SEO (search engine optimization) is a deep, deep sea.  The acronym is commonly used but, really how many of us really understand what it means?  Here are a few quick facts:

Fact #1 : SEO is not something you purchase, its not a one and done approach to search results/optimization. When your web builder tells you that your website is properly optimized, ( and you just paid extra to have that, that is a whole other blog)  it is only the beginning. You cannot just purchase the package and relax. 

Fact #2:  Most small business owners have come across the term search engine optimization (SEO). Many of them know it is critical to their business online. But prod them a bit more and it becomes clear many don’t know what it really means. Not something to shy aware from, educating yourself about SEO is a game changer for small businesses. 

Fact #3: SEO is more important to small businesses than social media marketing.  Google uses 200+ ranking factors to determine what businesses rise to the top of SERP (search engine results page) and SEO is a big part of individual success.  We could keep going but we want to keep you reading!
What is Google Indexing/Crawling? Why is it so important to small businesses?

First a few commonly used terms:

Google Crawling: When Google visits your website for tracking purposes. This process is done by Google’s Spider crawler.

Google Indexing: After crawling has been done, the results get put onto Google’s index (i.e. web search).

Google crawlers are attracted to:

• Readable, clear content and page descriptions and titles with an easy to navigate site structure are search engine friendly and easier to index. Your content and site structure should easily explain what your business, products and services are all about. It should be relevant to your customers and within your industry.
• A number of unique sites that refer to your site, also called earned backlinks. You don’t have much control over other sites, but the more you build awareness, including business directories, blogs and social media, the higher this can be.
• Readability on desktop and mobile devices.
• Content authority. Regular updates, new content and earning links and mentions from other sites increase a search engine’s boost your importance as far as search engine results go.

What are the benefits of SEO for small business?

SEO isn’t only for big business. It was years ago, but today, with billions of sites online, you can’t get around it. Here are some of the benefits of SEO for small businesses:
 

• Better site, better content. SEO can make your site content better and more focused, This attracts search engines and customers.
• Local Platforms like ShopBayofQuinte.ca  assist local businesses in having their unbranded products and services rank higher in search results with little to no tech experience and lacking  properly optimized websites, no websites or online tools.
• Increase sales and grow your business. Better ranking search results means higher visibility of your brand or products. SEO optimized sites are faster, and more likely to convert visitors to buyers. Combine SEO with social media activity to drive traffic to your site. Sites with high rankings get more social media exposure.
• Open new markets. Top search results are visible worldwide, even if you use a locally focused platform like ShopBayofQuinte.ca  If you’re at the top of the page, expect interest from customers worldwide, 24/7.
• You need SEO to stand out. Your competitors use SEO. If you don’t, you need to. You’ll have a leg up on competitors who don’t.

ShopBayofQuinte is locally owned, locally focused and Google indexed!  Free consultations for all locally owned businesses, non profits, professional services, sports associations and side hustles. 

To book a free consultation go to our Facebook page, email us at michelle@shopbayofquinte.ca or text us at 343-263-1500. 

Help us build a complete business directory for the entire Quinte Region and Hastings County!

Why are so many business owners not utilizing such an important tool?

Beats me!




What I can tell you is there are many solutions and in this newsletter I will break down the importance of local listings and the benefits that come along with them.  As a marketer I often find myself asking questions I feel are so obvious they almost slap you dead in the face. It boggles my mind wondering how there are so many small business owners who feel they have it all figured out yet have been sitting idle in the online marketing world for years.  ”I don't need this and don't need that" they tell me. It's either, "my customers have been around since my great grandfather started this company" or” I don't need to spend thousands of dollars to get found on the internet" or "If my customers want me they'll call me and I’ll give them directions". But my favorite one is when I ask, "well ok what about new customers ", they reply, “Well word of mouth has been my best form of marketing". Ok, sure, anyway, ( insert sarcasm) what business owner wants more business, that's just absurd right?  It's truly nonsense lack of knowledge and fear of change that is driving these decisions. I also would like to think that if every business took 30 minutes to meet with us you could see that there is a lot better way to reach local consumers in a way that benefits everyone locally.

