Small businesses face all kinds of obstacles when it comes time to drive repeat business. 

It’s not that your customers don’t want to come back. But if you don’t give them a reason to connect with you, your business might slip from their minds.

That’s where email marketing comes in.

Sending regular emails keeps your business fresh in your customers’ minds and entices them to reconnect with your business.

Just ask Kaarina Vera, marketing director at The Inn at Seaside in Seaside, Oregon. Kaarina uses her email list as a way to stay in touch with her existing customers and encourage them to stay again.

“It’s important to maintain our guests and market (and remarket) to them. All of these are returning guests that have stayed with us. It’s important to keep them by sending these emails.”

Want to try email marketing for your business? Sign up for your free, 60-day email marketing trial!

Let’s take a look at Kaarina’s marketing approach and how it can work for your business:

1. Use eye-catching images and attractive design.

A chief challenge in email marketing is creating an email that is visually appealing, fresh, and engaging.

Luckily, you don’t need to be a designer to make a great impression in the inbox; all you need is a professional email template, customized with your business branding.

Here’s an example from the Inn at Seaside:

email marketing accomodation template

In this email, you can see Kaarina starts with the Inn’s logo, an engaging headline, and a vibrantly colored beach photo.

Following the photo, there is a quick message followed by a very clear call to action: “Book Your Beach Trip”.  

Keeping your message short without a lot of adornment leads to great open and click rates. In the example above, Kaarina received a 23 percent open rate and 11 percent click-through rate, resulting in over 300 clicks to the Inn’s website.

Best of all, once you have a look and feel you like, you can save time by creating a reusable email template, which allows new content (like seasonal images and the current specials) to be easily added without needing to reinvent the wheel every time.

“We kind of just use our templates and then copy them and redo them,” Kaarina said.

Tip: Use these 8 steps to create a reusable email template in record time!

2. Drive bookings with timely offers.

The average reading time for an email is measured in seconds. That’s almost no time for you to get your message across.

Make good use of short attention spans with an offer your subscribers can’t ignore. This is one of the main reasons Kaarina first turned to email marketing:

“We started using email to market to returning guests, letting them know, ‘Hey, there’s a special’,” she explains.

Here’s how Kaarina promoted the inn’s recent pre-summer special:

drive repeat business with email marketing example

For these promotions, timing is everything. Send an email when your customers are likely considering going on a summer vacation or attending a convention. Pique their interest with upcoming events, remind them of why they liked you to begin with, and offer a small incentive to book again.

The email above resulted in over 370 website visits, with over 320 of those clicks going directly to the inn’s reservation page.

3. Use your repeat customers to drive new business.

One of the best things about repeat customers is they can help get the word out about your business. Inn at Seaside encourages their customers to leave reviews for their business, which they feature in their email marketing, as well as social media.

Driving repeat business through social media example

When someone hears about the Inn at Seaside for the first time, they can easily see positive reviews and endorsements from returning guests.

Additionally, if a guest hasn’t returned in a while, being reminded of these special moments could be just the push they need to come back.

Small businesses have enough to worry about.

Retaining and re-engaging past customers shouldn’t be a pain point.

Follow these simple and repeatable steps to get your existing customers back and generate the word-of-mouth promotion that you can’t pay for.

Want to send business-generating emails in no time? Our 5-step Approach to Successful Email Marketing guide will show you how! 

With 1.3 trillion dollars of annual buying power, millennials are now the driving force behind our economy.

If you own your own business, successfully reaching and getting a response from this demographic is probably easier than you think.

Check out the infographic below for the 10 commandments of millennial marketing, followed by even more useful tips to reach this important demographic:

Millennial marketing infographic 1

(Having trouble viewing the infographic? View it here!)

1. Mobilize Your Efforts

It’s safe to say that mobile phones are no passing trend, especially amongst the younger tech-savvy generations. Smart phones have found their way into the hands of 85 percent of millennials.

This means that if you aren’t optimizing your content for smart phones, your content won’t be seen. One tip is to make sure that all emails you are sending out look great on mobile phones and computers alike.

Tip: Here’s how to design emails for small screens and short attention spans.

