Think email is dead? Think again: There are currently over 4 billion registered email accounts worldwide, and that number is ever-expanding. Email has quickly become one of the most- if not the most- essential communication tools within the business world. If you are a small business or nonprofit, it may even hold the key to unlocking your business potential. If you are struggling to expand your clientele or are unsure of the best way to reach them in mass, email marketing is your logical next step. ConstantContact.com offers distinct and time-saving services that budding businesses should take advantage of.
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“But I’m busy with all the day-to-day stuff, I really don’t have the time to dedicate to learning email marketing,” this is where email marketing companies like ConstantContact.com come in.
Why Email Marketing is Important
Leave traditional marketing in the past. Oftentimes, traditional marketing is more expensive, less direct, and catered to a broader audience. You get no real metrics or feedback on the effectiveness of the campaigns and have no idea who your ad is actually reaching. With ConstantContact.com you get an affordable, user-friendly service that will help you engage with customers directly and cater specific email campaigns toward your specific following.
ConstantContact.com is an email marketing business that has several features to help guide your small business or nonprofit in creating effective campaigns, whether your business is online or brick and mortar.
The New “Word of Mouth”
With almost 4 billion people using social media, having an online appearance is incredibly beneficial. Generating traffic to your websites can be as simple as posting consistent and relatable content and having open interaction with your followers. You can grow your brand this way without spending a dime on ads. Social media also allows you to build a recognizable image for your brand and to let the personality of your business shine.
Brand awareness is how familiar the public is with your product or service and being at the forefront of their minds. This is important as it increases your ability to generate leads and sales; when your business is the first they think of when comparing companies with similar products, this encourages repeat customers and word-of-mouth recommendations.
ConstantContact.com will help you build a presence on social media platforms. They simplify the overwhelming world that social media can sometimes be. ConstantContact.com breaks down how each social media platform can be used and how to optimize the way that you post to it and engage with the followers on each platform. It really helps you determine which platform fits you and your business best and focuses your reach. You can create effective social marketing campaigns in just a few easy steps using your ConstantContact.com profile.
With ConstantContact.com you can easily set business goals you hope to obtain using these social media accounts. Goals like
-Awareness
-Customer Service
-Driving Action
Most importantly, ConstantContact.com allows you to access all your social media contacts, conversations, and metrics from their convenient “publishing dashboard.” This makes engaging with your audience easier than ever as it allows for seamless communication and does away with confusing clicking back and forth between websites and social media pages.
Not only does ConstantContact.com allow for seamless integration of your social media, but it also makes it easier than ever for your customers to interact with you. With easy to make mobile-responsive email templates, you no longer need to worry if your customer is receiving your message in the most optimal way. More than half of all website visits in 2020 were visited on mobile browsers, and with the mobile responsive templates, your customer isn’t stuck trying to navigate a made-for desktop website.
Personable
ConstantContact.com knows that small businesses have a unique position above larger ones, as they are able to engage with their customers on a more personal level. When you run a small business, you are constantly acting as a brand ambassador; everything you do and say (both in-person and online) will be a reflection upon the business that you run. It is important to keep in mind what people will see when they go searching online for you and your business.
Most consumers will research a business before deciding to engage with them. Most of, if not all, of this research, will be done online. Having an online presence, making sure that what the consumer finds is informative and accurate is of the utmost importance. ContantContact.com offers useful tips and tools to help curate your online presence.
One way ConstantContact.com can help you is by using their mobile responsive website builder. This builder walks you through all the important information that consumers will be looking for from your specific business. According to ConstantContact.com, your website should have at least three pages in order to address the customer’s needs and questions. The basic pages you should have will be the Homepage, the about page that shares your personal story and also the story of your business, and then finally your contact page. There are also a number of tips on how you can expand upon your site to fit your specific product or service.
The questions that you should be answering on your homepage are:
-What is your product or service?
-Who is it for?
-Why should the customer care?
-What are the next steps the visitor should take?
The questions on your ‘about me’ page should be:
-What is your story?
-What makes you a good fit for the customer?
-What makes your business stand out?
Your contact page is extremely important as it lets the customer know:
-Whether you have a physical address that they can visit or if it is online only.
-Where to find you on social media
-The hours of your business and customer service
-How to contact you
Not only does ConstantContact.com give you the resources and education to help build a comprehensive website for your consumers, but it also allows you to preview and test your design before it hits the web.