The point of marketing is to reach the broadest audience your budget allows increasing customer retention both new and loyal, thus increasing your R.O.I (return on investment).    I guess if you live in an extremely small town with population 500 you’re good in that respect, but to assume everyone in the town knows who you are and where you're located is simply arrogance. People grow up and move on with their lives, some move to other cities, towns and even countries. ( Think for a moment of all of the New Locals and even the Base, lots of new people to our region every month.) Some people even die, yep its true! Generations fade out and things change, out with the old in with the new. Businesses change information and locations often, from a simple phone number to a whole new location. Maybe you have more than one location as well, maybe you plan to rebrand your business in the future or intend on introducing a new product or service. Point is, you must be visible on the internet and easily accessible to customers or you will lose so much business and brand awareness you can't even begin to imagine the repercussions.
Let's put things in perspective, if a customer is looking for a particular product, food or service the first thing they do is pull out their mobile phone, desktop, laptop or tablet and search. Most likely, the first place that pops up is their choice or interest.  ( Or at least what the algorithm thinks is their choice)  If you get really lucky, they will actually scroll down enough to see what's underneath the top three paid ad suggestions. So how do you compete in a world where everyone is fighting for the top spot or front page of Google? Well a great place to start is to make sure all of your business information is correct on every search engine, review site, directory and social site across the board. Or better yet join the local virtual marketplace.... your local community site ( community sites URLs listed below) that provides a local business profile for your business and also adds your business in our regional site ShopBayofQuinte.ca.
Not to mention listings expand your visibility and allow you to add visual content such as pictures, video etc. This helps to increase sales and exposure. It gives the consumer a clear picture of what it is you’re pitching them to purchase. Most importantly, Over 90% of consumers now use search engines to shop locally.

Advertising your business locally is huge in the sense of brand development and brand awareness. I mean, the more people exposed to your business and the more accessible you are online, the more people are likely to utilize your services or buy your product. If people can't find your website or track you down via internet, then how can you expect them to know what you're selling? So not only are directories great for website exposure, There also a great way to reach out to a specific audience and capture their attention. ShopBayofQuinte.ca also allows you to promote whatever product(s) or service(s) you are offering. You can focus on a specific community, region or you can just go for the gusto and advertise nationally or internationally.




Cheap Exposure and very cost effective. Yup, you heard that right. It is free to list your business on this local search engine, directory, social site and review site, although you can get enhanced profiles on it as well. Enhancing your profile will be a sure way to place you at the top of the search list when people are looking for your specific product(s) or service(s). Oh, did I mention that it also helps your other local businesses, non profits, sports teams and community?  How you ask? Well , when someone came looking for Total Sports Quinte’s latest magazine, podcast or article.  They found a Nissan Rogue at Bayview Auto, a Eddy K gown at Lily’s Bridal Boutique.  By putting your services and products on one local-centric platform you are not only benefiting your business you are helping other businesses in your community!

SEO ( Search Engine Optimization)  is huge and Google has changed its algorithm so much that it is getting harder each and every day to figure out what content it will pull or how to obtain solid backlinks and so on. Either way, that is a topic for a different article in itself. Listings and SEO go hand and hand. For one, they get a lot of hits and in result, help to rank highly on major search engines. You must also consider the backlinks from online directories. They have a very high quality for the simple fact they are coming from a reliable and well known source. Plus the one-way links towards your website may help with SEO as well.
Being on local business listings allows you to eliminate the need to hire a web developer for their services to update your website, or for that matter search engine spiders to crawl your web page. In conclusion, you have created an additional source that will self-deliver your business information to search engines directly via the local business listing platform. Local listings are also great for cross promoting social media platforms. What I mean by that is you can attach Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest etc. Thus allowing you to grow your brand and raise awareness. You can gain a lot of free marketing or advertising out of this utilizing post, tweets, pins etc. to promote your product(s) or service(s). Did I tell you that ever post made in ShopBayofQuinte.ca is also google indexed ? That is HUGE! Huge! And if you aren’t sure why, please set up an appointment and we will explain that to you!