2. Know the Tools and When to Use Them

If you want to market to millennials, then you have to think like a millennial. This means creating a presence for your company on all the channels the millennials you want to target are frequenting (most likely Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, Tumblr, and YouTube).

Start following and engaging with your audience where they already are.

Brand new to a social channel? Our Social Media Quickstarter has resources to help you master any major social network, from Facebook to Instagram to Snapchat.

3. Content is King

The days of gaining customers by bombarding them with unwanted and manipulative ads have passed. Millennials rated advertising as the least trustworthy source of information, disliked by 85 percent.

Replacing this outdated model of marketing comes content marketing, focused on creative content your audience actually wants. Now, your audience becomes your strongest source of distribution.

Produce a worthwhile video, image, or blog post and sit back while a willing and enthusiastic audience distributes it.

4. Deliver Value

The content you create should directly provide value for your audience. For example, a farm owner may send out an email newsletter in October containing “10 Jack-O-Lantern Templates You Can Use Today!”

Creating valuable content positions your company as a trusted source of information for your audience.

5. Make it Participatory

With the rise of social media, companies no longer have a one-sided relationship with their audience.

Millennials often communicate online with the brands they love; giving shout-outs as well as voicing concerns. All of this should be encouraged and responded to.

When people feel like they can have a conversation with a brand, a once faceless entity becomes humanized and bonds between company and customer form.

6. Live and Breathe Transparency

“Companies are becoming more transparent, whether they like it or not.” –Tony Hsieh, CEO at Zappos

Before they ever buy your product, many millennials look up your reviews, read about your company, and decide whether or not they want to support you. Embrace transparency by being honest and upfront about the good and the bad.

7. Find Your Cause

Millennials want companies that don’t just measure their success in revenue. In fact, 91 percent of millennials prefer a brand if it is associated with a cause.

Millennials want brands that help the environment, fight for fair labor practices, save the rainforest, fund cancer research, raise awareness for illegal poaching, and countless other problems facing the world today.

While you likely lack the bandwidth and energy for all these causes, try picking one that you genuinely identify with. If your business isn’t supporting this cause, then start. If you already are, then start telling your audience about it. That’s the kind of news they want to hear and share through social media.

8. Tell a Story Worth Hearing

With so much marketing all around us, millennials are no longer drawn in by standard product pitches. Instead, they want brands to embrace storytelling.

An easy way to do this is to tell the story of your company. Think in terms of having a setup, a conflict, and a resolution that brings your company to where it is now, all while conveying your personality.

Tip: Here’s some advice for creating customer connections through storytelling.

9. Listen, Learn, and Leverage

The biggest mistake you can make when marketing to millennials is forgetting to listen to them. Hear what they’re saying and how they’re saying it.

Follow them on social media to become familiar with their patterns and the causes that matter to them.

However, do not attempt to pander using slang or gimmicks like emojis unless you’re able to make it feel completely natural. 9 times out of 10 this feels painfully contrived, and the company ends up looking like a parent trying to act hip to relate to their teenage kid.

10. Be Ready To Throw This List Away

In the time that it takes to read through this article, a new app or website may come out that redefines the millennial experience.

When dealing with a group so entrenched in new technology, one must be completely flexible and ready to create a new plan at a moment’s notice.

The most important thing is to constantly monitor the online presence of millennials by reading articles, monitoring social media, and talking to them.

If you’re simply willing to listen to millennials and adjust accordingly, your business will have no problem reaching this important demographic.

Have any millennial tips we missed? Leave us a comment with your best advice!

If you’re a business owner, chances are you’ve already considered using social media marketing to help get the word out about your business.

In fact, many small business owners are using sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat to help grow their businesses. And if you are still standing on the social sidelines, there’s never been a better time to get started.

10 reasons social media marketing can help grow your business

1. Social media helps get the word out and generates brand awareness

First and foremost — social media does, in fact, help get the word out about your business.

But even more important than the exposure, it provides you with the opportunity to grow relationships with your target audience. Your fans, followers, and connections are people who know your organization, have likely done business with you in the past, and will be most likely to tell their friends about you.

