Author: Patrick Griffin

Patrick Griffin has been marketing online for 15 years. He's a serial entrepreneur and an avid email and content marketing enthusiast with a background in publishing and journalism, including a UK Press Award.

Email Marketing For Small Businesses

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Email Marketing For Small Businesses with RocketResponder

If you run a small business then everything you can do to attract new customers and retain existing ones will help your long-term profitability.

One really powerful way of getting the very best out of your customers is email marketing. This is why RocketResponder has taken a lot of care to look at how it provides email marketing for small businesses.

You may be missing out on income from your customers simply because they are not thinking about you. Email marketing ensures that your business, and your offers, will regularly be in their email inbox.

These are some reasons why small business owners may not use email marketing:

– It sounds too complicated for me, I don’t want to have to learn something new.

– I don’t have time for email marketing because I am too busy running my business.

– I don’t know how to use email marketing. What would I even write about?

– It is just another cost to spiral out of control.

At RocketResponder we know that these are all very real concerns which is why we decided to make email marketing for small businesses simple, quick and easy to use with a fixed price plan so that costs can never spiral out of control.

We know how important email marketing is to small businesses which is why we have come up with a solution which business owners can confidently use to boost their interaction with customers.

Is It Really Not Complicated?

Using RocketResponder is not complicated at all. In fact if you can send regular email then you can use our software to communicate with your entire customer database.

RocketResponder - Email Marketing for Small Businesses

Choose one of our stunning templates and just drag and drop images and text blocks into the email to get a professionally looking email composed without needing to know any coding skills at all.

It might look something like this…

RocketResponder - Email Marketing For Small Businesses

Or this…

An example of a RocketResponder email template

If you prefer you can just send out a simple, text only email without any fancy graphics at all…the choice is totally yours.

One of our top priorities was ensuring that RocketResponder was not difficult to use. It is as simple as writing your email, deciding which list(s) you want to send it to and then choosing when you want to send it.

We also understand that with any new system, people will sometimes run into difficulties so when you need help we are there to get your problem solved quickly and efficiently. This is both easy and fun to use.

But I still don’t have time for email marketing…

There is one thing that virtually all of your customers will have in common…they will want information about the goods or services you provide.

RocketResponder allows you to ensure that every customer gets high quality information from you as soon as they subscribe to your list.

Here’s how it works.

You write a series of emails which will be received by all new customers over a period of days, weeks or months after they subscribe to receive information from you.

These could include a welcome email where you thank them for subscribing, an email introducing yourself and your business, one explaining how they can contact you and where they can get help if things go wrong, another about what set’s you apart, an email or two with useful information about the niche you operate in…that sort of thing.

Just choose the topics you would like to read about if you were a new customer to your business and start writing. (If you don’t like the thought of writing emails, you can outsource this to someone else for very little cost.)

You only have to write these emails once, decide the time interval you want them to be delivered and then every time a new subscriber signs up to your email list they will get the emails delivered without any further work needed on your part.

No customer is missed out and everything you want them to know about your business is communicated to them without you having to interrupt your working day for a moment.

You can also send emails out to your entire list whenever you want…such as when you have an offer or promotion you want to highlight or a special time-limited deal on your website or in store.

RocketResponder is designed to allow efficient communication with your customers while taking up as little of your time as possible.

I still don’t know what to write about…

The section above gave some suggestions about to the kinds of things you could send out in your emails.

If you still need some ideas then just think of the questions that your customers ask all the time.

Is there some advice that new customers want time and time again or some particular information about the products or services you offer? If so, then write about that.

You could send out a regular newsletter to your subscribers, give tips and hints about the industry you work in, use RocketResponder to give exclusive discount codes to your subscribers or to alert them first on red hot offers you have coming up.

Once you start thinking about it you will come up with many ideas for ways to use email to communicate with your customers and potential customers.

I am worried about another uncontrolled business expense…

You can stop worrying. We know that small business owners like to know what their business expenses are going to be ahead of time…so we have taken care of that.

Most email marketing services set their charges based on how many subscribers have joined their list…the more subscribers you attract then the more you pay in monthly fees.

Others will charge based on how many emails you send out and with these price plans it is impossible to calculate how much you will pay in advance.

RocketResponder is much simpler than all that. There is one small monthly flat fee which stays the same regardless of how many people you add to your list or how often you communicate with your subscribers.

Business owners have told us that price certainty is something that is important to them and we have listened.

Small Businesses thrive off repeat customers. People have busy lives and your customers will need to be reminded to comeback and buy from you. The best way to do this is through email.

RocketResponder is like having a sales person who works for you 24 hours a day 7 days a week and who never gets tired.

