E-Mail Marketing Basics for Small Businesses

Marketing is one of the biggest challenge and a money consuming exercise for a small business. With the increase in marketing on the social medium, is email marketing still a good option for small businesses?

Yes, it’s still one of the best marketing tools available. According to a recent study by Pew Internet, 59% of adult users in the US spends time reading and sending email, 11% more than the time spend on social medium.

E-mail marketing, if done correctly, can be an inexpensive way to reach a large audience. The most important starting point is to make users want to receive your emails, or as they say have them opt-in and subscribe to your newsletter service on your website.

In this way, you can collect e-mail addresses without buying a list that may be created and/or sold illegally.

E-mailing advertisements, sent with the express permission of the recipient, can still become redundant, and therefore ineffective, unless you:

• Offer new discounted products or services regularly
• Provide very targeted mailings
• Offer some content or information which is useful to the user

Even two or three sentences of original content can give a reason to read your e-mail. It can also support the advertising that otherwise may be deleted. Short bits of information, such as five tips for saving on electricity bills by a HVAC company or suggestions for “dressing for occasions” from a clothing retailer are ways to keep your audience interested in your e-mails. Establishing your own newsletter, which may only be a few paragraphs, can draw the attention of your readers.

When e-mailing customers, you also need:

• A catchy headline
• A recognizable company name in the “from” box so they’ll know it’s from your business
• A simple one-click manner in which they can get more information on specific products or services
• A means of reaching customer service
• A link for them to un-subscribe

Since you may only have one second to capture the reader before he or she hits delete, it’s to your benefit to highlight an interesting item in your subject line or immediately in the body of the text. This window can literally give you a “window of opportunity” to grab their attention. Make this about them.

A few e-mail marketing rules of thumb:

• Make sure that everyone on the list has agreed to be there — don’t add names
• Reassure readers that their information will not be shared
• Give readers an opportunity to opt off of the list
• Keep information concise, to the point, and focused on their needs
• Don’t blitz — e-mailing more than once or twice a week is annoying
• Provide a choice of HTML or TEXT version

Landing pages are also important. Readers should be able to get more information by clicking on various places on the initial marketing e-mail or newsletter. Don’t send them to a home page and make them search for the specific information that brought them there. For example, on Amazon.com if you click on a specific book, you’ll get a page with details and reviews of that book and suggestions of similar books. That landing page provides information including pricing or purchasing and then leads to a sales page or shopping cart. Your promotional e-mails should do the same thing and give the reader an opportunity to go to your home page.

What is Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is a revenue sharing venture between a website owner and an online merchant. The website owner will place advertisements on his websites to either help sell the merchant’s products or to send potential customers to the merchant’s website, all in exchange for a share of the profits.

There are three ways to earn money through affiliate marketing:

Pay Per Click — Every time a potential customer leaves the affiliate website by “clicking” on the link leading to the merchant’s website, a certain amount of money is deposited in the affiliate’s account. This amount can be pennies or dollars depending on the product and amount of the commission.

Pay Per Sale — Every time a sale is made as a result of advertising on the affiliate’s website, a percentage, or commission, is deposited into the affiliate’s account.

Pay Per Lead — Every time a potential client registers at the merchant’s website as a result of the advertisement on the affiliate’s account, a previously determined amount is deposited into the affiliate’s account.

For many website owners, this is a great way to earn some extra money without actually having to “do” anything. All it involves is placing an ad on the affiliate’s website. There’s no selling or promotion of any kind. The affiliate can just sit back and wait for the profits to roll in.

It’s also beneficial to the merchant. By placing affiliate marketing advertising on websites all over the Internet, he has free advertising and doesn’t need to do much selling on his own. The more websites a merchant is affiliated with, the more exposure his products get, and all he has to do is allow ads for his products to appear on someone else’s website.

While affiliate marketing has its benefits, there are also a few cons. For instance, the merchant has to share the profits with an outside party. If an affiliate uses unsavory means to bring customers to his website and sell the merchant’s products, the merchant will also have to contend with doing a little damage control on his reputation.

The affiliate has to do thorough research on the merchant before agreeing to affiliation. To not do so can mean ending up with a merchant who refuses to pay commission fees or packs up his business and moves on without informing any of his affiliates. This is rare, however, and most merchants and affiliates have a pleasant and profitable business arrangement.

It’s important to choose wisely. In some cases, an ad can be placed on an affiliate’s website for months before a potential customer “clicks” or purchases something. If the commission is only pennies, this can lead to a frustrating relationship. Both the affiliate and the merchant are well advised to ensure the relationship will be mutually beneficial.

Affiliate marketing is considered one of the best ways to earn money online. If this is an avenue you wish to pursue, you’d be well advised to research each merchant thoroughly. After that, there’s not much else to do except wait for the profits to roll in.