Social media marketing image 1

You don’t need to be a dedicated reader of tech blogs or an expert in online marketing to know that social media is really popular among consumers.

According to the Pew Research Center, 69 percent of American adults use social networks, which means that social media will touch nearly every customer that walks through your door.

For most small businesses, Facebook — which has 2.32 billion monthly active users — is the jumping-off point for getting started with social media marketing.

With its extensive reach and dynamic functionality, there are very few businesses that couldn’t benefit from having a presence on Facebook. And starting there will make it easier when you want to try something new.

3. Social media is cost-effective

As more social networks add algorithms that filter what users see in their news feeds, your organic content may get lost in the shuffle. Take advantage of the low-cost advertising features offered by the social networks to promote your content and special offers.

Most social media advertising is cheaper than traditional advertising, so you don’t have to spend a lot of money to reach more people, increase your audience, and grow your business.

Social media marketing and advertising image

4. Social media reaches all ages and demographics

Social media defies age barriers. A Pew Research Center study found that 69 percent of US adults are using social networks.

While the majority of that percentage are aged 18-29, a substantial amount is attributed to other ages that use social media as well, including 34% of Americans 65 and older. So, no matter how young or old your target audience may be, chances are most of them are already logging on and waiting for you to get started.

5. Social media encourages two-way communication

Social media gives you the power to learn more about your audience, their interests, and collect feedback.

Ask your customers to share their thoughts, questions, and ideas to get to know them better. You can respond just as fast, without having to pick up the phone or worry the customer isn’t seeing your response.

Social media marketing two-way communication

6. Social media users are active

One thing you have to know about social media users is that when they say they are on social media, they are really on social media.

Social media users in the US check their accounts 17 times a day, according to an Informate Mobile Intelligence report. While a customer may visit your store once a week, they could see your social media posts in their feed multiple times during the week.

7. Social media lets you share A LOT about your business

Social media sites are becoming the go-to place for consumers who want to learn more about a business. That’s because these sites allow businesses to offer the most up-to-date information about anything from products, services, or upcoming events.

Also, much of your activity and profiles on social media sites can be made public, meaning they can be indexed by search engines — one more way to make sure your business or organization comes up as the answer when someone is searching for a solution to a problem.

Social media marketing, sharing expertise

8. Social media is perfect for customer service

Providing stellar customer service is likely already a top priority for your small business. But along with the two-way communication that social media provides, it also offers a unique opportunity to step up your customer service game and provide instant gratification to your target audience and active users.

This will allow you to showcase just how much you care about providing a memorable experience and will ensure that no customer inquiry goes unnoticed. And by monitoring social media for customer feedback and offering a response, you can drive real business results. Businesses that engage with customer service requests via social media earn 20-40 percent more revenue per customer, according to Bain and Company.

9. Social media can make a big difference for your email marketing strategy

Social media platforms have completely changed the game when it comes to how small businesses think of email marketing. Sharing your email newsletter across your social networks can open your content up to a whole new audience and generate the type of buzz you’ve been looking for.

Not only that, but you can also use sites like Facebook to attract more readers by including a Join My Mailing List link right on your Page.

Together, these two powerful tools have reshaped the marketing landscape and have really leveled the playing field for small businesses trying to better connect with current customers and reach new audiences for their business.

Join our newsletter on facebook image

10. Social media is everywhere

Today, more than half of all Americans are smartphone users and more and more businesses are offering mobile-friendly experiences. The benefit of the increased presence of mobile activity in our daily lives is huge for small businesses that are aided by mobile marketing.

Most major social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, offer free mobile apps that let business owners manage their presence on-the-go.

More importantly, these apps let customers connect to their favorite sites wherever they are. These users aren’t just sharing updates from their own lives, they’re searching for businesses, products, and services, and connecting with brands through their social channels.

Having a social media presence that’s accessible via mobile can improve the chances of your business getting found when someone is searching for a place to eat or a product to buy, while on-the-go.

Don’t sit on the social media sidelines!

See how social media marketing can work for your business. Check out our Social Media Quickstarter to learn the ins and outs of the major social media networks.