Distributing computing was a non-reality until someone who didn’t know that decided to work on making it their reality.
Innovations in technology and business usually come from someone who is not boxed into the traditional ways of thinking. Often business leaders say to think outside the box. Rarely, does one explain so clearly that the “box” is the traditional thinking, recognized expertise and established business. Being on the outside with a clear vision and dedication brought distributing computing to life.

Small Businesses Increase Local Email Marketing with Better Metrics

Borell published a new study, Direct Mail Falls, E-mail Soars stating that as more consumers are moving to the internet for their purchase and decision making, the mainstays of direct mail marketing continue to post steep declines.Right after the declines in newspaper and yellow page advertising, the most metric based of print advertising has finally caught up with the change in marketing technology.

While the doom and gloom on the decline of direct mail is not surprising. The findings that small businesses are turning more toward email marketing for local marketing has staggering growth levels.

Borrell is predicting that email will continue to distance itself from other online advertising formats over the next five years, growing to $15.7 billion and remaining the preferred channel among many marketers. In particular, most of the growth in email marketing will be local, the report forecasts.

“We’re expecting local e-mail advertising to grow from $848 million in 2008, to $2 billion in 2013, as more small businesses abandon direct mail couponing and promotional orders and turn to a more measurable and less costly medium, e-mail.”

Borrell’s Keys to Local Email Marketing

“Managing large e-mail marketing campaigns require database marketing expertise, a savvy sales force, adequate e-mail management software, familiarity with the rules and regulations and a lot of patience.”

Local email marketing should be a more attractive marketing channel because of its low cost and easier to see metrics and ease of testing. All three make for a better marketing channel than what direct mail could offer a small business serving a local market.

Here’s a great introductory video from Google’s team that explains the basics of Adwords in under 10 minutes. One of the easiest ways to understand how adwords can work for your small business to getting qualified traffic to your website.

What are your biggest stumbling blocks in getting a return on your ad spend?

Have you ever said these words over the last few months:

It takes longer to make a sale/get a new client.

or

The market is no longer as hot as it once used to be and you got used to the easy stream of clients coming your way.

These are the complaints and frustrations I hear from small business owners who are asking what can I do, things are not happening as fast as they used to be, even then it wasn’t easy now it’s even harder.

What I can recommend every business that noticed that their sales cycle is taking longer to complete is to build systems that make it cheaper to move one step closer to getting a new client.

This could mean more touch points, like scheduling in phone calls to share some valuable content or breaking news that would benefit your prospective client or video case study of someone doing something like they were considering.

Think about what ways can you move leads through your pipeline cheaper? If you’re not making the most of email as a marketing follow up tool, you have a great chance to interact more often with your prospects more effectively than print mail.
Things you can do with email to help move prospects through the sales cycle:

• Have you set up a email campaign/newsletter that walks through issues and obstacles of your best customers?
• Are you working on making a free regular update on how to make their lives or their work better?
• Are you giving them the information to reach you and give them an easy way to pass on your email to their peers with a send to friend link?
• Do you have a genuine, heart-felt  welcome letter once a lead gives you their information that is sent out right away?
• Are you using some kind of CRM, customer relationship management tool, to track your interactions between your clients and prospects?

In a slowing economy, keeping in regular contact with your soon to be new clients is more critical than ever. You want to be top of mind when they are ready to buy or sign a contract. What other ways can you think of reaching out more frequently to your prospects? What kinds of obstacles is your business having implementing this kind of email campaign? Leave a comment for suggestions and feedback.

Snail photo by Martin LaBar