As a small business owner you are always looking for the fastest most expedient way to complete a project.
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- Time is of the essence
- Time is money
- Time is the most valuable commodity
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All the adages are true, but along with fast and expedient, you also want the project to be effective.
And doing something just for the sake of doing it? Who has time for that?
That’s why email marketing for small business must be all of these things:
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- fast
- expedient
- effective
But why do email marketing at all?
Isn’t everyone just sick of email?
Is anyone really reading email these days?
Sick of email or not they’re still reading it, and email is undeniably the most prevalent form of communication– so much so that no one you want to do business with can afford to ignore their inbox.
Said another way: your customer — the one who is most likely to buy from you, the one you want to sell to, the one you must market to — is reading email every day, several times a day.
Don’t you want to be where your best customers are?
Yeah, I thought so.
So do I.
So how does a small business owner even start? “Heavens,” she says, “there is so much I need to tell them, so much they need to know.”
Truer words were never spoken and email marketing for small business starts exactly there. “Where?” you ask. Anywhere is where you start, as long as you were talking directly to your ideal customer and you are speaking at a level they understand — not over their heads, nor at such an elemental level that you annoy them.
You have these conversations all the time with your favorite customers. Think of one of them as you write, remember the kinds of questions they ask and write specifically about their pain points.
Email marketing for small business is about connecting with your customer in the language that resonates with them.
Talk about their pain, talk about the relief they will feel after they work with you, make them understand that the pain (whatever it might be) will continue and may get worse if they don’t engage with your product or service.
What is the pain they will experience if they choose the status quo?
Help them see and feel that increasing pain if they choose not to work with you.
Examples of “The Cost of Status Quo”
So the biggest competition you have, Ms. Business Owner, is The Status Quo.
What do I mean by that? Inertia has a strong pull for your buyer; it is easier to stay with the current situation – regardless of the amount of pain s/he feels – than it is to make a change.
You must illustrate to your intended client customer in your email marketing The Cost of Status Quo or The Cost of Doing-Nothing is even more costly than the pain she feels.
For example, if you are a podiatrist and your target customer has a painful neuroma, she is not only limited in footwear but is probably limited as well as the types of physical activity and duration of physical activity in which s/he can participate.
It is your job to point out in your email that 1) she doesn’t have to live with the pain, 2) that the pain will probably get worse without treatment, limiting even further her physical activity and footwear choices.
In providing these specific examples, you are helping the audience see the problems they have as well as how you help them solve their problems. You are the genius, and you are here to help!