ShopBayofQuinte.ca is excited to introduce our new e-commerce platform 2.0.  Still all the intuitive tools that we have always offered but with some great new features  that give businesses more selling power!
 


While the feature panel of PowerShop is considerably more robust than the legacy ShopBayofQuinte.ca  catalog tool, it is just as intuitive, requiring only a tour to get familiar with how to find all the same features, as well as the new ones. Using the interface is logical, following a left-to-right, top-to-bottom approach to building catalog items and store categories.
 

Highlighted New Functionality

Inventory control: When building the item, the merchant enters the number of items or number of each size in stock. Shoppers will see the remaining inventory, and will not be able buy in excess of availability. Merchant can set a notification to themselves when stock reaches a selected number of items remaining.

Shipping Calculator: Merchants who will be shipping products using a courier or other delivery service can set single or multiple options for consumers including US and Canada Post, FedEx and UPS, and shipping charges will automatically be calculated at checkout based on the sizes and weights entered by the merchant in building the catalog item. There’s a Local Delivery Service option where the merchant can work with their local provider to set weight ranges and pricing. Merchants can set up handling/packing fees, regular or curb-side pickup rules.

Abandoned Cart Management: Reporting and automated emails for abandoned carts.

Automatic Taxation: Shopping cart automatically taxes at checkout according to the store and customer locations. Manual tax management available.

Customer Grouping: Assign existing customers to Groups, and easily create automatic discounts or offers to their future purchases, or track group activity.

Flexible Catalog Design: Merchants can easily change the layout, display information and image size and shape for catalog items, and control the image shape and size for category buttons.

Bonus App Catalog: Merchants can download and apply free and paid apps to add to their store, such as Checkout Notices, Scratch & Win Promotions, Loyalty & Referral Rewards, and more.
 

Payment Options

Merchants can select to accept payments from a wide range of payment gateways or integrate with a long list of POS systems, including Stripe, Square, PayPal, Moneris, and a host more. With Stripe, Square and PayPal, merchants can compare transaction fees and payment types accepted by each gateway before selecting. 

Merchants can also set up Email Transfer, COD, cash in-store and other manual payment options so that consumers receive instructions upon making the selection, and manual payment options are noted in the purchase order when selected.

Website Integration Options

Current clients with one of our custom built websites can add their store through us. They can replace their existing catalog (if they want to migrate the catalog, there will be a service fee) or complement it – for example, the existing catalog tool might still be used to list brands or keyword-based product groups, while the PowerShop becomes the Shop Online page.

Merchants with websites not on our platform can easily capture the embed code from the PowerShop dashboard to install the store on their website or Facebook page. (ShopBayofQuinte.ca will not assist in the installation of PowerShop on non-ShopBayofQuinte.ca platforms; customers will need to contact their website builder or install on their own.)

Merchants with no website can self-build an easy, intuitive one-page website using the PowerShop tool. This is a functional alternative.  But we highly recommend that you build a complete website in the near future as there are some great benefits to having a website to showcase your business!
 

Point-of-Sale Integration

Merchants can opt for some payment gateways that include in-store point-of-sale options, so that all inventory and point of sale is seamless and unified.

Phone Application

Accompanying phone app allows merchants to use their phone as an in-store scanner, receive chime notifications of online purchases, and easily manage the store from their phone. (Actual store setup and catalog building is recommended on desktop/laptop).
 

Sales Channels

Easy self-serve applications to add your store to Google Shopping, Facebook, eBay, Instagram and Amazon (third-party fees may apply).

And we already offered:
- e gift certificates
- full restaurant menus
- Google optimized newsfeed
-local events calendar
- coupons/deals
- email newsletters
- social media scheduler
- ecommerce Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization)


And the last reason to use ShopBayofQuinte.ca WE ARE LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED!  We care if you succeed and will work with you to make that happen. 

