Knowing how to promote your business with email is important for all modern businesses – even those without an online presence.

Because of how easy it is to contact many people quickly, email is a boon for businesses. The downside for a business is when it relies too heavily on email as a way of promoting itself. There can be a temptation for a company to email too often and to the same people. Using email in this way will then have a negative impact on a company or individual.

At the most, email should be used to promote a business once a week, unless a prospective client requests more frequent news of products or services. Also send text emails unless specifically requested. Not all prospective clients will be able to view images in their browsers. so it is far better to put links to pages of interest on your website. There should be no more than half a dozen links in any one email post.

A promotional email should get to the point very quickly and the subject line itself is very important. Think like a prospective customer. Though an email with \”Great bargains\” seems enticing, emails of this type may be received in a considerable number by the recipient. A title for the email needs to be relevant, of course. A touch of humour will also make the subject line stand out.

If, for instance, a business is selling gardening equipment at very low prices, then that needs to be projected in a way that will grab people\’s attention. An example would be: \”Gardeners! Prices that put a spring in your step\”. There is a reference to the low prices in a humorous way and the use of the word \’Gardeners!\’ embraces all people who tend their gardens.

The content of the email itself shouldn\’t be about promoting a business in a boastful way. Claiming to be much better than competitors won\’t impress very many people, as just focussing on the positive side of your own business. Carefully select the products that you think will be popular, both because of what they actually are and how competitively priced they are.

Always try and engage with prospective customers and existing customers on a personal level. Any business that lacks the personal touch will lose out to a company that does – if that company has similar offers. The personal touch helps to give a customer peace of mind and also makes them feel appreciated.

Use email as a way of communicating with other people that are relevant to your own business. Try and build up contacts of reliable suppliers and with people who are knowledgeable. Social media can be utilized alongside email in this way. Social networking allows for an individual to build up relevant contacts and individuals within a business should be encouraged to do this. Email can then be used to expound on any issues raised and is particularly useful when exchanging links to websites and for exchanging other contact addresses.

Trevor Richards writes for Extravision (www.extravision.com), a leading UK email marketing company.

Trevor Richards writes for Extravision (http://www.extravision.com), a leading UK email marketing company.

Author Bio: Trevor Richards writes for Extravision (www.extravision.com), a leading UK email marketing company.

Category: Advice
Keywords: email marketing, email campaign, ecommerce, internet marketing, e-commerce, sales, business