The key to any successful marketing campaign is a varied approach which looks to utilize a number of strategies to best reach the target audience. There are two such methods which have been wrongly considered to be old hat when it comes to advertising and they are SMS and email marketing. There is a widely held belief that email marketing no longer offers the return on investment than it once did, and SMS marketing, despite its clear success, is often dismissed by many in the industry. However, messages can be converted from email to SMS, ensuring that your emails are being seen immediately! 

Regardless of the myths which these campaigns carry, the combination of the two for business is a powerful strategy which can seriously help to reach clients old and new, and continue to market the business. There are a number of services which offer this option to business, email to SMS services from Edgility is a great example of a service which can help your business launch this strategy. If you do decide to opt in, here are just some of the benefits of combining these two strategies. 

Permission Based

Following the emergence of digital marketing so many agencies and businesses began to spam like crazy, and that has certainly muddied the waters of many areas of digital marketing. The beauty of both of these strategies however is that you have to get the customer’s permission before you send them information. There are also ways to send SMS campaigns that are part of the TCPA text message exemptions. This not only maintains customer happiness, it also gives you a further indication of who is interested in what you have to say. 

Full Spectrum Marketing Approach 

Broadly speaking, through the combination of the two strategies you can offer a full spectrum approach to your clients. Through email marketing you can make it personal and use this as the perfect tool to manage and build relationships between you and the customer. Coupled with this, your SMS campaign will help to secure the deal once you have created that relationship, in this respect the two strategies work collectively for your business. 

Using SMS to Set Up 

We know that shorter emails perform better, but sometimes you need to add a wealth of information to an email, when you are launching a new product for example. If you employ both SMS and email marketing strategies then you can use an SMS to prep the customer for an upcoming email. Beyond anything else, the fact that you get more characters on the SMS than you will on the subject line of an email, will give you a better chance of getting that customer engaged, without asking much from them. 

Instant Response

 Figures show that while there is a high percentage of people who check email from their phones, they are more likely to respond quickly to an SMS than they would do an email. This isn’t conducive to your business offering limited time offers or flash sales via emails. If however you have both strategies operating at the same time, then your slower burning information can be sent via email and the quick response stuff can be delivered via SMS for better and faster engagement. 

Combining two or more marketing strategies at once will always be the smartest option for your business. In most cases however those two strategies are not able to complement one another in quite the same way as email and SMS marketing are able to.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post The Benefits of Combining Email Marketing and SMS appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Growing an email list is no small feat, but it’s something every serious digital marketer should do.

A private email is one of the most direct ways to communicate with your base of existing and potential clients. Email marketing is still one of the most customized, cost-effective and successful ways of marketing your business. Don’t squander the opportunity to make a great impression.

Here are 5 simple ways to get your message into the minds of your customers and stay out of their spam folder.

Let’s jump in.

1. Stick to your palette

When it comes to email ads, you want your customers to know who you are as soon as possible. The design, lettering and overall look of the email should mimic that of your website and logo.

You don’t want this viewed as a separate entity, but rather as part of the overall experience of doing business with you.

People will then be more likely to put stock in the ads as something potentially valuable, rather than just a marketing ploy.

2. Be on target

This kind of marketing is not well suited for a strategy of blanket inundation.

Work with your list of clients and make sure they have given their permission to receive email communications.

This will narrow your focus and give you a concrete way of quantifying your results. Time is better spent ensuring the accuracy of your own client list, rather than trying to email every demographic under the sun.

3. Be persistent

This is where the targeted database really pays off.

Because you are working with a group you know to be interested in the products and services you provide, the number of messages you send can be quite large. However, tact comes into play – you don’t want to make any of these detrimental (yet somewhat hilarious) email marketing mistakes.

You don’t want to be sending something every day, but you do want to market with enough frequency to keep your business in the front of people’s minds.

4. Take a holiday

Most people don’t check their email as much during the holidays, so adjust accordingly.

Don’t waste time developing a brilliant campaign during a time when a large percentage of people won’t see your ad until it’s two weeks old.

Avoid December, January and the peak travel time in the summer (unless your industry and audience say otherwise).