Contact us to get started today! michelle@shopbayofquinte.ca or 343-263-1500
Add your business profile today for FREE:

www.shopbayofquinte.ca
www.shopbelleville.com
www.shopqw.ca
www.shopnapanee.com
www.shoppec.ca
www.shopcentralhastings.com
www.shoptrenthills.com

In the light of current events, the services that ShopBayofQuinte.ca and its community partners offer, have become even more important. This is not a sales pitch.  We are writing to build awareness.  We ask that you take a few minutes to read and review what we have to offer the communities within the Bay of Quinte and Central Hastings region.

Social media has now become synonymous with digital marketing, going hand-in-hand with most – if not all – digital campaigns. However, social media is far from static and what worked a few months ago may not get you the same good results now. More true today, then even four weeks ago. Niche communities such as ShopBayofQuinte and its community partners are perfect examples of the evolution of social media marketing.
Habits change, platforms evolve, and new platforms come into existence. All of this influences how people use and react to social media marketing, as well as how small businesses  are able to reach their audience.
Many newer platforms, like ShopBayofQuinte use an established community to grow their own it is one of the oldest Growth Hacks out there.We refer to it as “Piggybacking”: Airbnb did it with Craigslist, Instagram with Facebook.  To establish our community we use similar methods.  But, we also have a distinct advantage over all of these sites.  Every post, webpage, marketplace item, coupon etc, are indexed in Google on our sites.  Meaning that Google bots or “spiders” , search out our information and then sort it to its relevance. The more times that Google indexes your information and rates its importance, as well as how long consumers stay on and return to this site increase our ranking in Google search results.  Link building is also another factor in Google ranking factors.  By having every local business, non profits and municipal government link into our site we are building something very powerful locally. So,  the more businesses that join and use the site regularly actually assists their peers, agencies and communities.  All of this works by doing what small businesses are already doing; posting to social media.
The larger social media platforms have become too big. They have so many users that content has to be filtered by algorithms.  My own  Facebook feed this morning had not even one business show up organically.
Presently, 70% of Instagram posts aren’t seen.
In 2016, organic reach on Facebook decreased by a whooping 52% percent. [*] In 2017, it decreased by another 20%! [*And by the Fall of 2019 another 20%, at least if not more.
Less reach yields less ROI from marketing campaigns, which makes it very unattractive for small businesses  to invest into (organic) social media.
In return, paid advertising on social networks has become more expensive and the price is continuing to climb up. The attention on big social networks might still be underpriced but higher advertising cost and lower organic reach set the bar too high for small businesses to use them as growth channels. Hoping that by paying $10 for the possiblity of having 1000 people see your one post becomes very expensive when the results are not near what the reality exposes.

For consumers, the big social media platforms have become too crowded and invasive. For small businesses, they don’t provide enough reach, engagement and “virality” anymore.  So using these platforms often creates a big disconnect between small businesses and its consumers.  In the wake of the COVID19 outbreak, many communities started Facebook groups. The problem with these groups is that they lack consumer involvement.  Yes, we as small business owners are also consumers, but when you speak with people outside of the small business community they are lacking the same knowledge or awareness of what is available in our community. They are still relying on word of mouth. Amazon hired 100K+ workers to meet demand.  Walmart has pick up dates for groceries two weeks in advance.  We have small businesses worried about paying their rent next month.  The pandemic has brought the focus back to LOCAL, and what it has to offer.  Now is the time for small businesses to bridge the gap and connect with consumers where they are looking; search engines.
ShopBayofQuinte and its community partner sites have tried to right what the bigger sites are doing wrong:

• Focused on one topic: community growth both economically and socially
• More engagement: no algorithm means no one business monopolizes the newsfeed, every entry is seen in chronological order
• Less invasive, consumers find this site when they are looking to buy.
• Less competitive, your only competition is local.  No big box or online giants.

Habits change, platforms evolve, and new platforms come into existence. All of this influences how people use and react to social media marketing, as well as how small businesses are able to reach their audience.
It is more important than ever before for small businesses to understand and stay ahead of the curve when it comes to social media.  
ShopBayofQuinte is trying to bring the communities together in a digital ecosystem.  There is no cost for everyone to join.  We have always and will continue to offer a free business profile to every side hustle, home based business, small business, non profit and local municipal partner in our region.  During the pandemic we are offering a COVID19 designated newsfeed, and a free value package to all in the Quinte and Central Hastings region.  (That is a $50/month value for free.)  It allows small business to obtain an e-commerce platform, e gift certificates and email for free.  Every business is able to set up themselves and can be operational in minutes not days or weeks.

