The Power of Local Email Marketing

As a local business owner, you realize the opportunities available on the Web, but you probably do not have the time or money to invest in a full-blown web presence. The obstacles and costs in building a website keep many local businesses on the sideline.

You may think email marketing is complicated, but that is a misconception. If you are communicating with your customers through email, in a sense you are already marketing online. You are probably aware that a small amount of customer communication can be very profitable, and email can generate considerable income.

All you need to do is start collecting customer emails and send them occasional promotions or sale updates. The email advertisements do not need to be coded in HTML, plain text messages are quite acceptable.

You begin by simply collecting customer email addresses, with their permission. Permission email marketing is a requirement. At all stages of email marketing, you MUST respect your customers and their privacy.

As a local business owner, you are constantly in touch with customers and prospects, either in person or on the phone. As a retail business, you could have a clipboard by your register or pre-printed index cards that your customers can fill-out.

The opportunity to save money or be notified of special offers. People are always looking for a bargain, and through email, you can keep them informed on the latest deals, in addition, you can alert them to new services or products.

If you email friends or family, you are quite capable of marketing through email. Your list will be small so you can manage it through the use of your current email client like Microsoft Outlook. You place your customer emails in a “group,” compose a message and hit the send button.

From the start, you may want to consider using a professional email management service like GetResponse. A service like GetResponse simplifies the management of your list. These types of services offer features like tracking, reporting, templates and customer support.

Think about the potential profit from simply keeping your customers informed. This is not invasive advertising, but permission marketing, where your customers have willingly given their consent to receive your advertisements. It is like they are saying, “Please allow me to spend more money with your business.”.

If you already have a website then you will also want to add an opt-in box. Give your site visitors an opportunity to join your promotional list. Many will.

From a marketing perspective, it doesn’t get any more targeted than this. She makes a killing and often sells out her promotional inventory through email alone.

It’s simple, direct and very profitable. And yet few local businesses are taking advantage of email marketing.

Does your business already use email marketing? If you want to know how to start with email marketing I can recommend you this article. My favorite autoresponders are GetResponse and Actionetics from ClickFunnels. ClickFunnels is also very great if you also need a landing page.