Guest Column by Dean Swanson

This week I had the opportunity to sit next to two small business CEOs as we were all waiting for our next treatments at the clinic. The conversations quickly got to “so what do you do?” When I shared my passion for mentoring small businesses they said,  “Have we got a question for you!” It seems they had been discussing the topic of using email for their business marketing and they got to the point of “how often should we send marketing emails? They were stuck on weekly, monthly or any time sales are low. “So, Dean, what do you tell people like us?”

I shared with them some of my experiences with small businesses and an article written by Dave Charest, director of content marketing for a Constant Contact and posted on their companies help section.

Charest got to this topic by starting with this question: How many times do you have to ask kids to do something?

Usually, more than once.  It’s often the same with email marketing.

It’s not that people on your email list are children; it’s that they’re busy and your business isn’t their top priority.

If you don’t ask multiple times, you might miss out on sales. Charest suggests that when it comes to email, there are three things you probably want to do more of: Segment, cimplify and send.

• Segment: Separate your contacts into different lists based on their interests.

• Simplify: Don’t try to say too much in your emails. Stay focused on one main action.

• Send: Send a series of emails to remind subscribers to take action.

Approaching email marketing this way means you’re not relying on one message to do all the heavy lifting. You’re focused on getting the right messages to the right people at the right times.

So, why do multiple emails work? Think about this scenario.

Have you ever started one task, but then got pulled in another direction? It’s often the same for your customers.

Even if they want to take advantage of an email offer you send them, they can get pulled into something else before they can take action. And then your offer is forgotten.

That’s why Constant Contact recommends sending a three-email series about a time-based promotion.

A time-based promotion has a time associated with it, like a sale or event.

Your email series would look like this:

1. Announcement

2. Reminder

3. Last chance

The three-email series gives you three opportunities to move people to action.

Here’s an example of a three-part email series you could send to promote a Valentine’s Day sale:  Start with an announcement of the sale a couple weeks in advance. Remind them a week later. And give them one final chance to act a day or two before the sale ends.

My new friends gave me their email addresses and asked me to send them some practical notes for their small businesses from our conversation on the topic. Here is what I shared based on Charest’s suggestions:

• Pay attention to when people make a purchase in relation to the emails you send.

• Opens and clicks alone can be deceiving. Instead, try to tie your emails to a specific business result.

• Analyze your email marketing to get a better understanding of the business impact of your emails.

• You may also find that opens and clicks don’t always coincide with sales. For example, your last-chance email may receive the lowest open and click rate but results in the most sales.

• Don’t use the excuse, “I don’t want to bug people!”

Dean Swanson is the past chairman of the Southeast Minnesota SCORE chapter.