This is a pretty simple yes or no answer to this question. I find many small business owners say yes to this question, but then share with me that their execution is weak.

They don’t use email marketing consistently, they don’t constantly add more prospects and customers to their list, they haven’t taken the time to learn how to use it more effectively, there isn’t a signup form on their website, etc.

Should I add email as a marketing channel?

Some people claimed that email would replace direct mail marketing because the cost was so cheap.

Email marketing was not meant to replace direct mail marketing, but it can definitely help cut some of your marketing costs and still be effective.

Always remember that you want to use as many marketing channels as necessary to market your business effectively.

Part of your effectiveness will be sharing relevant and interesting content with your readers.

I’m sure you have emails you receive from people you enjoy reading and others you remove or exclude from your lists.

Part of being relevant is not presenting products every time you contact your current and potential customers. You can present products and sales every time, but at some point your customers and prospects may decide they’ve had enough hype.

Keep in mind that this also applies to your industry. If you are a restaurant and you send out a weekly or special coupon, you can keep your email list alive by sending it out weekly.

What makes email marketing effective?

As a small business, your passion for what you do and the quality of your customer relationships are what separates you from the rest. When you use email, you’ll be able to strengthen those relationships and connect with your customers and prospects in a way no one else can, every time you hit ‘Send.’
Email marketing delivers bottom line results.

Email marketing offers you a fast and effective way to get your message across to current and potential customers and keep your organization top of mind. It is an innovative marketing tool that is as easy to use as it is powerful. But it doesn’t end there.

Your Email Marketing must have the following tools available

Your email marketing tool should also make it easy to integrate your social media channels. So when you send an email to your mailing list, you’ll be able to connect with a whole new audience of potential customers through social networking sites and generate even more new business.

You want to make sure that the email tool you use makes it easy to get the look you want quickly. Many of the Email Marketing tools have email templates designed for each type of communication (newsletters, promotions, etc.).

Make sure you can customize your emails with your logo, images, colors, fonts, and more. You want to keep your brand identity consistent across all of your marketing channels.

Also, see if you can find business-specific template options that are easy to use.

more to-dos

Consistently promote and link to your social media pages by inserting Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn icons into your emails.

See if the email marketing tool has an auto tweet feature to automatically post emails to your Twitter feed.

Make it easy for your current and potential customers to share your email message on their social networking sites with a Social Share Toolbar of some kind.

Make sure you can easily import and manage your entire contact list. Some email tools make this a huge headache.

You want to make sure that you can add people to your email marketing list directly from your website. When you can add to your email list directly from your website and Facebook page, it makes your life easier.

When looking at email marketing tools, see if you can schedule welcome emails or commonly sent messages with your email autoresponder.

A reputable email marketing company will make sure that your emails get seen. Good companies will have a delivery rate of over 95%. This will keep your emails out of spam folders.

A good email marketing tool will also have some sort of antispam checker.

They must also be reputable and follow permission-based email practices.

Your email tool should be able to track your results. If they have graphs of your email campaign results, including: open rates, clicks, and bounces, that’s even better.

Another nice feature in your email marketing tools would be the ability to measure your social media success with how many fans ‘Like’ or ‘Share’ your emails on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Your action steps

Go find a good email marketing tool. The most important part to remember is that this is just one tool in your marketing plan. Don’t pin all your hopes on one tool.

Think of your various marketing channels like the spokes of a wheel that are delivering your ideal prospects and customers to the hub in the center of your wheel.

Have a variety of spokes in your wheel for maximum efficiency, and use email as one of your most effective tools.

Go and conquer your market.