E-mail Marketing Basics for Small Businesses

Promoting a business by using e-mail has become increasingly difficult. Most people are quick to delete emails you send without reading them.

Nonetheless, e-mail marketing, if done correctly, can be an inexpensive and quick way to reach a large audience. The key is to get people to want to receive your mailings. To do this, you need to do permission mailing, which means having people either sign up on your Web site for such mailings or provide their e-mail addresses when they purchase something from your company. In this way, you can collect e-mail addresses without buying a list that may be created and/or sold illegally.

E-mailing advertisements, sent with the express permission of the recipient, can still become redundant, and therefore ineffective, unless you:

Offer new discounted products or services regularly
Provide very targeted mailings
Offer some content
Even two or three sentences of original content can provide a reason to read your e-mail. It can also support the advertising that otherwise may be deleted. Short bits of information, such as five tips for a healthy lawn from a landscape company or suggestions for "dressing for success" from a clothing retailer are ways to keep your audience interested in your e-mails. Establishing your own newsletter, which may only be a few paragraphs, can draw the attention of your readers.

When e-mailing customers, you also need:

A catchy headline
A recognizable company name in the "from" box so they’ll know it's from your business
A simple one-click manner in which they can get more information on specific products or services
A means of reaching customer service
Since you may only have one second to capture the reader before he or she hits delete, it's to your benefit to highlight an interesting item in your subject line or immediately in the body of the text. This window can literally provide you a "window of opportunity" to grab their attention. Make this about them.