Procrastination is the enemy of progress. In the business world this is no different. A huge mistake often made by marketers and business owners is waiting until the last minute to take decisive action on things that will grow their business. Thankfully this holiday season, there are those who plan and make early decisions as part of their approach to enjoy the success this time of year brings.
40% of retail consumers are planning to start their holiday shopping before November 1st according to a report from the NRF . The same report revealed that in 2018, the average consumer spend on gifts is over $800 which was 14% higher than the previous year. All this could represent good news for marketers and business owners who want to take advantage of using this eleventh-hour to plan their campaigns for the holidays.
Though it is late to start contemplating plans for the holiday shopping season, it’s better to act now than later. There is still a little time on your side. Determine your goals for this season and begin immediately with an action plan to achieve these goals.
One holiday marketing strategy that has survived for years is email marketing. That’s because its benefits have been proven repeatedly. Almost everything starts and ends with email. A good email marketing strategy can have exponential effects on revenue for small businesses.
Here are seven (7) benefits for including email marketing into your strategy for the holiday season.
- Lead generation. If you didn’t implement this last year, then you would have missed out on the opportunity to engage with your customers and build your email subscriber list. Don’t make that mistake again this year. Implement systems at every touch point to ask customers to stay connected with you throughout the season. This will ensure you have a cycle of data generation and engagement, which always works in your favor. There are still many marketers and businesses who do not have a subscriber list due to the lack of implementation of this strategy.
- Scale distribution. Email marketing has the power of reach. When you distribute an email to potential readers, the chances are tenfold that they will see it. Even in the worst-case scenario, should your email end up in the spam folder, more readers are reviewing their spam just to ensure they didn’t miss important incoming emails. The best part is that most emails get delivered and delivery rates for email is as high as 95%. What other channel allows you to send a single campaign to thousands of potential customers at once in such a short period of time? You can reach large amounts of audience using email. Social media platforms like Facebook allows you to find look-a-like audience from your existing customer email contacts which also increases your distribution reach.
- Huge return on investments. Its no argument when is comes to the return on investment for email marketing. Where else do you pay cents on the dollar to reach a potential customer and have such a probability of a huge return? If every reader who saw your email acted on your campaign, you would be in business heaven, though we know that’s not going to be the case. For every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return is around $40.
- Improved conversion rates. Part of the challenge most marketers and small business owners face is that they send one email campaign out and expect that the world will come to their doorstep. Most customers require nurturing and getting better email conversion means sharing more content with your target audience. In marketing we talk a lot about the rule of seven (7) where we must touch our potential customers at least seven times before a decision to buy takes place. The more content you produce for your audience the easier it will be to remember you when it’s time to act.
- Low budget. Most marketing budget for small business is tight. There are any number of options that will allow you to engage your customers through email marketing on a small budget. At the professional email marketing level, the cost for designing and distributing email campaigns is still relatively affordable when compared to other media.
- Increase sales. At the end of it all, the common objective for marketers is to increase sales. The sales funnel dictates that your prospect must be nurtured, and nurturing requires time and effort. Be prepared to engage, engage and engage your audience in order to grow your bottom line. Email marketing provides that opportunity and will continue to do so for many more years to come.
- Increase customer engagement. Building value is necessary in today’s information environment. Creating more awareness for your brand is more than just a sale and could mean a customer with a much longer lifetime value. Sharing valuable content that informs and educate your customers is a sure way to build up lifetime value.
For over 10 years MI Group has been helping small and mediums size business to grow using online technology and digital media tools. We’ve helped our clients make and save millions of dollars through demonstrating our level of expertise. We provide professional email marketing services as well as email marketing software to create and launch your own email marketing campaigns.