marketing strategy for small business Archives

Unlocking Conversion Potential: Strategies to Drive Results Through Email Marketing

Posted on October 30, 2023October 25, 2023 by Eleanor Hecks

Email marketing can still be one of the most effective ways to reach customers and build brand loyalty. While there are pros and cons to keeping an email list, the conversion potential is far greater than through almost any other method. You’ll have a direct line to people who have expressed enough of an interest in your product or service to subscribe.

Here are some of the best strategies to drive higher conversions through email marketing.

1. Choose the Right Newsletter Provider

According to research, emails are the leading reason people buy something, with 44% of surveyed consumers citing it as a motivator. Therefore, investing in creating a newsletter can be a notable strategy for your brand.

However, the way you send a message can make a difference in conversions. Some email newsletter providers garner higher delivery rates than others or provide more extensive feedback on user habits.

The right newsletter provider is the one that you can afford the monthly fee for and has the elements you most want and find useful. Additionally, it must be user friendly. Anyone in the company should be able to schedule a message without a huge learning curve to figure out the system.

2. Build Your List

Email marketing is most effective when you collect a list of people highly interested in what you offer. Building your mailing list may be as crucial as what you actually send out. You want people who are highly engaged and in the market for what you sell.

How do you find them? Start by creating buyer personas listing out the qualities of your typical customer. You can run ads on social media offering a perk if they sign up for your mailing list — perhaps a slight discount, free shipping or other freebie.

3. Set Up Drip Campaigns

Once someone signs up for your mailing list, what happens? The goal is to keep only those people who are highly engaged and likely to convert. In most cases, email marketing service providers base their fees on the number of subscribers. So, while having many subscribers often leads to higher sales, you want to ensure the majority of your subscribers are actually interested enough to convert in the first place.

The best way to narrow down your list is by setting up a drip campaign that starts when they subscribe. Send a welcome email explaining what you do. Throughout a few days and several emails, offer insight into what they gain by being on your list.

In each message, include an easy way to opt out and unsubscribe. Providing an easy out, even after downloading a freebie or other offer, ensures you keep only highly engaged customers and don’t pay for those who never open your emails.

4. Segment Your Audience

Another way to improve your email marketing is by segmenting your audience. By splitting your users into groups, you can highly personalize the offers you send. There are many different segmentation methods, such as demographics or past buying behavior.

For example, if your analytics show that a group of people click on a particular offer every time you send it and you get in a similar product, you can send a message to the segment of people who loved the initial item.

5. Schedule Emails

While it’s impossible to pinpoint the best time to send emails, your audience will help you see the prime moments for them to receive a message from you. Pay attention to your open rates. If you send a message in the morning, are open rates higher? What about in the evening?

You may find that a particular day garners more click throughs than another. Your email service provider should have an analytics system you can study to figure out timing. The only way to know the best time for your subscribers or even different segments of your audience is by testing and tracking results.

6. Improve Subject Lines

People get numerous emails every day. As they look through their inboxes, it’s easy to click the delete button. Your goal is to get them to open your email and read a bit more. Your subject line is the first impression they have of the campaign. You want to create such an interesting headline that they can’t resist clicking on it.

Some of the things to focus on as you’re formulating a subject line include:

Being short and to the point
Including action words
Being relevant to the offer
Making it clear who the email is from
Avoiding words or phrases that could be seen as spam

7. Create a Sense of Urgency

The way people generate email marketing is changing, and artificial intelligence (AI) plays a big role in email today. Around 33% of marketers surveyed stated they use AI “to some extent” in their email campaigns. Another 24% said they use it “extensively.”

One thing AI can help with is creating wording that creates a sense of urgency. Titles such as “Limited Time” or “Offer Expires in…” can encourage people to read your message today instead of letting the deal expire before they get a chance to use it.

How Can You Improve Email Marketing Efforts?

Email marketing is something you should consistently improve until you hit the goals you’ve set for open rates and conversions. Tapping into the power of modern technology gives you a chance to compete with others in your industry and find success more quickly than going into a campaign without the data needed to succeed.

How Flexible Work Schedules Will Benefit Your Marketing Team

Posted on February 28, 2023July 10, 2023 by Eleanor Hecks

Are you considering a more flexible work schedule for your marketing team, but unsure whether the benefits outweigh the work of making scheduling changes? While there are always drawbacks with any major change, giving your staff a flexible work schedule and allowing them to choose where they complete their tasks can benefit your team in multiple ways.

How Does a Flexible Work Schedule Benefit Your Business?

