Don’t under estimate the power of email communication. Recent research published by Exact Target shows that 46% of UK online users have purchased as a result of a message delivered by email!

Many SMEs fall into the trap of spending a lot of money to get people to purchase from their site but then only contact them sporadically afterwards. However, consistent contact with information and offers that are of interest to them will result in higher conversions (they’ve already done business with you, so they trust you) and higher profits (how much does it cost to send an email to a database you already have?)

Two of the key areas of email success are personalisation and planning:

  • Personalisation – make sure you segment your database into key criteria, such as demographics or buying behaviour (Amazon and Groupon do this very well)
  • Planning - successful businesses pre-plan topics, content type and offers at least three month in advance, which means that they don’t miss key buying times such as the wedding season, Father’s Day, etc.

Do you have a email marketing strategy in place? If not, perhaps you should spend some time developing one.