Tips to Increase Your Business Thru Email

Here's some helpful information from Michelle Keegan, who is one of Constant Contact's email marketing experts, that illustrates how every independent restaurant owner can increase their business by using email to build a lasting relationship with customers...

"My advice to businesses is to think about how many times during the year/quarter/month a customer needs you, or your products or services, and let that be your guide to determining how often to reach out and touch your audience. Think of this number as a minimum, then build from there.

Your business could be a marketing consulting firm, a software company, a nonprofit, an educational institution, a car dealership, a florist, a restaurant, a vineyard, a rock and roll band - you name it! Success and profitability is all about creating loyal customers (e.g. clients, users, donors, buyers, diners, drinkers and fans) and driving interest, repeat business and referrals.

Since it is roughly six to twelve times less expensive to sell to an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one, the value of customer loyalty and repeat business is just too compelling to ignore.

According to Bain and Company:
A 5% increase in retention yields profit increases of 25 to 100 percent.
Repeat customers spend, on average, 67 percent more than new customers.

It's All About Communication
Communication is a critical part of any relationship. Take a lesson from small businesses that long ago grasped the dynamics and importance of building customer relationships through communication. They nurture their customers over time by learning and remembering individual preferences and interests. They acquire this customer information directly from customers through personal interaction. And they keep in touch with customers on a regular basis ensuring their organization remains "top of mind."

Statistics show that it takes six to seven contacts before you can turn a prospect into a customer. All that contact can be expensive and time consuming. That's where email marketing becomes a critical part of any organization's marketing efforts.

Email Turns Prospects and Visitors into Loyal Customers
Email marketing enables you to proactively communicate with your existing customers instead of passively waiting for them to return to your Web site, visit your store or office, call you on the phone etc. With email marketing you can solidify existing relationships, initiate new ones and convert your one-time visitors, buyers and members into repeat business and long-term customers or contributors.

No matter how your visitors, prospects and customers found you; perhaps you paid for search engine placement, sponsored a newsletter, rented an opt-in list, placed a banner ad, distributed a flyer or sent a postcard; email marketing adds to your bottom line because it allows you to maximize your investment in those expensive and time consuming marketing efforts and improve the return on investment (ROI) of every dollar you spend to obtain new business and develop profitable customer relationships.

According to DoubleClick, good email marketing wins over consumers:
Well-executed permission email marketing campaigns can have a positive impact on consumers' attitudes towards companies. 67% of US consumers said they liked companies that, in their opinion, did agood job with permission email marketing. 58% of consumers said they opened those companies' emails, while 53% said that such emails affected their personal buying decisions.

Why is Email Marketing the Answer?
Email marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools available today. It is easy, affordable, direct, actionable and highly effective. When you add email to your marketing mix, you spend less time, money and resources than with traditional marketing vehicles (e.g. direct mail or print advertising) And, with email marketing, you can communicate more quickly which means your time-sensitive information is disseminated in minutes, not days or weeks - and you can see the results of your efforts instantly.

Email marketing is at it's most effective when used in communications to your existing customer list or "house list" as a means of customer retention.

Communicate More Information, More Often
Email marketing is an affordable way to stretch a tight marketing budget. It can cost as little as fractions of a penny per email! With a response rate five times greater than direct mail and 25 times the response rate of banner ads, email marketing is the most effective way to increase sales, drive traffic and develop loyalty.

Unlike direct mail, there is virtually no production, materials or postage expense. So, with email marketing, you can easily and affordably create more communications that are valued by your customer, and you can make those communications support and enhance your brand in a way that substantially differentiates your company from the competition.

Your communications can include newsletters, preferred customer promotions, new service announcements, event invitations, greetings and much, much more.

Easily Measure and Improve Your Results
The benefits derived from most types of marketing and advertising are very difficult to measure. With email marketing, however, you can easily measure the number of emails sent, emails opened, bounce backs, unsubscribes and click-through rates.

You can also tell who opened your email, which links in your email motivated the most clicks and, even more specifically, who clicked on each link. All of this useful information can help you send highly targeted campaigns to the individuals most likely to respond to your offer, thus improving your results going forward."

For a free 60-day trial of Constant Contact's email marketing service, click here.

To read the rest of Michelle Keegan's article, click here.