a fresh look at it. The process
doesnt have to be expensive or time-consuming.
In fact, with these five simple steps you can get
your email marketing up and running. Lets get
started.
Read the article online athttps//www.aidanseo.co
m/5-step-guide-small-business-email-marketing/
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Select An Mailing List Platform Part 1
You need the right tools to handle all the
details of your email campaigns. Up to this
point, you may have managed your email list on a
spreadsheet. However, when you start implementing
email marketing in earnest, its recommended that
you use a specialty provider instead of trying to
do things internally. An email service provider
offers you all the tools you need to get started
and be successful. They provide easy-to-use
templates so your emails are well-structured and
not likely to be caught in spam filters. Many of
these services start out with no fees. As your
lists grow and your needs expand, fees will
apply, but they start low and only scale up when
the number of email subscribers reaches a higher
level. Heres a short list of some of the more
popular and user-friendly email marketing
services you can try.
Read the article online athttps//www.aidanseo.co
m/5-step-guide-small-business-email-marketing/
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Select A Mailing List Platform Part 2
AWeber Works quite well with many eCommerce and
blog sites. They offer a 30-day free trial and
then plans start at 19 per month. Constant
Contact Well known for their easy to use
templates, shareable formats, and insightful
analytics, this company offers a two-month free
trial, then plans start at 20 per
month. MailChimp Made for small businesses,
MailChimp offers plenty of automation, advanced
analytics, and user-friendly templates. Its free
while your email list is under 2000
subscribers. Take time to find the service
provider that best fits your needs now and in the
future. While you can switch between providers as
your needs change, it takes time and will disrupt
your email marketing efforts.
Read the article online athttps//www.aidanseo.co
m/5-step-guide-small-business-email-marketing/
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Building Your Email List Part 1
Once you have a provider, the next step is to
start building your email list. If you have a
list of contacts in a spreadsheet, you should be
able to upload them into your new email marketing
tool. If you have email addresses written on
forms or invoices, you need to do some data
entry. Find any email addresses you have and get
them into the providers list. This is the start
of your ever-expanding email list. With your
current emails in the database, the next step is
to grow the list. You can go about this many
ways. How you approach it will be influenced by
your business and the products or services you
offer.
Read the article online athttps//www.aidanseo.co
m/5-step-guide-small-business-email-marketing/
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Building Your Email List Part 2

• Here are a few ways you might get started
• Add a subscriber text box to your website. You
  can offer an incentive such as an ebook or white
  paper as an incentive.
• Ask current customers, friends, employees, family
  members, and vendors to sign up through the
  subscriber link on your website.
• Offer a special promotion to your customers and
  require a valid email to receive it.
• Include a CTA button on your social media pages
  and posts.
• Add a QR code on flyers and circulars to
  encourage email sign up
• Every email you collect is extremely valuable to
  your business. Always ask for the email address
  owners permission for using it. Without their
  permission, you could lose your ability to send
  emails through your provider due to sending out
  spam.

Read the article online athttps//www.aidanseo.co
m/5-step-guide-small-business-email-marketing/
Slide 6
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Develop Your Email Marketing Strategy Part 1
Before you start sending out emails, you need to
know why you are sending them out. Some common
reasons are to get information out, promote
sales, encourage product support, and engage
customers. Clearly defining your small business
specific objectives is critical to your email
marketing success. Those objectives let you
develop a strategy and move forward with
confidence. Answer these questions to help
define your objectives and strategy What are
your objectives with each campaign? You need to
know how you are providing value and what actions
you want subscribers to take. This will vary by
campaign, email list, or list segment. The
desired action can include sharing content,
buying product, or consuming the content. Always
be clear about the purpose of each campaign.
Read the article online athttps//www.aidanseo.co
m/5-step-guide-small-business-email-marketing/
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Develop Your Email Marketing Strategy Part 2
Who is the demographic you are targeting? Sending
an email to everyone on your list may not be the
most effective option in some cases. Sending it
to a smaller segment that meets your demographic
needs will be more effective. Subscribers can
receive emails that are relevant to their
interests and you can avoid sending spam to those
who are not interested. This better engages
subscribers and improve email open rates. How
often should you send out emails? This depends on
your business type and where the customer is in
the sales funnel. You may have to experiment to
find the right frequency.
Read the article online athttps//www.aidanseo.co
m/5-step-guide-small-business-email-marketing/
Slide 8
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Develop Your Email Marketing Strategy Part 3
The type of email you send out will often
determine frequency. For example, if you put out
a newsletter once a month, you can engage your
entire list with relevant content. Then,
throughout the month, you can target different
list segments with more targeted emails that
builds branding and engages their specific
needs. One way to drive people away from your
email list is to only send campaigns that
pressure them to buy. They will unsubscribe or
just delete the emails. The better option is to
provide valuable content that builds the
relationship and positions you as an industry
leader.
Read the article online athttps//www.aidanseo.co
m/5-step-guide-small-business-email-marketing/
Slide 9
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Create Effective High-Quality Content

• The content you send out via your marketing email
  must be high quality and engaging to the
  customer. Its not something you should do in
  haste. It takes time and thought. Dont make the
  mistake of using your email to blast the
  recipients with ads of your newest product or
  holiday sales offers. They will unsubscribe quite
  quickly.
• Before sending out your first email, consider the
  following
• Always give your email campaigns a clear purpose.
• Engage with your readers at a personal, emotional
  level.
• Create valuable content, not just sales ads.
• One rule of thumb is that most of the time you
  spend on email marketing should be on content
  creation. The time you spend on content creation
  is an investment in getting future business and
  building brand confidence.

Read the article online athttps//www.aidanseo.co
m/5-step-guide-small-business-email-marketing/
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Use Analytics To Measure Improve
Most popular mail service providers offer
analytics as part of their package. It allows you
to measure how well your email campaigns are
doing. Some providers let you link your Google
Analytics account to get even deeper
insights. No matter how well you construct your
email campaign, the ultimate judge of its success
is how well your customers receive it or if they
act upon it. Analytics reports help you see
whether your objectives were met or if your calls
to action were used. These insights will give
you the ability to modify future email offerings
and improve your results.
Read the article online athttps//www.aidanseo.co
m/5-step-guide-small-business-email-marketing/
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Final Thoughts on Small Business Email Marketing
Email is one of the most powerful marketing tools
available in todays digital world. It allows you
to start marketing on a small level without a
major capital investment. With these five steps,
you are well on your way to developing and
launching your first email marketing
campaign. The key to success is planning and
building an effective strategy. Then, build
content that engages your intended audience. Only
at that point do you send out your first email
marketing campaign. Measure how well that first
campaign, make modifications to your next
campaign, and try it all over again. Thats how
you learn what works and what doesnt. The time
you spend up front will pay off as your email
marketing grows. You will be surprised at how
fast your knowledge and expertise grows. You will
be an email marketing expert in no time.
Read the article online athttps//www.aidanseo.co
m/5-step-guide-small-business-email-marketing/
Slide 11
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