Although there are many benefits to employees, businesses also score with a hybrid or fully remote model. Researchers at Stanford and Harvard estimated companies save around $11,000 per year on space alone when going to a hybrid schedule. They don’t need as much office space when all employees aren’t in the office at the same time.

Finding the happy medium between flexible work and productivity isn’t always easy. No one wants to feel as though their employer is looking over their shoulder with a tracking app or something that captures screenshots. The proof is typically in the level of work they provide and the finished product.

Tap Into Technology

Advances in technology allow companies to tap into powerful apps meant to help organize schedules and get remote teams on the same page. Run multiple functions from a single program, such as accounting, customer relationship management, scheduling and task completion.

Artificial intelligence expands each year, making it easier to farm out repetitive tasks or reach out to customers and employees automatically. Cloud-based systems put the power of the entire database at everyone’s fingertips. Remote work has become almost like being in a physical office.

What are some of the top benefits to your marketing team and your business when you switch to a more flexible schedule or remote and hybrid work options?

1. Attract Top Job Candidates

The marketing industry is sometimes highly competitive. If you want to attract the most qualified workers, you need to offer the things they want in a job. For example, if someone only wants to work from home, then a remote option is desirable.

Even a hybrid situation where they go into the office a couple of days and stay home the other days might be better than their current work environment. You can compete with some of the larger corporations by offering work schedule options.

Some people have children, want to go to school or have other interests. Letting them choose to work 10 hours a day and take the fifth day off might be another way to offer a more flexible work environment. Alternatively, you could allow people to choose their off days. Some might decide to work through the weekend when they have childcare and take a few weekdays off.

2. Increase Employee Engagement

The CEO of an estate planning services company chose to move to a four-day workweek. Perpetual Guardian saw 20% growth in employee engagement when they made the changes.

It might seem surprising that employees working at different times or locations would be more engaged rather than less engaged. However, they often have better focus when working during their alert hours and without the stress and worry a nine to five job can bring.

They’ll also be more inclined to join in on virtual meetings and stay updated on employee news through the company communication channels. Flexible employees don’t want to be left out. They just want the ability to move things around so it better suits their lives.

3. Improve Productivity

Offering flexible work schedules can also improve productivity. It’s no secret that some folks are early birds and others are night owls. Those who stay up late have a hard time adjusting to early morning tasks. Their brains don’t kick into gear. By the same token, early risers may not like starting their day as late as nine in the morning.

When you let workers choose start and stop times, you also give them the ability to work when they have the greatest focus and mental clarity.

Add remote options into the mix and you remove distractions common at a typical office. Instead of stopping in the middle of tasks multiple times a day as co-workers stop to ask questions or chat, employees will be in the quiet space of their home office with few interruptions.

Some workers may even decide to work a split day, where they start in the early morning, break while the family has their busy time and return to work in the evening when all is quiet again. Parents with kids in school may find it easier to start a bit later and wrap up while everyone is out for the day. Flexibility lets your workers choose how they function best, and because of that, productivity will naturally rise.

4. Balance Work/Life

You’ve likely heard the buzz in recent years about the importance of a work/life balance. People don’t want to be so career driven that they miss out on time with family and friends. By the same token, they don’t want to be so focused on their personal lives that their work suffers.

Offering some flexibility takes off the pressure of trying to juggle it all and reduces stress. Happier workers are going to be more creative and less likely to burn out.

For example, John’s brother is getting married on Saturday and he wants to go to the rehearsal Friday. He can shift his work and finish a day early without missing any pay. The extra day off gives him the time to enjoy his family event and not stress about finishing projects that day.

Talk to your workers about what type of flexibility would be most beneficial to them at this point in their lives. A flexible schedule for one staff member might look completely different than the ideal schedule for another.

5. Retain Top Employees

What is the magic ingredient that allows you to retain top employees while every business around you loses them en masse? More workers want remote options. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of remote jobs hovered around 4%. The virus caused an uptick in the number of people working from home and increased the timing of how fast remote jobs grew.

Currently, the number of remote positions is around 25%, but experts think it will continue to grow in industries where work doesn’t have to be done in person. Factories and food services, for example, aren’t likely to go remote.

Chat with your current employees about their expectations for going remote. If someone is thinking about leaving because they’re tired of coming into the office, you can easily offer more flexibility and hopefully keep a valued worker instead of losing them to the competition.

6. Develop Talent

When your workers can put in 40 hours or even work 30-hour weeks rather than the typical 40 hours, you open up the opportunity for them to take courses and expand their education. You may attract top graduates who want to go on for their master’s or doctoral degrees.

