Despite Generation Y (also known as the Millennial Generation) claiming that email is dead, the results of  several surveys conducted  by Cox Business show that small business across the nation still prefer email for most communications and are rather reluctant to engage in social media. In fact, 40% of the participants have affirmed that email is the most critical tool towards their success in maintaining communication as compared to cell phone and social media.

Admittedly some independent groups have emphatically argued that “Social media accounts for a mere 5% of business owners who uses it successfully. However, discretion is the keyword when using email marketing, especially in view of penalizing clauses attached to unsolicited emails. However, here are a few tips for successful email marketing campaigns conducted through email that may be practiced by startups as well.

Try to be Informative

Don’t rush with your sales pitch first. Since people are more interested in knowing what benefits them, provide plenty of information that is good for them. If you are selling shoes, your email may contain information about how types of shoes vary from season to season. Shoes that are good for summer use are no good for winter use. You may also elaborate on why one needs warmer footwear with better traction for walking in winter.

“Don’t ask for something till you have offered something in return”, warns a famous email marketing guru. Therefore, it may be futile to expect your customers (and prospects) to give you permission to contact them unless you give them some raison d’être for doing so.

Building Your Email Marketing List

There are a couple of ways to build up a list of customers and prospects. The organic type entails capturing prospect and customer details whenever they make an enquiry or close a deal in a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) database. The other type, of course, involves buying the data from a known list broker such as Corpdata and Mardev.  Some small business owners update their database by way of asking their customers to fill in their details as they place orders.

Making Your Subject Lines Engaging

Unless your subject lines are appealing, people would never bother to go into the contents. Besides, if it turns into spam, your entire effort will go in vain. Even though there is no structured rule about how to coin it, your aim should be to make them contextual and suggestive of your product or services.

For instance, if you are selling lingerie, your subject lines may cover ‘For sophisticated women’, etc. Also, keep your subject lines simple and to the point. Words that should be avoided in email subject lines include ‘Free”, “Help” and “Reminder”.

Content  to be Created Through Research

The space is limited, yet the key information must be there in the most attractive format. One way of doing this is by way of asking your customers and prospects about their views on your product and services and then conducting research on these. The other way involves sending out sample contents to a limited number of recipients and checking out the results later. Of course, there is a third way too and that involves getting it done by a professional content writer.

Beware of email Spam

Also known as Junk email or Unsolicited Bulk Email UBE), email spam is the subject of electronic spam that involves identical or nearly identical messages that are sent to innumerable recipients by email. Clicking on links in spam email is likely to send users to phishing websites or sites that are hosting malware.

Even though the statutory status of spam varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, spam remained lawful by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, provided the message abides by certain specifications that often proves difficult to manage.

Email marketing practically costs nothing and so is considered as the most cost effective method that is used for marketing a product or services. Unlike direct mail, there is no production or material cost as also postage expenses in sending out email newsletters to as many customers as possible. Says Bob Weber, President, Bob Weber, Inc, one of the largest reseller of pre-print equipments in Cleveland, Ohio, “Previously, we used to send there kinds of mailings through first-class postal mail which used to cost us a lot of money. But now after switching over to email, we are saving more than $4000 on this issue alone.”

Conclusion: Despite many plus points that are included in marketing through social media and other relevant sites, small business owners find email marketing not only very economical but most hassle-free method of promoting sales in a digital world.