Email marketing continues to be strong promotional option for small businesses

Despite the wealth of promotional tactics available to small businesses, email marketing remains one of the best marketing strategies for small business. According to a recent survey conducted by Clickz, 67 percent of customers are more than happy to give their email addresses to companies to receive special discounts and promotions, while 57 percent say they are more likely to buy a product or use a company’s services in a store after they have received a marketing email. Clearly, email marketing remains a preferred marketing communications medium for customers, and small business owners would be wise to consider continue investing in and improving their capabilities for doing so.

One consideration that small business owners have to keep in mind for 2013 is the proliferation of smartphones. More American consumers are staying connected throughout the day than ever before through the use of their mobile devices. This includes reading email on them. According to Clickz, more than 50 percent of mobile users read email on their phones at least once a day, while 88 percent of users check email on their phones on a regular daily basis. Additionally, mobile’s share of email opens is projected to exceed the 50 percent mark for most brands over 2013.

However, tech-savvy customers are also becoming more demanding in how they receive their email marketing communications. According to an Econsultancy report, 63 percent of Americans would close or delete a marketing email that was not optimized for mobile. It is no longer sufficient to rely on “mobile-friendly” templates scaled to the smartphone. Instead, small businesses will likely have to rebuild their templates altogether to account for a more responsive design. This has the potential to reap tremendous rewards.

Additionally, many small businesses have revealed plans to focus more heavily on email marketing efforts in 2013 than in other areas. According to a recent survey, 56 percent of companies planned to increase their email marketing budget, compared to only 52 percent for social media and 40 percent for search engine efforts. This means that if your small business is not properly investing in improving its email marketing efforts, it could run the risk of falling by the wayside and lagging behind competitors.

How is your company improving its email marketing in 2013?

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