Put learning as a high priority. If anyone on your team wants to learn new skills or go back to school, find a way to work with their schedule. You’ll reduce stress, and the entire team will benefit from bringing new skills into the company.

7. Show You Value Them

In a recent poll about why people leave their positions, around 57% of workers said it was because they didn’t feel valued at their current jobs or felt disrespected. Approximately 45% pointed to lack of flexibility. The combination of trying to juggle work with their lives and feeling unappreciated was the perfect storm that led many to resign from their positions.

When you offer a flexible work schedule, you show your employees that you care about them as individuals. It matters to you that they have to figure out when to drop the kids off at daycare or pick the dog up from the groomer. You understand their schedules sometimes change on a dime and it’s okay if they need to shift their hours a bit here and there.

8. Decrease Absenteeism

Every employee has days when they don’t feel their best. Perhaps they feel a cold coming on or just stayed up too late the night before. Whatever the reason, when people have flex time,they can take a few hours or a full day off and not worry about losing their jobs.

Offering a flexible work schedule may decrease absenteeism because employees know they can just complete the work the next day or even that evening when they’re feeling better. You can also reduce office illness when you don’t force people to come in even when they’re under the weather. There’s no sense in spreading all those germs around and every employee growing ill and unable to do their daily tasks.

Will a Flexible Work Schedule Benefit Your Company?

Not every marketing team benefits from a flexible work schedule. Many find the freedom to work from home and swap around days and times benefits everyone on the team. Unfortunately, a few employees not pulling their weight can ruin the perk for everyone. Set some firm policies for how your flexibility works and let your team members chime in if something isn’t playing out the way they’d like.

A flexible work schedule is something every company should try. You never know just how much it might increase your team’s productivity and employee morale.

How Partnerships Can Impact Sales

Posted on April 28, 2021May 9, 2023 by Gina M. Tabasso

In the manufacturing sector, we all are reliant on strategic partnerships with our suppliers, dealers, distributors, freight and rail vendors, and customers. Success is dependent on the entire network. If one link in the chain fails, we all fail.

As a distributor in the middle of the funnel, we rely on our international suppliers for their subject-matter expertise, product inventory, training, and marketing materials. They rely on us for our sales and marketing expertise, technical support, and local customer relationships. The customer relies on us to provide an accurate and on-time order to supply their manufacturing process so they can manufacture and deliver to their customer. There are so many interdependencies in a distribution channel.

How can manufacturers or distributors develop these customer relationships? Well, first we need to generate leads to nurture and, eventually, convert into customer relationships and sales.

7 Ways Manufacturers (Or Almost Any Industry) Can Build Partnerships

1. Phone Calls

Yes, cold calling still is a thing. And as people tend to ignore email messages and social messages, sometimes picking up the phone and having an old-fashioned chat is the best method. In the past year, phone calls often have become video calls via Zoom, Teams, and other digital platforms that allow us to replicate face-to-face meetings à la The Jetsons.

2. In-Person Meetings

One of the best ways to build a partnership is a handshake and sit down. We tend to buy from people we like. If someone can see your body language and hear your tone of voice, he or she is more likely to develop a relationship with you as a person. The email can be the introduction or open the door, but the personality usually closes the sale. The inability to do so in the COVID-era has spawned the advent of video meetings that tend to be more cost- and time-effective, as well as sanitary. No hand gel required. That leads us to…

3. Tradeshows

This tried-and-true method of collecting leads went away in March 2020, and most people in the industry found that virtual tradeshows just weren’t as effective. By now, organizations have returned to in-person tradeshows.

4. Email Marketing

Email and messaging,Email marketing campaign,Working process, New email message

This tried-and-true method of collecting leads went away in March 2020, and most people in the industry found that virtual tradeshows just weren’t as effective. Happily, organizations have since returned to in-person tradeshows.

You can email your existing customers or qualified leads who have opted in from your website or a tradeshow, but don’t purchase lists! These people have not opted in. You can get shut down for spam. So, how do you get new leads? Read on!

5. Social Media

Posting on social media is a good way to develop brand recognition and get to know people who become your advocates. Join groups that are specific to your industry. Then you can use LinkedIn Sales Navigator or paid ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Google and do pay-per-click campaigns to further identify interested leads.