Learn more about the features RocketResponder offers for small businesses – Email Marketing For Small Business.

How Email Marketing Software Can Improve Customer Retention And Acquisition

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Customer Retention and Acquisition

Customer Retention and Acquisition: It is one thing getting a customer for your business, but it is quite another to keep that customer.

There are so many things that could happen to stop them remaining with you and going on to be a valuable repeat customer.

In business, it is repeat customers that you really want to really encourage, the kinds of people who love what you do and are happy to spend money with you time and time again.

Here are some possible reasons why customers may decide not do carry on doing business with you:

– they are unhappy with your customer service

– you make it difficult to buy from you

– it is hard to get information on exactly what you offer for sale

– they feel that they are not important to your business

– the overall ‘customer experience’ is not good.

The good news is that when it comes to customer retention, using email marketing software such as RocketResponder could really help with all of the possible reasons shown above for customers deciding to take their business elsewhere.

Let’s take each point in turn:

Your customers are unhappy with the service you provide them.

This is easy to put right. If you have the mindset that you want to retain customers for as long as you possibly can then you will work hard on keeping customers happy.

One great way is to use email to inform your customers about your business and to let them know how they can contact you if things go wrong. Use a short email series when a new customer joins your list to show that you care about each individual customer and how you go the extra mile to ensure that your service will meet and exceed their expectations.

You make it difficult for customers to buy from you.

It is amazing how many businesses fail here. If you do business online then there must be a quick and easy way for customers to buy items from your website. The process should be clear, obvious and very easy to complete.

You can also make it easy to buy from you by sending out emails to your subscriber list which contain information on your current offers, special deals, seasonal promotions and so forth. Also be sure to include a link in the email to the sales page for the deals, services or products that you are highlighting.

Nobody will ever complain that you make it too easy to buy from you.

 It is hard to find out what you offer for sale.

Once again you cannot be too obvious about this. Your website, if you are online, should clearly state what you sell so that there is no doubt in the visitor’s mind whether or not they are on the right site for what they want to buy.

Once again use emails to highlight your latest offers. The great selection of email templates and images inside RocketResponder really let you show off what you are selling to maximum advantage and, of course, you can upload your own images to send to your customers via email.

An example of a RocketResponder email template

Your customers don’t feel that they are important to you.

This is a really big mistake and one you don’t want to make. Remember that by building a list of customers or subscribers you are building a list of individuals.

When you email your list, always address the emails to the individual and write as though you are writing to just one customer. Imagine your ideal customer and write your emails for that individual. Just doing this will go a long way to ensuring that all your customers feel valued and important to your business.

Your overall customer experience is lacking.

These days, increasing numbers of customers want to do more than simply buy something from you. They want the buying process to be an experience which begins with them thinking about making the process and continues right through to using the goods or service that they have purchased.

If that process is pleasurable then it is more likely that you will retain more of your customers and attract new ones.

This is one of the reasons that you will want to send out emails on a regular basis to your customers. Say you are introducing a new range of goods in two month’s time. Well it would be a great idea to explain ahead of time that you have exciting new goods coming soon. You can give more and more details as the launch approaches to build up excitement in the minds of your customers.

Then when you are ready to go live a series of emails explaining that you can now buy, and a direct link to the sales page, should really pay dividends.

Finally remember that you will be adding new subscribers to your email list all the time and this is how you can do well on the customer acquisition front.

When someone joins your list and sees that you have a well-structured series of emails to show that you care about your customers and really want to help them, then they will be more likely to want to go on and buy from you.

Using email for customer retention and acquisition is not difficult but it is a really important step in both processes. With RocketResponder we have worked hard behind the scenes to ensure that getting the right message to your customers is fun, really quick and easy to do.

An example of just one of the RocketResponder fully customisable email templates

RocketResponder Launches Cool New Responsive Email Editor With 360,000 Free Images

Patrick Griffin 7 Comments

Responsive email editor comes to RocketResponder

RocketResponder has launched a cool new responsive email editor, which not only ensures that your emails look highly professional, but which works flawlessly across all email clients and on all devices.

This is a huge upgrade for RocketResponder and means you will have total control over how your emails will look for that extra special personal touch that your subscribers will really appreciate.

Not only will your emails look great but the new email editor fully fits in with the RocketResponder ethos of being fun to use and easy to understand.

Now you choose exactly how you display your emails and you can either upload your own images or browse through more than 360,000 free images directly from our email editor. We have integrated RocketResponder with Pixabay to provide you with free, high quality images, vectors and art illustrations that you can use anywhere.

So let’s take a look at how it all works…

When you login to your RocketResponder control panel to send an email to your subscribers you now see a screen which looks like this.

new responsive email editor template system from RocketResponder

 

Note that there are currently seven templates to choose from but new ones will be added on a regular basis.

