Help SMBs and they will welcome your marketing messages.
Allow me to make a bold statement: if you are selling to small and midsize businesses, your most important marketing tool is your email marketing program. I will go so far as to say that, soon, the most important metrics for your marketing department (after revenue) will be the size of your email list, the quality of its recipients, and the strength of audience engagement.
So, is the content in your emails as good as it can be? I was not surprised when I read a recent Adobe survey on email, as reported by MarketingProfs. When asked, “If you could change one thing about the emails you get from brands, what would it be?” 39% of white-collar workers said, “Make them less about promotion and more about providing me with information.” This is a clear and strong statement, but it’s important to interpret it correctly. Don’t see it as a signal to make your emails less promotional. Instead, look at it as an opportunity to be more helpful.
SMBs are dealing with unprecedented disruption in virtually all areas of their businesses. They need ideas and help to overcome the challenges they face. Sometimes they know what they need, and sometimes they don’t. Regardless, your content, done right, can help them, and in doing so, allow you to
create a connection between their opportunities and challenges and your products.
When you publish content that positions your brand as a resource that helps SMBs with their businesses, they are much more likely to want to continue hearing from you.
Here is the best part: When you publish helpful content in your email newsletter, you earn the right to include some promotional messages. In fact, for recipients who are ready to buy, an incentive and an easy way to complete the transaction (“Click here”) will be welcome and appreciated.
By the way, the same survey also revealed that 45% of respondents said that “getting emailed too often” is the most annoying thing when receiving email from a brand. I would argue that if you fix the problem by providing truly valuable information, your email recipients will want more, not less, communication from you.
