With so much interest and time now devoted to social media, email marketing can often become a useful tool overlooked by many local businesses. So are you using it effectively? Not sure how you could be utilising it to you advantage? We explore five ways businesses in Devon and Cornwall can use email to boost revenue.

Create contact between purchases and decisions

Aside from daily consumables, the majority of products or services sold in the South West will have some level of time period between the first and second purchase action or decision. Think of a website for example; we’d say the average life of your website is going to be between three and five years. If we meet you tomorrow and your site is two years old, you’re not going to be making a buying decision today; you’re potentially going to be making it in a year’s time. We’d want to be in your thoughts when you come to make that decision – after all, we do make nice websites! How do we achieve that? By creating regular contact between today (when you’re not making a decision) and next year (when you are). Local businesses can achieve this contact and dialogue with email marketing. You should be actively creating contact points in order to make sure you’re in their thinking when the time to act comes. Regular contact will ensure you’re at the forefront of their mind when they make their decision, rather than that guy they met a year ago.

Develop long-term relationships and add value

Email marketing shouldn’t all be about sales, although that may well be your end goal (and will definitely be a bi-product if you’re doing it right). Think about ways in which you can create a positive contact point between you as the sender, and the recipient. What would they like to hear about? What can you offer them in terms of value? Remember this doesn’t always have to be a discount on your product or service. It could be useful tips and help, or information that is ultimately going to add value to their business or personal lives. We all get a lot of emails; make sure you are delivering information the recipient wants to hear about, and you’ll strengthen the relationship you have with them. What leads from a relationship that adds value to someone? A longer-term bond which provides more individual and regular purchases (and revenue).

Take advantage of seasonal fluctuations

Most businesses are affected by seasonal demand. Think of tourism as the ultimate example. Although the season continues to extend you have a clear time period in which the majority of us travel during the summer, and as a result, a clearly defined period in which many of us will be making decisions on where we’ll be staying. Don’t just rely on people finding your site or remembering it. Give them a nudge. Make sure your emails are reaching them when they’re making the decision. And remember from the first point I made in this blog post, it may well have been a year since they made their last decision; have you had constant contact with them during the year? Has that content added value (my second point?).

Control stock levels

When we put sales on our website it can often be in expectancy of a stampede of new visitors, rushing to get the latest deals. Unfortunately, life often isn’t as easy as that. If you’re in a business that has stock control, consider emailing promotions to your previous customers, if you don’t already do so. It makes sure they know you have a sale, and also remember that you have more information on what they may be interested in from what they’ve previously bought than on anyone else. Use this information to your advantage. Hitting the right people with the right message at the right time will help you increase sales and get rid of stock sitting in the cupboards.

Create loyalty

Loyal customers are gold dust. How do you create loyalty with your customers using email marketing? By having regular contact (point one), by adding value to their lives (point two), by communicating with them when they’re making a decision (point three), and understanding what it is they want and when (point four). So what are you waiting for? There’s a reason statistics show that for every £1 spent on email marketing in the UK, between £15 – £25 of revenue is generated.

If you’d like to talk to us about generating more revenue from your email marketing or designing a bespoke Mail Chimp or Campaign Monitor template for your emails give us a call on 01566 784860 or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk We look forward to seeing your emails in our inbox!