Top 5 Online Marketing tips for Small Businesses

As a small business owner marketing is one of those things you can do to increase sales, revenue and even customer retention. Online marketing in particular is fast gaining popularity amongst marketers and small businesses. This is probably because unlike traditional marketing strategies (i.e. Radio, Direct Mail, TV, Outdoor, Trade Shows), online marketing strategies are more cost effective, environmentally friendly, and are very easy once you get your head round it.

I’ve compiled a list of my top 5 online marketing strategies which I think are a must. Not only have they been proven to boost sales, but I’m quite sure you’ll enjoy implementing them as well.

5. Email Marketing
4. Affiliate Marketing
3. Search Marketing
2. Social Marketing
1. Website

5. Email Marketing

At number 5 I have one of my favourites – Email Marketing. Well, I’m sure I don’t need to explain what emails are; if you’re reading this blog post then you probably know a few things about the internet already. Email marketing can be likened to the traditional direct mail (numerous letters you get from your bank in the post), but you can do so much more with emails. Email marketing helps you communicate effectively with your customers for little or no cost at all.

As a small business owner, customer retention is very important to you and one of the ways you can do this is by being in the forefront of your customers mind so they don’t get blown away by your competitors. What better way to do this than via emails? Bear in mind that most people check their emails everyday.

So you might be wondering, right what do I say on the emails? I say – Loads!

1) Send your customers confirmation emails. If a customer makes an order, why not send them an email to tell them when their order will arrive, or that payment has been successfully processed? It’ll save your customers time contacting you to get this information, and they’ll appreciate your effort.

2) Send regular newsletters, an email newsletter will help you build up on your relationship with your customers. Newsletters are not just offers and news about your company, send your customers information they will find useful so that they look forward to reading your emails.
You can send them relevant tips and information. For example I receive regular newsletters from organic fruit and veg company Abel & Cole; they send me recipes, tips on healthy eating, and even information on seasonal fruits and vegetables.

3) How about sending an e-brochure? Instead of spending hundreds and possibly thousands of pounds on print brochures that might get chucked in the bin, why not send an email with images and descriptions of your new products and services? You could even include special offers as an incentive for customers to buy.
You’ll save yourself a whole load of cash, and even better your customers will get the email in real time, let the sales begin!

4) Changed your address, phone number or launched a new website? Drop your customers an email to inform them of these changes. It’s much better than hoping they’ll make the effort to get this information if you don’t send it to them.

You can generally send two types of emails – HTML and Text. HTML emails are the fancy emails you get in your inbox with images, colours and sometimes even links to videos. Text emails are the bland emails you can send via hotmail, yahoo, Gmail.

There are companies out there that’ll allow you to send out HTML emails through them for free, a good example is MailChimp. MailChimp will provide you with free email templates, so you don’t have to be a designer or a techie to create a great looking HTML email. They also allow you to send HTML emails to 500 subscribers up to 3,000 times a month, all for free.

Can’t be bothered with sending an HTML email? A text email is just as effective, the most important thing is you are in touch with your customers.

Before you start sending emails to your customers, make sure you get their permission first; otherwise you will be spamming them. Also make sure you allow them to unsubscribe from the emails if they wish. Also, there are some legal stuff you need to be aware of before you start your email marketing campaigns.

Check back tomorrow for part 4 on Affiliate Marketing.

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1. Few Tips For Designing an eCommerce Website

Email, Email Marketing, html, Marketing, marketing strategies, Online Business, online marketing, Social Media, Strategy