The templates are cool, but they are not the coolest part at all…think of them as your starting point but the really cool feature is the total flexibility you now have to be creative with your email design.

Even if you have no design skills, this easy-to-use drag-and-drop system will have you producing professional-looking emails in just minutes.

So choose a template that you like and start having fun…

RocketResponder responsive email editor template example

Here are just some of the really cool features which you will love and will have you looking at the way you send emails in a whole new light…

* There is absolutely no complicated coding to learn or implement.

* Just click on the heading and wording to change it to what you want to say.

* For any elements you don’t need, then just highlight them and delete.

* Click on the pictures to either replace them with your own or choose from the 360,000 images we have available for you.

* Easily add any section from the options in the right hand side by just dragging them over to where you want them to go.

* Make headings, text or pictures clickable with hyperlinks to take your subscribers to the content you want them to see.

* Change font types, text colors, text size and add bullets, lists and buttons with ease.

* Never worry about your emails looking good across all email clients…they just will.

* Never worry about having to optimize your emails for desktops, laptops, smartphones or tablets…we have taken care of that for you already.

* One touch email preview function. See exactly how your email will look before you send it.

Here is a quick look at the awesome image editor. Let’s say you want to replace the standard image with one of a cute kitten…so you click on the picture, press the camera icon and search for the word ‘kittens.’

Search for 'kittens' using image search on RocketResponder responsive email editor

Or maybe ‘chocolate cake’

'chocolate cake' search term using image editor on RocketResponder responsive email editor

Or ‘furniture’…

'furniture' search term using image editor on RocketResponder responsive email editor

I think you get the idea…now choose an image you want, edit the text next to it and you are all set.

This is what you might do for example if you have written a blog post about exotic pets…

Default view…

Using the RocketResponder responsive email editor.

Your version…

Using the RocketResponder responsive email editor is easy

Make the image, the headline or part of the text clickable to your subscribers are taken directly to your blog and watch your views get a massive boost.

All you have to worry about is working out what message you want to get across to your subscribers and soon you will be sending out the most eye-catching emails you have ever produced.

Best of all there is no steep learning curve. We have taken a great deal of time to ensure that this is as intuitive and easy to use as is humanly possible.

Reading about the new RocketResponder responsive email editor on a blog post is one thing, but actually using it for yourself is a whole new experience you will not want to miss out on. Log in today and try it for yourself.

Why Do I Need An Autoresponder?

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Why Do I Need An Autoresponder?One of the things we are always finding at RocketResponder, is that the most diverse groups of people and organizations can benefit from using an autoresponder.

Two of the most common questions we get asked are “What is an autoresponder?” and “Why do I need an autoresponder?”

The first question was addressed in this blog post – What is an autoresponder and how does it work? – and the second one is the subject of this current post.

It might be easier to first set out why you might not need to use an autoresponder. Basically if you are only sending emails to friends or family then you will not need an autoresponder…a regular email service will more than adequately meet your needs.

When using regular email, you manually write out and send an email to, typically, one person at a time and every time you want to send an email message then you have physically write it out and send it.

Why Do I Need An Autoresponder?

If you find that you are regularly having to send the same emails to different people then you most certainly could benefit from using an autoresponder which will allow you to send the same email, or series of emails to multiple people, automatically as they sign up to receive emails from you.

If you don’t regularly send the same emails to different people – but could see how doing so would be of benefit to you – then you could also benefit from using an autoresponder.

Here are just some categories where using an autoresponder could bring big benefits and save you a lot of time in physically sending emails.

small businesses – contact your customers and keep them updated with special offers and promotions

large businesses – keep customers updated with special offers and promotions while also managing your internal email communications

special interest groups – send out information about your niche to those who share the same passion as you.

bloggers – let your readers know as soon as your blog has new content

affiliate marketers – promote launches and affiliate offers to your list at exactly the time you want to. Never miss a launch date again.

restaurants – let your customers know about special menus, themed events, food and beverage deals and offers.

website owners – maximize targeted traffic by building up a subscriber list of fans.

political groups – contact potential voters, organize support and publicize campaigns.

churches – contact your congregation about upcoming services, spread God’s word and reach out to the wider community.

non profits – highlight the work you do, explain why it is so important and raise your profile.

internet marketers – having an efficient, reliable autoresponder is the life-blood of your business.

These are just a small selection of people who would benefit from using an autoresponder, but the list is virtually endless.

In all cases there has to be a desire to communicate information to a specific group of people on the one hand and a desire for a group of people to receive that information on the other.

An autoresponder is the tool that brings those two groups together and ensures that your message gets out quickly and efficiently.