Attached please watch our short overview of all of the tools we offer small businesses in our region:


Side note:
If the BIA’s. Economic Developments and all other agencies had their business directories powered by ShopBayofQuinte/ShopCentralHastings., all businesses would be able to update their community profile and it would be simultaneously updated on the business directory. This offers great value to our municipal partners.  

Attached please find testimonials from three local businesses that use our services. 

  
 

Each community has its own platforms:
Belleville – www.shopbelleville.com
Quinte West – www.shopqw.ca
Brighton – www.shopbrighton.ca
The County – www.shoppec.ca
Napanee- www.shopnapanee.com
Central Hastings – www.shopcentralhastings.com
Trent Hills- www.shoptrenthills.com

 


Saying that people spend a great deal of their time on social media would truly be an understatement.  But with recent changes to Facebook and Instagram, it makes it more difficult for small businesses to grow organically on these platforms. I don’t have to tell you that there is not enough time in the day to keep up to date on new changes to Facebook and Instagram.  Trying to make sure that your content is engaging, thought provoking and meeting all of the metrics to produce great results can be extremely overwhelming.  Facebook and Instagram are flooded with small businesses trying to sell their products and gain brand awareness.  Consumers ( myself included) are suffering from ad fatigue.  That fatigue has lead them to start looking for new niche social networks. Networks that have no ads, no commercial interruptions.  So what if,  as a community we come together?  We rebuild our local economy with our own community platform.  No algorithms,  no international, national competition vying for our community dollars.  Just local businesses with the local community in mind.  While the major social networks shouldn’t be wholly abandoned in favor of a niche-centric marketing strategy.  Platforms such as www.ShopBayofQuinte.ca and www.ShopCentralHastings.com can provide a very unique way to build a loyal, trusting, and more refined audience.  Many marketing strategies will tell you to formulate an effective strategy, you need to know where your audience lives, and therefore align your efforts with networks that tout the correct audience demographics for your brand.  We do that locally!

  ShopBayofQuinte.ca and ShopCentralHastings.com are working with local business associations to grow a local digital ecosystem for small locally owned businesses. ( More to come on how a local digital ecosystem can benefit local economic development agencies and all business assoications)  It is possible to gain time, save money and distribute your information into the community that is not only effective but affordable.  This is how it can this be accomplished:

1.  Small businesses add your business to your community platform. There is a free profile option, participation does not require a monetary transaction. (Links will be included at the bottom of the page. ) Posting regularly and using keywords will assist consumers in finding you in search engine results organically.  Every post is indexed in search engine searches, unlike all other social media platforms. ( Indexing means a page is indexed by Google if it has been visited by the Google crawler ("Googlebot"), analyzed for content and meaning, and stored in the Google index. )

2.  Keep your business information, hours current and up to date. 

3.  Encourage your business partners and associations to use the platforms regularly. 

4.  Contact us for a free platform tour and get the door sticker for your door which encourages consumers to shop local.

We are a co-operative digital marketing platform.  The more businesses that participate, the better this system thrives.  If a consumer goes looking for a restaurant menu but then realizes that they can buy flowers from a store in the same community is a win for both local businesses.

Any questions please feel free to contact us directly.  343-263-1500 or michelle@shopbayofquinte.ca

Add your business profile to your community site, all free profiles will automatically be found in your community site and ShopBayofQuinte.ca .  All premium packages will be found in all community sites.  ( packages start at $50/month or  $600/year)

www.shopbelleville.com/add
www.shopqw.ca/add
www.shopbrighton.ca/add
www.shopnapanee.com/add
www.shoppec.ca/add
www.shoptrenthills.com/add
www.shopcentralhastings.com/add

 

 
 

Blogging for Business Owners

As a business owner, if you find yourself a little clueless about what exactly is blogging let alone the benefits of blogging, there’s nothing to fear. You are at the right place!

