These days with so many social media outlets to use, it would seem like email campaigns are dinosaurs, but the truth is that e-mail newsletters are one of the most effective ways to build relationships with your customers and drive sales. In fact, a recent survey done by StrongView reveals that 60.66% of marketers plan to increase their email marketing budgets over the next year. That's far from being a dinosaur! Just think about your own habits and you'll know this to be true. You probably read every subject line in your inbox, but you likely don't read every tweet in your Twitter feed. Email works for many businesses and it can absolutely work for you!

E-mail Newsletters

Lots of folks think that email newsletters need to contain the history of the world and require lots and lots of writing, but that's not true. They can be very simple and fit into a clean, well-designed template that contains a few easily digestible bits of information that make it easy for folks to learn about upcoming events, new products or sales. These emails can be sent once or twice a month and are fantastic for keeping your business relevant to your customer and bringing them through your door.

If the idea of sending out email newsletters sounds intimidating and complicated, there are many online solutions for creating and running newsletters and email campaigns. Services like Mail Chimp and Constant Contact make the experience user friendly and require no technical experience. GLAD WORKS gets clients up and running with e-mail newsletter template designs and Mail Chimp or Constant Contact accounts very frequently. Our clients get a great return on investment with them and we think they're a great idea for just about anybody.

While email newsletters are a great solution, there are a few others that work really well but are more automated. One that we really like is called Drip marketing, but we're going to save our overview of that one for next week. It's way too exciting for just one blog post, so stay tuned for that and be prepared to hold onto your hat!