5. Test, test, test

The best way to keep from being blocked or sent as spam is to include an email you can put on your list, and check it. Put the filtering and anti-spam setting on high.

That way you can see when you’re getting through and when you’re not.

This is an article provided by our partners network. It does not reflect the views or opinions of our editorial team and management.

Contributed content

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post 5 Ways to Improve Your Email Marketing appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Email marketing is a cost-effective way to gain and retain customers for your small business. However, it requires commitment. Also, you have to learn marketing tips and tricks that will work for your business. This article highlights some of the key tips that can be helpful when running email marketing campaigns for your small business.

Use Sign-Up Forms That Work

Email marketing will only be beneficial to your company if you have a significant number on your mailing list. Therefore, the first step you should take is to ensure you have a well-crafted sign-up form on your website. There are two factors you should consider when setting up your sign-up form. One, you should ensure that it is strategically located. It should be easy for your website visitors to locate the form but at the same time, it should be placed in such a way that it doesn’t distract the visitor. Secondly, the design and the message of the form should entice the visitor to sign up. Try different designs, messages, and locations until you find the one that works best for your visitors. According to this HuffPost article, sign-up forms should be pleasing, easy to fill out, and shouldn’t ask for more than 3 or 4 pieces of information.

Identify Types of Emails to Send and Sending Frequency

Don’t start any campaign without a solid plan. First, start by identifying the types of emails you should be sending to customers and how often you should be doing it. With a plan, it will be easier to accomplish the goal and avoid procrastination. Also, when everything is clearly defined, you avoid sending emails that add no value to the subscriber. The type of emails you send will depend on the nature of your customers.

Examples include welcome emails, promotional emails, newsletters, transactional emails, cart abandonment emails and request review emails to mention but a few. For the frequency, you shouldn’t send too many emails, but also the gap between two emails should not be so long that the subscriber forgets about you. When you start sending the emails, you can give your subscribers an option to choose the emails they would like to receive and how often so as to avoid overwhelming them with too much mail.

Segment Your Lists Before You Hit Send

Sending one email to all subscribers on your lists sounds like the quick and easy way, but it is an approach that doesn’t pay well. The better approach is to segment your lists based on individual interests, age, and other factors and then send more relevant emails to each segment. Email segmentation in digital marketing is beneficial because it boosts engagement levels, conversion rates, and sales. This is because segmentation also allows you to communicate with your customers in a personalized way. Also, it keeps your emails relevant and this protects your business from being marked as spam.

Work on an Email Design and Content that Converts

After getting people to sign up, the next step is to work on getting them to stay and take some action. Whether it is buying a product, signing up for a course, or reading a blog post you just wrote, your emails have to be very convincing for your subscribers to take action. If you are doing the marketing yourself, you can make use of online resources to learn how to craft good emails. You can find these on email software and services providers’ website or marketing blogs. This Sendinblue blog post, for instance, gives an overview of how to create a newsletter step by step. Sendinblue is a company that started out as a digital agency and is currently offering cloud-based digital marketing tools.

The headline of your email is what will get people to subscribe, and the content is what will drive conversions. Therefore, as you choose your templates, work on your copywriting too. This Forbes article highlights gives a highlight of the best and worst email subject lines, as discussed by Forbes.

You can refer to the article “What is the Ideal Business Email Response Time “to know the correct response time to email.

Get Subscribers Via Social Media

Other than the sign-up form on your website, you could also get subscribers from social media. If there is one place where you will find a good number of your customers and prospects, it is on social media. Thus, you need to work on your social media following and then use opt-in forms to get more people to join your mailing list.

As you implement new strategies and send emails to your subscribers, don’t forget to measure the success of everything you do. For instance, when you send an email, check the open rate, click through, conversion and shares. When you have a new opt-in or sign up form, check the number of sign-ups to see if it is working. If you don’t good results, you may have to go back to your design, maybe change the colour of your call to action button, find better headlines, rewrite your message again, or get a new template for your newsletter altogether.

This is an article provided by our partners network. It does not reflect the views or opinions of our editorial team and management.

Contributed content

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post 5 Email Marketing Tips for Small Businesses appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.