Email marketing is a powerful force for small businesses in today’s world.

With one of the largest returns on investment (ROI) at an average of $38 for every dollar spent, email isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Email helps you build relationships by connecting with and educating customers or supporters to keep them informed about your business and products.

As time goes on, technology advances only heighten the use and effectiveness of email marketing. In fact, it’s predicted that over 3 billion people will be using email by 2020. These advances allow you to do more, save time and be more engaging with your audience.

Here are three email marketing trends you can count on for 2019. If you’re not already using them, find a way to implement them into your email marketing strategy to maximize the impact of your efforts.

Learn more about these email marketing trends to help your business succeed. Check out our webinar: 3 Email Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2019.

1. Personal, relevant messaging reigns

People typically only pay attention to information that is relevant to them. Otherwise, they tune you out because your content hasn’t caught their attention.

And who could blame them? Stats show that 52% of consumers are likely to switch brands if communications aren’t targeted to their needs and interests. However, once you catch their attention with applicable information your results will soar.

How to start: Segment or group like contacts together into different lists. This allows you to stay relevant by creating and sending emails specific to each audience.

2. Automation is becoming standard

Wouldn’t it be nice to put your marketing on autopilot? You can with email automation tools.

Once you’ve completed the work for segmenting your list, you’ll have even more opportunity to send relevant and timely automated emails.

Stats show that automation can increase conversions by as much as 50%, improve long-term brand engagement by 33%, and nurture leads that will make 47% larger purchases.

A variety of automation tools can allow you to achieve whatever goals you set for your business. In Constant Contact, you’ll find:

• Welcome emails to introduce new contacts to your business
• Birthday & anniversary emails to make people feel special or send a yearly renewal reminder
• Automated series to provide a sequence of engaging content over a period of time
• Resend to non-openers to boost your open rate and remind subscribers about your most important emails.

If you’re not already using automation, definitely consider it as part of your strategy this year. Owning a small business can be stressful and time-consuming. By automating one or a few of your emails you can get some time back in your day!

How to start: Figure out a goal and decide which automation tool you’ll use. You can utilize more tools over time as your segmenting and personalization needs become more sophisticated.

If you’re still not sure, join an upcoming session of our webinar: Practical Uses for Email Automation.

3. Referral marketing continues to grow

Combine the first two trends and you have the perfect setup to get referrals and reviews through email marketing.

Once you segment out who’s recently purchased or had an interaction with your business, you can automatically send an email to ask for a review or referral.

Reviews are helpful for prospects to find you through an online search, and referrals are great to get new customers from a respected and trusted family member or friend.

Stats show that 84% of consumers are more likely to take action based on personal recommendations from a friend or family member. Plus, those who are referred are 4 times more likely to make a purchase.

Whether you want reviews or referrals, you simply need to ask. People generally won’t if you don’t ask.

One important rule of asking for reviews and referrals is to make it as easy as possible, and email can do just that.

When you ask for a referral in combination with useful content, you’ll make more people want to share it. Simply add social sharing buttons into your email and subscribers can quickly and easily share it on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

How to start: Create an automated email that is sent when people make a purchase, or have an interaction with your business, to ask for a review or referral. Provide a link to where you want them to leave a review, any needed instructions, and why reviews are important to your business success.

Learn more about these email marketing trends to help your business succeed. Check out our webinar: 3 Email Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2019.

Implement these three email marketing trends today!

Use these three email marketing trends to power your business through 2019.

Don’t just pick one—implement all three so you can maximize the impact and grow your business this year. Start by segmenting your email list, implement automated, targeted emails and then be sure to ask for referrals.

With all three, you’ll be launching the small business marketing trifecta!

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