Are you using email as part of your marketing strategy? If so, perhaps you have been researching the benefits of contracting an Email Service Provider, ESP, and wondering whether this kind of service would offer a decent ROI. The answer to that question should be quite simple, but oddly, the answer is another question. Do you want to see significant growth for your SMB? Obviously, you do. What business doesn’t want to grow? Email marketing, when approached correctly, can be one of the most effective marketing strategies any company can take advantage of. These are the reasons why SMBs need an Email Service Provider and while there are dozens of good reasons, here are just five of them to consider.
1. Email Marketing Is More Effective Than Social Media
One study conducted by McKinsey & Company found that email marketing was often more than 40 times more effective than social media marketing. This is huge when you consider just how popular social media is and how many users access social sites daily. According to McKinsey’s study, email marketing is still the leading way to grow your customer base. As a leading global business consultancy, McKinsey & Company rely on big data and they have found that at least 92% of all people with an email address also have at least one and often more alternate email accounts. Email is an amazingly effective way to reach new customers and that’s why it’s so important to ensure a strategic approach to email marketing.
2. ESPs Help You Create and Grow Targeted Lists
Now then, that answers the question of why you should use email marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy and to a lesser degree why you need an ESP. Stop for just a moment and think about how you are going to go about growing your list of email subscribers. These have the highest potential to be converted to customers but it is not always as easy as it seems growing your list of subscribers. A professional Email Service Provider should offer lead generation services as part of their platform. As in any form of marketing, it’s a numbers game. The more people you reach, the greater your chances are of building a larger and stronger customer base.
3. Cost-Effective Services Like Big Data Analytics
Cost for SMBs is sometimes an issue and so it’s important to consider seeking those ESPs that offer the greatest number of features at reasonable costs. One of the most well-known ESPs is Mailchimp but some subscribers feel that their costs are a little steep for their budgets. They are, after all, a smaller business and as such, they don’t have the massive budgets larger corporations have. Even so, big data analytics are just as important so a Mailchimp alternative is going to be the best solution. Bear in mind that email marketing is more than just sending random emails but rather an entire scientific approach to growing your business and that is dependent on the gathering of pertinent data and its analysis.
4. Cost and Time Efficiency
An Email Service Provider offers all the tools you need to make efficient use of your time and money. From gathering the big data you need to creating targeted marketing lists, an ESP can save your marketing team a lot of time which equates to a huge savings in terms of money. As the old cliché says, time is money so the more you use your time efficiently, the greater your cost efficiency will be.
5. Customer Retention
Don’t think for just a moment that effective email marketing is only good for building a new customer base. Actually, email marketing through the right ESP can be effective in customer retention as well. Those regular emails going out can keep your company fresh on the minds of your customers so that when it’s time to reorder a product or service they’ve purchased in the past or when looking for new products in your catalogue, those regular emails will bring your brand to mind.
One for the Road…
There are other reasons why you would want to use an Email Service Provider for your SMB such as being compliant with all domestic and foreign internet and email marketing regulations. Among those are the opt-out regulations which must be adhered to and many small businesses are operating in the dark when it comes to regulatory compliance. A dedicated ESP can ensure that your company isn’t smacked with huge fines because they are there to advise you and keep you current with all laws relating to electronic marketing.
Invest in an ESP with a wide range of services and you will see just how effective email marketing can be. Remember, it’s up to 40% more effective than social media marketing and that alone is all the recommendation you need.
