You may simply think of email as a means of communicating with family and friends or sending funny jokes and pictures. If you are a small business owner and this is your mindset, then you are missing out on a big marketing potential. Email is an excellent tool for marketing your small business website and keeping your customers abreast of your latest activities.

Email – Relationship Building Tool

Use email as a means of forging a relationship with customers by communicating with them and keeping the line open for feedback.

1. Promotions/Specials – Let your customers know when your small business website is having a new sale or promotion by sending out an email announcement. Customers will likely feel valued that you are notifying them and keeping them in the loop of new deals that may interest them.
2. Newsletters – Informing customers of your specials is not the only form of email marking for your small business website. You can also regularly touch base with your customers by sending out newsletters, whether they are weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. These newsletters can contain information about changes to your small business website, industry news, a reiteration of sales and/or anything you want to share with your customers.
3. Surveys – You can also utilize emails to send out surveys seeking direct feedback from customers to discover what they like/dislike and want to see on your small business website.

Email – Key Structural Elements

As for the emails themselves, there are certain elements that should be included in each of them.

1. Subject Line – The subject line of the email should be catchy and clearly stated because you want the customers to be intrigued enough to open the email.
2. Introduction – Once it has been opened, the first line of text should be an attention grabber so they will be drawn in and continue reading.
3. CTA – Each email should have a call to action (CTA), which will get the customers to “do something” – fill out a form, make a phone call, click a link to your small business website, etc.
4. Social – Lastly, each email should include links to your social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google+) so your customers can become followers, thus expanding your methods of reaching out to your customers.

A major thing to keep in mind when embarking on email marketing is that you do not want it to come off as being spam. Nobody likes spam, and if you are sending out unsolicited messages, your small business has a tendency of being viewed in a negative light. Additionally, if you are sending emails for your business, you should familiarize yourself with the local laws and regulations when it comes to contacting customers via email. Any email campaign should target those who have directly requested information from you and/or expressed interest in future news while making a previous purchase.

In addition to the email blast tool available to Webs users within the Members App, there are a number of affordable email marketing services out there that can effortlessly guide you through the process of creating an email marketing campaign for your small business website. Poke around and see which one best suits your needs. Good luck!