How often should I email my customers?

The most asked question when it comes to email marketing is: How often should I email my customers?

Once per week?  Once per month?  Three times per month?  Every day?

Well the answer is......yes.

The trick is finding a good balance of emails sent for you and your business.  Over-mailing your list can be damaging; too many emails is an easy excuse to unsubscribe.  And if you send too many in a short time period it is unlikely that someone would read them before you send the next one.  Under-mailing can also be harmful, however, as you want your customers to think about you often.  It is generally agreed that only once per month is not enough but once a day is too much as this article refers to. 

The way I look at it is you need to analyze what kind of relationship you have with your customer and what kind of business you own.  You need to sit down and say to yourself, "If I subscribed to an email list of a company like this, how often would I want to be emailed their sales pitch and updates?".  

Just this week I unsubscribed from a list because I was getting an email every other day for a product I bought once, use maybe once a month, and do not have a plan to purchase again.  On the other hand, I am on the email list of a few retail stores that email every single day and I do not unsubscribe.  I really enjoy the newsletter style email marketing that is once per month; there is always actual content and I find myself reading it every single month I receive one.  

But this is just me.

You need to discover what your customer wants and what they are comfortable with!  There is no harm in asking your customers what they prefer.  You may not get everyone to respond, but at least you would get a little feedback.  Try a facebook post or an email survey to try to get a response and at least a little feedback so you can keep those customers you try so hard to gain!

Unfortunately the answer to the question 'how often' still remains yes.  There is no right or wrong answer; you just need to find out what you and your customers are comfortable with.

Until next time and Happy Turkey Day!
Melissa

"There are no magic wands, no hidden tricks, and no secret handshakes that can bring you immediate success, but with time, energy, and determination you can get there"  ~Darren Rowse

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Don't forget about the tourists!

As a local business, you do all you can to get your name out in your community.  Whether it be through an ad in the newspaper, through social media, or through a TV commercial, a local merchant's focus is usually on the people that already live an their prospective areas.  But as a business owner, did you ever stop to think how you can advertise to the tourists and visitors?

Many may think of tourists as a lost cause; they will visit what they want to visit and stop where they want to stop.  This may be true in some cases, but more than likely, they will pick up a visitor's guide, check out a tourism website, or stop to talk to the front desk worker at the hotel they are staying at to get more information about what they can see and do.

Since my current location is Lansing, Michigan, I wanted to gather some stats on the business that tourists bring to the area every year just to put some numbers to my point.  Did you know:

• Tourists spend around $424 million in Greater Lansing every year
• Lansing welcomes almost 5 million visitors to the area each year
• Guests pay the region taxes on various services adding $3.7 million in local taxes and $23 million in state taxes
• The overall result impact of tourism in the area is over $160 million dollars in revenue each year!
• **Thanks to the Greater Lansing Convention and Visitors Bureau for the stats!  www.lansing.org**

Did you learn something?  I know I did when I first saw these numbers.  This just made me realize how important it is to get your name out to tourists can be!  So the first step may be to define a tourist. Well, a tourist (in my opinion) is anyone who visits an area for a specific amount of time for any reason.  In an area like Lansing, visitors have endless reasons to come here: sporting events, parents visiting their sons and daughters at college, conventions, important legislative events, business meetings, interviews, visit family, and go on vacation, just to name a few!

Now the important question-how does a local business owner reach out to a tourist that may be coming from really anywhere in the world?  Personally, I think being in a visitor's guide is essential for hotels, restaurants, shops, public transportation, and so many other types of businesses.  Maybe place fliers around the local hotels if you are allowed.  Work with other businesses to promote at the same time so you can cover more ground.  Put fliers in the airport. Have fliers at your local visitors center or chamber of commerce. Team up with the university to offer student-parent discounts.  If you are really web savvy  make sure you are up on your search engine optimization so when someone searches "things to do in Lansing" they will find you.  Make sure you are on tourism websites like tripadvisor.com, chamber websites, area tourism websites (like www.lansing.org), local newspaper sites (like www.lansingstatejournal.com), and so many more.  Really the options are endless!!

A good way to test how easy you are to find, put yourself in the shoes of a tourist.  Visit a hotel or the airport and check out the fliers there.  Google your business.  Google "tourism in _______ (your location)". Check out facebook sites that promote businesses to tourists.  Check out the tourism websites and see what other businesses like yours are already on your site and take a look at your competition! And then make sure your act on these findings and get your name out to tourists!!

Overall, yes, it is extremely important to advertise to your potential regular customers (locals) as this is where a large chuck of your income will come from.  However, I hope this helps stress the importance of being available to the people who do not live in this area and will be coming to visit!

What is your experience in working with tourists at your business?  What ideas do you have to advertise to them?

Thanks so much everyone, see you next week!

-Melissa

             "The traveler sees what he sees.  The tourist sees what he has come to see".  ~G.K. Chesterton

Do we still need business cards in this digital age?

Yes you must have business cards.  And not just any business cards-nice ones.  Ones that identify your brand.  And ones that you did not get from Vista Print. 

Having business cards says so much about your business and I am going to stress that you must get some!  If a customer asks for a business card it is usually for a reason.  They probably loved your store and/or your service and want to remember that they were there!  Maybe they want to find you on Facebook or Twitter.  Yes, they may throw it away (although you hope they don’t!), but we’d all like to think that is not the case for most customers.  People love free things too, and you may look at it as “just a business card” but some customers will cherish the card and keep it in their wallet for the next time they need a great meal or need to buy a birthday present.  Business cards are a relatively inexpensive and easy way to remind your customers that you exist.

When you do decide to get business cards, plan to spend a little bit of money and a little bit of time into purchasing and designing them.  I cannot tell you how many times I have received the same Vista Print card layout for businesses (I personally rarely remember these businesses and usually do not take their cards).  A customer can easily confuse you with another business, plus they are less likely to even take a card in the first place if it does not catch their eye!  And I’m not ripping on Vista Print…okay, maybe I am a little, but for good reason.  The point I’m trying to make is that you want your customers to remember you and an easy way to do this is through business cards! Use creative shapes and cut outs, round the corners, use a thicker stock, maybe get a cool texture and make them double sided so there is twice as much to look at.  Important things to remember to put on your business cards that also are inexpensive and easy ways to advertise yourself are: your logo, web address, social media icons that apply to your business, and a phone number.  You may also want to add an email address, but just make sure that you actually check it and reply to customers as needed.  And please, please, please check for spelling errors and errors in phone numbers and email addresses!  This is an automatic turn off for customers and makes it hard for them to reconnect to you.

Yes these custom cards will be more expensive, but they will make you more money in the long run-that’s the beauty of it!  It will also help you quickly identify your brand and company.  I’m not the only one that thinks this is important, see the blog below for more ideas about the importance of creating custom business cards:

http://www.sessions.edu/notes-on-design/resources/design/why-business-cards-still-matter-in-the-digital-age/

So the moral of the story?  Order some high quality, creative, and interesting cards and have them available.  Always.  It’s a pretty inexpensive way to help your customers remember your business and stay connected with you past their initial visit!

Melissa

“Give them quality, that’s the best kind of advertising”

                     ~Milton Hershey, founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company