As a small business owner, you may already be using an email marketing program to build your list and capture readers for your newsletter or other marketing campaigns. But these cool tools can be used for much more than that!
There are so many great e-marketing programs out there today—Mailchimp, AWeber, Constant Contact, and various shopping cart programs for full-on email marketing with purchasing features. Not only do these programs automate your list-building and newsletter processes, they are great for streamlining your client/customer communications.
While my team uses numerous programs for our clients, we use Mailchimp for our own business. It’s very intuitive, allows us to customize our templates, copy names between lists, and export the lists when I need to. We use Mailchimp for communicating special announcements to our valued clients. It works well for us, and is so easy to use and maintain. We also like Constant Contact and AWeber, both of which offer a few additional advanced features.
As a coach, trainer or consultant with a steady client base, e-marketing programs are invaluable for staying in touch with your clients. You can automate your systems by setting up autoresponders to broadcast different messages at regular intervals. Your messages might include program notices and announcements, weekly lessons and tips, and notes of encouragement or appreciation. Even surveys and feedback forms can be sent through your e-marketing program.
Most e-marketing programs offer a variety of features and service levels that will accommodate even the tightest budgets, including a free version, which I always recommend trying first. To find the one that’s right for you, research the features and costs, and if available, sign up for a free trial and play with it for a while. Make sure it fits not only your specific needs, but your work style and your budget. User-friendly to some is tech-speak to others, so technical support is very important. Also, you may want a program that is easy to upgrade when the time comes, and has integration features with other programs.
The more you can automate your processes, the more streamlined your business becomes. And that makes for smooth operations and easy management.
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