Small business owners often have a tricky balance of maintaining their email marketing with limited resources and budgets. While an email marketing platform, such as Constant Contact, is more expensive than a mail group, we believe it is necessary to have one. Here’s why. An email marketing platform has the features small businesses need to manage a contact list, create engaging email campaigns, and report on their performance. Let’s take a closer look at some of these different hallmarks email marketing platforms offer and how they can help small businesses thrive.
Contact Management
In your basic mail group service, you have a contact list that you can email or organize into groups. With an email marketing platform, you can more thoroughly manage your contacts. One key feature of an email marketing platform is the ability to segment your lists. This is important because it enables you to target your emails to those most interested. You can break down your emails potentially by:
- Age (AARP offers can go to seniors)
- Geography (For example, send out a special offer to all New Yorkers)
- Gender (Women’s clothing emails can go to women)
- Past behaviors and engagement (This could be someone that opened or did not open your last email)
Another key benefit to a good contact management system is it will enable your contacts to opt in or out of your emails without contacting you.
Email Campaign Optimization
Most email marketing services offer branded templates and tools to create interactive emails. This could include:
- Calls-to-Action (CTAs)- CTAs are buttons in your email telling your contacts what to do next. It could be “Learn more,” “Call Now,” “Contact Us,” etc.
- Landing Pages- Good email marketing platforms enable you to link your email CTAs to a landing page or a page with a form your contacts can fill out to show interest. This will keep you organized and look professional.
- A/B Testing Abilities- If you are wondering what time of day is best to send out an email or which subject line will perform better, an email marketing platform can help you find out. You can simply use A/B testing functionalities to split your email into two groups and see which one is most effective.
Reporting and Email Metrics
Since you have all the optimization features, you need a way to measure success. While many mail groups allow you to send a read receipt to see if your contacts opened your email, an email marketing platform will actually tell you who opened the email, how much time they spent reading it, and where they clicked. Here are some of the key metrics to look for:
- Open Rate- The percentage of recipients who opened your email (Aim for a 20% or higher).
- Click-through-rate- The percentage of recipients who opened your email AND clicked (Aim for 2% or higher).
- Unsubscribes- The percentage of people who received your email and opted out (Aim for 1% or less).
These metrics can help you gauge audience interest and improve upon your emails. And while it may seem complicated, with Constant Contact it will only take you minutes instead of hours on a mail group.
Ready to get started with an email marketing platform? Get a free 60-day trial of Constant Contact here. For additional marketing tools, see our Marketing Solutions Resource Page.
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