Is Your Email Marketing Working?

Now that you're on your way with email marketing, how do you know if it is working? There are several ways to track and monitor your ROI (return on investment) when it comes to email marketing.
1. Are you getting more business?
2. Are you growing your customer base?
3. Are sales rising?
4. Are you establishing an online presence?
These are some basic questions you should be asking yourself. Let's take a look at each one in more detail.

Are you getting new business from email marketing? Is that even your goal? Well, if new business is your goal then the best way to know if you are getting new business is to check your email database. What is the growth rate of new email registrants month over month. Are the numbers all over the place or are they consistent? Based on your answer there are different ways to improve your new customer acquisition. If you are seeing a steady increase month over month, then keep doing what your doing! If it is on par with what you expect you've hit the jackpot. If you'd like to increase the month over month ROI then look at how often you're mailing, what you're mailing and what content is driving business. Once you know this, then you can begin catering your content and frequency to maximize your overall impact.

Are you growing your customer base? This is different than bringing in new business, because a customer base may or may not provide revenue. Regardless, the more talk from new customers means new "new business" to your doorstep.

Are your sales increasing? This is also a slight variation from bringing in new business because this takes a look at specific selling items. Are you seeing a certain product line flying off the shelf more than others. Have you focused your campaigns on this item to drive sales, or is there a natural order to it? These are questions you can ask yourself to identify what's driving sales and what you might want to focus on or change in your overall email correspondence to your customers.

Online presence is how business is done in this day and age. Online presence is not about selling the most items, its about being an expert in your industry and being the one that people turn to when they need advice or tips about the practice. Having a following on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites will give you an opportunity for your business to go "viral". What is viral? It is when an "unknown" person or company spirals into instant fame through the means of social media. Of course, you want that fame to be positive and productive to your business, so making your customers aware of your contributions and expertise is a great way to ensure you're getting the right online presence.

Email marketing is number one for your business. The first step in any goal is to determine how you want email marketing to work for you. What is your "email marketing" plan? If you start off asking those questions, when you start your campaigns, you'll know what to look for on how email marketing is benefiting your business and exactly the ROI.

Craig Smith is a graphic artist and runs a Dallas Website Design business. He also offers Dallas SEO Services to small and medium size businesses. SEO and email marketing are the back bone to developing an online business, he is an expert in both marketing techniques.