Digital Communication For Businesses and Email Marketing

Jan 8, 2017 | Communication, Digital Marketing, Entrepreneur, Free Stuff, Online Tools | 170 comments

Digital Communication For Business

Go on the Internet and do a search on digital communication. The chance is that you wouldn’t find a source that won’t emphasize on the way the wide web has changed communication and what this means for business.

Just a couple of decades ago marketing was a linear process that ran from business to a potential client. Customers didn’t have many alternatives in interacting with the brand or in influencing the market other than through their purchasing choices. You like something – you buy, you don’t like it – you don’t buy. As a result, markets couldn’t reach a true equilibrium where the supply and demand reflect true needs. This all changed with the boom of internet. As the wide web expanded, savvy consumers and entrepreneurs got creative in their use of a network that connects the world like no other. What does that mean for the way that business is done today?

First, consumers are much, much more powerful than they used to be. Digital communication has taken word of mouth to a level that allows current and potential customers to alter the market equilibrium, as well as create and destroy brands in a whim. It doesn’t take much digging for one to go on a brand’s Facebook page and see how a simple comment results in an immediate reaction by the brand.

Second, the advance in digital communication also gave businesses a great medium for developing an all-around marketing strategy. Generally, there are three ways for a brand to reach its target audience – social media, search and email. Discussing all the options can have a dedicated library, so let’s focus on one – email.

Email Marketing

Email has existed for long enough to be a medium that can reach almost every internet user. Thus, impacts on a large scale and transcends physical borders. You can have a business in New Zealand and send an email to somebody in Latin America. You can sell them something, ask them for partnership or achieve any business goal that you have set.

But email has another advantage as well – it’s content doesn’t have an expiration date like on social media. You can always make a beautiful post on Facebook, but it will only last until something else takes its place on the user’s News Feed. On Twitter things happen even faster. An email stays! Waiting for a convenient time to be opened. If you’re considering some cloud based email services, I highly recommend G-Suite (formerly known as Google Apps for Work) where you can create more than just a domain specific email address like yo******@yo***************.com. We have a 20% off coupon for the first year if you sign up for G-Suite. Comment below if you’d like to grab one. Cloudwards has also written an article with more email options for you to explore.

Unfortunately, crafting emails on an ongoing basis, sending them and tracking their performance is a huge burden (not to mention boring and prone to human-error). Can you imagine if you have to sit down every couple of days to create a newsletter and send it to a list of 1000 people? Or 5000? Oops, you forgot to send it this week? Don’t know how many people have unsubscribed or how many have converted? Fear not! There are several options for you to explore.

Mailchimp

If you are a beginner, I highly recommend trying out Mailchimp. You can start off with their free plan that allows storage of up to 2000 contacts and creating pretty email newsletters with your product images and the likes.

You can simply sign up to Mailchimp and start manually adding your contacts or importing them using a csv file.

Create your settings and you’re off! For a complete full training on how to use this tool, check out our training here

ConvertKit

If you are a little bit more than a beginner and know that you would like some automation in your email marketing then I would highly recommend checking out ConvertKit. It is an email marketing platform that has the powerful tagging features of powerhouses such as Infusionsoft and Ontraport but simplistic enough that it will be simple enough for you to start using it today. It does come with a learning curve, but that’s when I come in with a free course on using ConvertKit. You can sign up for the free ConvertKit course here. If you are convinced that convertkit is the right one for you, you can sign up here.

Drip

Drip is another great platform we like here at Executive Support NZ. This platform is a step up from ConvertKit and has a few more features that takes your automation a little bit further.

This platform is more suitable for the tech-minded but that doesn’t leave out the non-techies as Drip has a free introductory course for you. You can sign up for Drip for free if you have less than 100 contacts! Try Drip here.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign’s functionality is similar to Drip but they do have the capacity for their higher plans to become your CRM if you wish to utilise it this way.

ActiveCampaign is also a great email platform for beginners on a budget as they do have a plan for under 500 contacts at USD9/month. To sign up for Activecampaign, you can use this link here.

There it is. The world has changed. It has become digital in every aspect. Not one or two businesses have failed, because they didn’t keep up with the times. Modern-day marketers never get tired of repeating that nowadays brands are shaped by the consumers, not the other way around. I’ve shared a way for you to get closer to the people that matter to your business and do it pain-free.

To get more tips from us on platforms to help your business grow online, sign up for our newsletter for more or comment below with any questions you have.

Digital Communication For Businesses and Email Marketing

Digital Communication For Business

Email Marketing

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