Reviews
The biggest and most important aspect of your online presence, and one that you should never ignore, is reviews. In today’s online world, reviews are just as important of a driving force for engagement as word of mouth. Good reviews show the consumer that your business is not only credible but that it offers a consistent product or service. When customers know that they will be getting exactly what they are expecting, it makes them more likely to engage with your business.
Reviews not only make for more confident shoppers but also increases the potential to reach an even larger audience and increase growth.
Building Your List
Now, one important thing to keep in mind about email marketing is that the average person may be a little on edge about online solicitation. Nearly 80 percent of all emails are spam. This may lead your customer to inadvertently ignore or send your emails to the spam folder. An important and useful aspect of having your own website is that it allows you to collect emails of people that visit, whether they made a purchase or not.
This is useful as it allows you to stay in contact with the consumer and stay relevant. If you offer something in exchange for the email, the consumer is more inclined to give it and also stay subscribed to future emails, thus avoiding being sent to the spam folder. Most businesses offer a discount or exclusive content; this will encourage them to do business with you and also give positive feedback.
Sending that first welcome email immediately after someone has signed up and following through with your promised content is an important step that could get an uncertain visitor off the fence and making a purchase. ConstantContact.com offers email automation that makes this step easier than ever; this service saves time and allows you to focus on other things.
Staying Relevant
It is important to stay consistent and engaged. Make sure that you send emails on a regular basis to keep an open dialogue with your followers. Be aware of marketing opportunities such as holidays, events that your business is having, sales (like Black Friday), and sharing helpful resources and or useful information that your customers will appreciate.
Keeping up with trends and the ever-changing social climate is another important thing to keep in mind. Knowing your customer and their needs is important, but so is knowing your competition. Being aware of what is trending and the advancements being made in the market around you and business adjacent to yours will help you stay at the top of your game and help you stay prepared for what’s new and upcoming. Staying open-minded, being flexible, and listening to customer feedback will help you succeed.
Email marketing may be the easiest way to stay relevant and not to get lost in the billions of other businesses. You must be willing to embrace the technological changes that are happening in our world, especially if you wish to attract the attention of a younger generation as they are becoming more and more tech savvy and more environmentally aware. Gen Z are less likely to engage with traditional marketing practices as they don’t fit in with their core values. Those values are becoming more and more environmentally conscious.
Environmentally Friendly
Traditional marketing can be disastrous for the environment. The paper from billboards is not recycled, and the ink is not derived from eco-friendly sources. There are hundreds of thousands of pounds of vinyl waste from billboards every year in the US. But it’s not only paper billboards that are hurting the environment; even the LED billboards have a carbon footprint. Every year they consume more energy than the average home.
Email marketing cuts down on the waste. The average consumer is now, more than ever, environmentally conscious, and they are looking to hold businesses accountable for their carbon footprint. Using promotional emails instead of the standard paper flyer will help your business stand out positively in that regard. The online aspect of promotions also allows for more personalization. ConstantContact.com makes it easier to build promotional emails that are tailored for you to appeal to your specific clientele.
Set Up For Success
ConstantContact.com outlines a basic plan to help you be successful, and that’s to
-Connect:
Through the use of your business’s mobile responsive website, social media platforms, word of mouth references, and email.
-Experience
This is done by creating a lasting positive image of your company any time you engage with a consumer. Be it through email or social media, it’s important to make sure you are always helpful and positive as these are the interactions your customer will remember you by.
-Entice
At this stage, you hope to be drawing in potential consumers and getting them to follow you on social media or sign up for email messages. Again, an easy way to do this is by offering exclusive content or discount codes.
-Engage
The most important and final step is to make sure you stay connected and engaged with your followers. The key to gaining customer loyalty is by staying relevant and to do that you need to be at the top of their mind so that you are their go-to business for your specific product or service.
Each step in this plan is important as it creates a positive feedback loop in which the more you engage, and the more you stay relevant, the more customers wish to interact with you and the more they will share your business through word of mouth with their friends and family. This, in turn, will lead to more consumers and more positive reviews.
ConstantContact.com is a business dedicated to making each one of these steps easier and more accessible. It takes all of the guesswork out of email marketing and gives you a cohesive tool to build your business. If you’re looking for smart integration and accessibility, you can’t go wrong with ConstantContact.com because they offer the tools and education that make stepping into the new world of email marketing a breeze.