Email is an easy way to reach out and stay in touch with your customers. But, because it is so easy, some small businesses may be tempted to jump in without a plan. Here are three key considerations as you create an email strategy for your small business.
- What is your objective? Do you want to educate your customers? Do you want inform them? Or are you looking to cross-sell or up-sell them? Are you measuring customer satisfaction or just looking to keep your business top of mind?
Each of these objectives suggests a tone and direction for your content for your email campaigns. For example, if your goal is to educate, then a newsletter format may be best. If you want to cross-sell, coupons and discounts formats will work better. Write out your objective and let it be your guide over time as you draft and send emails to your customers. - Think like your customer. What would they want to know? We’ve all received emails that tell us what we already know but fail to answer the question we really have. Make sure your email is writing to your customer versus selling from your perspective. Use customer feedback and social tools to understand what they are looking to learn or hear from you. Twitter is a great place to get a pulse on the topics people want to hear more about.
- Create a calendar. Haphazard email deployment, well, comes off as haphazard. By creating a high level schedule you can create consistency and purpose for your campaigns. A schedule also helps you to evaluate the right frequency for your campaigns. We all know what happens when you send too often. But another consideration is not communicating often enough. I have been trained by my local kids boutique to look for the weekly coupon. I now always go an check my email before I go shopping! The frequency that is right for you will be defined by your objectives, and your customer needs.