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’re not using email marketing consistently, they’re not constantly adding more prospects and customers to their list, they haven’t taken the time to learn how to use it more effectively, there’s no 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 wasn’t 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 you need to effectively market your business.

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 pitch products and sales every time, but at some point your customers and prospects may decide they’ve had enough hype.

Please note that this also applies to your industry. If you are a restaurant and send a weekly or special coupon, you can keep your email list alive by sending it 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 separate 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 out to customers and prospects 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 email your mailing list, you’ll be able to connect with a whole new audience of potential customers through social media sites and drive even more new business.

You want to make sure 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, check to see if you can find business-specific template options that are easy to use.

More pending tasks

Constantly 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 sure it’s easy for your customers and prospects to share your email message on their social networking sites with a Social Share toolbar of some sort.

Make sure you can import and manage your entire contact list with ease. 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 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 anti-spam checker.

They must also be in good standing and follow permission-based email practices.

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

Another nice feature in your email marketing tools would be the ability to measure your social media success by 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 as the spokes of a wheel that are delivering your ideal prospects and customers to the hub at 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.