Email marketing is one of the most cost effective ways to improve the visibility of businesses. Email newsletters offer quick distribution amongst existing and potential customers. However, many SMEs fail to galvanise their readers because of ineffective language and content.

To get the most from email marketing, Bryan Black, managing director of SmartFocus, a digital communications firm advises: “A good way to get customers on board is to offer them something interesting and tempt them to your website. It could be a freebie such as an iPod or a competition. You want to give them a reason to be there.”

Equally important to detailing what the business has to offer, is the delivery of the message: the right choice of language is crucial to hooking and retaining the interest of the target audience. It has to appeal and validate the business’ brand identity to ensure content space is not wasted with rhetoric. Ellie Beasley of Underwired suggests: “Keep the content punchy, precise and succinct but, most importantly, make it personal.” Making a personal connection with the reader conveys a message that ‘your business knows what they want’ and can offer the best terms to acquire it.

Establishing a ‘relationship’ with readers requires astute writing. The personality and core values of the business brand should be at the forefront of this strategy. Beasley advises SMEs to invest in effective, professional content writing. This usually means outsourcing, but the return on the investment can be very worth while. She says of copywriting: “It allows you to get your personality and message across without all the logos and imagery that typically communicates brand”. She adds: “For small businesses, text-only emails are cost-effective and can look just as good as HTML”.

For this reason, every email newsletter should have clear marketing objectives, for a tightly defined target audience. Diversifying the source from which customers subscribe to the newsletter makes a significant difference to whether or not the newsletter is put in the junk folder. James Miller, Business Solutions Consultant at Premiere Global says: “At every touch point with the customer, remember to get their contact details and give them an option to opt-in to an email newsletter”.

He adds: “You could start by adding a flyer to your invoices or make sure the literature you hand out at a trade show has a link to your website, or at the very least a form to opt-in,” says Miller. “Even get your sales people asking prospects whether they are happy to be entered into the monthly newsletter. This counts as an opt-in, providing you record it in some manner.”

Another consideration is timing and frequency. Beasley explains: “Small businesses often have a better relationship with their customers so when it comes to researching their market, the chances are they won’t mind answering a few questions.”. Identifying customer preferences helps to define the type of content they are interested in reading. Further, timing the distribution of the newsletter can boost sales, for example reminding customers of when an offer runs out can motivate their spend.

Beasley recommends using a campaign monitor to evaluate the effectiveness of email marketing, providing information such as which recipients actually read the newsletter. For those on strict budgets, she says: “Even a simple programme like Microsoft Access allows you to do post campaign analysis”.

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