Some people may think that in these days of instant messaging and social media posts emailing is a thing of the past but for a small business it can be a valuable marketing tool when used to target clients and promote a business.

Obtaining email addresses of potential clients is key to reaching the target audience and it is commonplace for businesses to ask for email addresses as part of the ordering process. Requesting that customers sign up for a business newsletter or giving away products and services for free are valuable ways to persuade customers to provide their email addresses and hopefully give permission for marketing information from your business.

It is vitally important to respond to email enquires promptly and positively as this can make a good initial impression however bombarding the recipient with countless email marketing correspondence is counterproductive and may result in the client unsubscribing to the email list completely. Emails once a week is ideal but certainly once a month is essential for effective marketing. Autoresponders can be set up to ensure regular emails are sent out as it might be difficult to keep up as the business grows. Always make the emails worth reading by providing useful information, special deal news and repeat customer offers worth having.