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E MAIL M ARKETING T IPS FOR
S MALL B USINESS
Best Practices Shouldn’t be Written for Just the Big Guys
Email marketing is a proven winner for big and small business – are you doing it? It
doesn’t have to be complicated and time consuming to get results; in fact, follow
these best practices and without a doubt, your email marketing will be making your
business profits hands over fists.
Windward Software
6/25/2009
6/25/2009
EMAIL MARKETING TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Best Practices Shouldn’t be Written for Just the Big Guys
However, (as is often the case), marketing is being put on the back burner because day to day operations
are taking more precedence – besides, there isn’t a huge coffer of discretionary money kicking around for
“pie-eyed” marketing. Basically, as a small business owner, you need something on the cheap that will
definitely work.
Email marketing is your best answer –
it keeps your customers involved; it
keeps your brand at the forefront; it
Email marketing is your best answer – it
doesn’t have to be expensive; and it
is highly effective at maintaining keeps your customers involved; it keeps
customer loyalty and bringing in net your brand at the forefront; it doesn’t have
new sales. to be expensive; and it is highly effective at
maintaining customer loyalty and bringing in
But just like all marketing channels, if
you don’t do email marketing right, net new sales.
you might as well throw what little
promotion dollars you have right into
the garbage.
So how does the small business owner run an effective email
marketing campaign?
Follow these ten steps…
1. PUT YOURSELF IN THE CAMPAIGN
Believe it or not, small town thinking still exists in your customers minds.
Customers want to have a relationship with the person they’re buying from… they don’t want to
feel sold.
So if you have a conversational style that is more “off the cuff” than polished professional, don’t write your
emails as if you were a straight laced English butler.
Emails don’t have to read like a Victorian novel – in fact, the most effective email marketing copy
reads like a conversation, as if you were standing in the room. This style not only reinforces your
brand but it also reminds the reader of the last time they were in your store and the good experience they
had.
In short, unless you are running a military surplus store, leave the “sirs” and “mams” out of the copy and just
be yourself.
2. AIM SMALL THEN GROW
Windward Software | 200-3547 Skaha Lake Rd | Penticton BC Canada | V2A 7K2 | 800.663.5750 | http://wws5.com 1
6/25/2009
You probably don’t have Crispin & Porter or Ogilvy writing your emails and producing your marketing
copy – and you probably don’t have a budget of millions set aside – and odds are that you don’t have
10,000 email addresses in your database.
What you do have is a trusted clientele and a great store… start leveraging that!
Start by sending out an email to the addresses you do have, telling them that you are going to start
sending out coupons and promotions via email and ask if they would be interested (you’d be surprised
how many will be). Then, make up a little point-of-purchase card that customers can fill out to receive
online only coupons and more.
It won’t take long for you to have a giant reservoir of emails and a renewed interest and curiosity amongst
your customers.
3. DON’T PROMISE WHAT YOU CAN’T DELIVER
Be a realist, don’t promise weekly discounts if you can’t afford it and don’t have the time to send out
weekly emails –start with seasonal or monthly promotions, maybe notifications of servicing or seasonal
stock.
Email campaigns only work if you first, create interest, and
then second, actually deliver!
4. DON’T DO IT ALONE
Don’t rely on your Gmail, Hotmail, or Outlook to be able to do
everything. You certainly can do a very effective email
campaign with just these tools, but there are definitely easier
and better ways to do it. Just search for vendors online, you
will be surprised how inexpensive some great solutions are.
5. USE YOUR KNOWLEDGE
You know your customers, leverage that knowledge! If
your customers are techies that use their phones to check email,
make sure your emails are visible in mobile platforms. If your
customers are mainly young families, appeal to their needs and
concerns in your copy.
If you want your emails read, they should be a story that the reader (your customer) can resonate with – if
you don’t speak their language, you might as well stop talking.
6. USE BCC AND FOLLOW THE RULES
You only have to send out one email campaign without using the BCC feature to fully understand how big
a mistake it is. Trust me, I know!
Privacy and trust are important to your customers, once you cross the line, you can never get it
back – so be careful to protect your customer’s identities, don’t sell your list, don’t SPAM, and don’t make
misleading promises.
7. DRIVE YOUR GROWTH
Windward Software | 200-3547 Skaha Lake Rd | Penticton BC Canada | V2A 7K2 | 800.663.5750 | http://wws5.com 2
6/25/2009
In everything you do, build your email database. Include a “forward to a friend” link in your emails.
Ask every customer for their email. No matter what the touch point, try to grow your list. Just make sure
that your messaging also includes “why” somebody would want to give you their email and assures them
that it is completely safe to do so.
8. WIFM (WHAT’S IN I T FOR ME)
Nobody does anything, except for Saints, without there being something in it for them. So make
sure that every email and marketing message includes some type of incentive to read the email, forward to
a friend, or give you an email in the first place.
You don’t have to have huge “give-aways,” sometimes just a thank-you is enough.
But if you are going to try and develop a dialogue with your customers, make it worth their while, give
them something to pay attention to.
9. TRACK IT
If you can’t measure it, don’t do it.
Whatever you use, make sure you can track open
rates and the revenue growth from your campaign,
or else you will have no idea if and what is
working.
10. GET OFF YOUR BUTT
You cannot afford to idly wait for customers to
come into your store, you have to do something to
get them and keep them coming back.
In a small business you have a smaller than 6-
month window to re-engage a customer before
they forget about you and pass you by.
If you have their email address, start using it!
Windward Software | 200-3547 Skaha Lake Rd | Penticton BC Canada | V2A 7K2 | 800.663.5750 | http://wws5.com 3
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