6. Trade Publications

If you have the budget (that you’ve saved from tradeshows and salespeople out on the road), you always can go the route of placing digital and print ads or even a low-cost spend of a listing in directories or guides. A more expensive, but effective, option is to deliver a webinar that the publication promotes. This will give you a list of new leads that you CAN add to your CRM and email marketing campaigns. Another route is contributed content. This means looking at the journal’s editorial calendar and pitching the editor with a thought-leadership article. If accepted, it costs you nothing but the time to write it. It gets your name in front of potential customers and positions you as an industry leader while familiarizing people with your brand. Also, a free listing (yes, FREE) with Thomasnet will drive some traffic to your site.

7. Trade Associations and Online Forums

One organization that can help with resources for small- to mid-sized manufacturers is your local Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). On a larger scale, there’s the National Association for Manufacturers (NAM). Additionally, industry-specific and regional trade associations can get you in front of customers. Think about pitching a technical talk or webinar and presenting to the organization’s membership rather than just attending meetings and handing out cards. This can show your value and expertise. Join some online forums where people are looking for information, for instance, Reddit, Quora, or industry-specific forums. It’s all about positioning the brand as an industry leader.

Next Steps

Some of these methods require content. Content is necessary for marketing. You can take that article you wrote for the trade pub, host it on your website, gate it behind a sign-in, then promote it on social media or with a PPC campaign. This will allow you to capture leads. We’ve all entered our name, company, title, and email in those fields on a website to download some content that we thought would be useful.

It’s time for manufacturers to ramp up their digital games and jump on technology in order to build partnerships to generate leads that turn into sales. Technology can be your partner.

The future is here and is only going to get more complex. If you didn’t notice it before, you saw it in 2020 during COVID when in-person meetings ground to a halt and lead generation tapered off or plummeted. We need to embrace it to grow our businesses and remain viable in the digital age. If we don’t, we will go the way of the dinosaurs, or our business will plateau. If you want growth, then things need to change.

Marketing Ideas for Small Business (Beyond the Obvious)

Posted on August 26, 2019May 5, 2023 by Scott Hammer

According to a survey of 1,000 small business owners, 51% report they have less than $500 a month to spend on advertising. Within that 51%, almost 7% of owners say they have no money at all to devote to marketing. So, what marketing tips for small business are the best for your budget? In order to maximize your marketing efforts- start thinking creatively. Here are nine marketing strategies for small businesses that are worth your attention:

Create a Business Blog

Business blogs are one of the most powerful tools in content marketing— and for good reason. A business blog is a great way for you to supply your audience with industry information, while also promoting your own products and brand. Be certain to post to your blog often with engaging content in order to work to increase your customer base. Include images and videos in your posts to help build this audience. If you do not know what images to use, use Wepik‘s text-to-image tool and you will be able to create an image from scratch based on the text description.

Get Free PR with HARO

Who doesn’t like free advertising? When you sign up with HARO (Help a Reporter Out), you have the opportunity to pitch your story (or your business) to tens of thousands of reporters. With outlets like Time, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal using HARO, the publicity opportunities are endless– and free.

Join Facebook Industry Groups

By joining Facebook groups in your industry, you have the opportunity to offer information and tips to potential customers. Once members in these groups see you as a trustworthy source of information, they’ll be more inclined to learn more about you, your company, and what products you offer.

Engage With Your Local Community

People want to support a business that cares about and supports their local community. As a small business owner, reach out to your township administration to see how you can get involved! Research if you can be featured on the township bulletin board or find out how you can sponsor a booth at your community day or other local events.

Use Company Data to Find Promotional Opportunities

If you have software in place that measures when you reach your company goals, promote it! Create a giveaway when you reach $1,000 in sales or offer your customers a discount when you reach your 1,000th customer for the month. Use these company goals as a way to thank your customers for their business– and celebrate your company’s successes.

Create a Customer Referral Program

According to an infographic by Khalid Saleh, “people are 90% more likely to trust and buy from a brand recommended by a friend.” That’s the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Small business owners have the opportunity to capitalize on this by offering a customer referral program. This referral program gives existing customers an incentive to spread the word about your business to new potential customers.

Establish Business Partnerships with Other Companies

Connecting with other local small businesses is a great way to advertise at a fraction of the cost. Find a business in a complementary industry and work together on an online giveaway, co-sponsoring an event, or a targeted mailer. This is a great way for you to increase your customer base and drum up some exposure for a significantly lower price.

Create a Customer Satisfaction Survey

Once customers make a purchase with your small business, it is imperative that you follow up with them with a customer satisfaction survey. Not only is this an opportunity for you to learn how you can improve your company, but also makes your customer feel their opinion is valued and appreciated– and likely to return.

Tag: marketing strategy for small business