The 4 Best Emails to Ignite Your Bottom Line

By Janine Popick

With an expected return on investment of around $40 for every dollar spent, email marketing remains one of the most reliable and effective tools that small businesses can use to boost their bottom lines. If that stat isn’t compelling enough, consider this: U.S. Internet users engage with 11.8 brands via email compared to only 9.4 and 7.9 brands on Facebook and Twitter respectively, according to industry reports.

If you don’t use email marketing for your business, or if you use it only sporadically, you could be missing out on precious sales and revenue. A good email marketing strategyincludes knowing the right type of email to get the job done. Here are four that every small business owner can use to improve sales and traffic.

4 Effective Emails That Drive Sales

1. The Promotional Email

Sometimes nothing entices a recipient to purchase more than a great deal. The recipient saves a few bucks, and your bottom line gets an instant boost. Not bad, right? Keep in mind: you don’t have to reserve promotional emails just for sales. A promotional email can offer other perks, too, like free shipping, a free gift with purchase, or a free product trial. Mix up your offers to keep them fresh. It’s also becoming more common to offer something special to folks who sign up for your email list—it’s a win-win.

2. The New Arrival Email

When you roll out a new item, service or update arrives, an email can get the word out in a flash. Make sure you include an image of the product or service and a call-to-action to buy, so that shoppers can purchase it instantly. You don’t want anything to get between them and their shopping cart.

3. The Reorder Email

If you have a product or service that needs to be purchased on a regular basis, a reorder email is an excellent way to remind customers that it’s time to buy. For instance, if you sell dog food, you can send an email to a customer two weeks before you estimate their last purchase will run out. This requires some tracking, of course, but it’s a great way to encourage repeat business and make it as easy as possible for them to keep buying.

4. The ‘We Miss You’ Email

When a customer hasn’t made a purchase for a while, you can send an email that encourages him or her to come back. Start off by saying, “We miss you!” and consider including a discount to entice the customer to visit you again.

These emails can increase sales and fire up your bottom line, bring traffic to your website or store, and help you stay connected to your subscribers and customers. Have you had success with other types of emails? Let me know in the comments below.

Janine Popick is the CEO and founder of VerticalResponse (a Deluxe company), a provider of self-service email and social media marketing solutions for small businesses. Connect with her on Twitter at @janinepopick.

Do you have a comment or question about this article or other small business topics in general? Speak out in the SmallBusinessComputing.com Forums. Join the discussion today!

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