43% of business owners say they don’t know what blogging is or don’t actively blog for their business. In this age of online marketing, these businesses are likely missing out on more customers and sales.

Spoiler alert! – 55% out of the ones that do, use it as their #1 inbound marketing strategy and say they have benefited from it.

A blog is a compilation of thoughts, facts, and expert opinions relating to the business, industry or its audience. It is a written piece of information that lives online and can be accessed by anyone who visits that company’s website.

By opening different avenues for information gathering, this has made companies rethink and often reconfigure their inbound marketing strategy.

Many companies now practice a strategy where consumers come to them for information rather than them pushing sales via outbound strategies to spread awareness about their products.

This, in our opinion, is one of the biggest benefits of blogging. The change in how companies do business.

But there are 11 other amazing benefits of blogging that we wanted to share with you. And we think as a smart business owner you should know these when it comes to blogging for your customers.


The first benefit is that it establishes your business as an authority in your industry.   By providing information about your products and services you are allowing people the opportunity to hear from you, providing information when they are looking to fulfill a need or solve a problem.  This in return,  builds trust with the consumer.  By providing value when a consumer is in need will in turn result in sales. A reader that reads your blog is building a relationship with you on their own terms. 



The second benefit of blogging is to create value for your customers. You want to provide a better customer experience than your competitors. We cannot stress the importance of this enough. 

Blogging without thinking about adding value to customer experience is like going on a trek without shoes on. It’s pointless because you are going to get hurt.

With blogging, you’re giving your customers something for free before they make a purchase. In hopes that free information will lead them in choosing to make a purchase on their own.

Some things you could share would be a helpful checklist, ideas, recipes and so on.

The more your potential customers can get from you for free, the more loyal they will be when they become customers. Educating first before selling is always a good tactic!

The third benefit SEO.  Websites of small businesses that blog regularly rank 434% better than those websites that don’t.  By using keywords and quality backlinks in your blog posts will assist your website to rank higher.  Remember that SEO is a long term investment. 

One of the ways is to write blog posts around keywords that your customers search for. This is a great way to make sure you’re publishing relevant content. And when the search engine algorithms come crawling, they find your blog to have used the popular keyword multiple times. Due to its relevance, they determine to rank your business higher on the search results page.

There is a lot of on page  and off page  optimization that goes into this but this is one of the big benefits of blogging for business owners.

Fourth benefit is email collection.  By asking prospective clients to subscribe to your blogs, allows customers the opportunity to be reached with promotions, specials that you have to offer.  It is a fantastic funnel tool that is cost effective, and the more touch points with a customer the more likely of a conversion to a sale.

To subscribe to our blog go to:  https://www.shopbayofquinte.ca/shopbayofquinte/?listing.action=contact

The fifth benefit is generating demand.  By showcasing your new products and services , you are creating an urgency, a demand or an interest in your products and services.

The sixth benefit lead conversion. In the most simple terms, there are three stages of capturing a customer to your business.

1. The Awareness Stage
2. The Consideration Stage
3. The Decision Stage

The benefits of blogging can be extended across all three. And it is even more important to understand that all three stages play an equal assertive role in converting a customer.

For example, checklists and tips in a blog post can help attract a new customer and get him or her interested in your products or services.

Additionally, “how-to” topics can be convert customers in the consideration stage that might need a little push and a little more info about a product.

And finally, testimonial marketing can help a customer in the decision stage who may need social proof before purchasing from you. Blogging is an important element of the lead conversion process.

Seventh benefit is exposure and availability.  Sometimes businesses feel that their money is better spent on other components of their business.  Advertising in business is a must. Digital marketing is also a must in 2019.  Social media is a must and but it cannot be the only way to funnel prospective clients to your business.  By far, blogging and email marketing are two of the absolute best ways to market in a cost effective manner with a higher ROI. 

Eighth benefit is feedback.  Blogging allows your potential customers the opportunity to provide feedback, leave comments and directly speak with you.   By providing this opportunity for feedback, it allows clients/customers to tell their stories.  It is a great way to generate interest.

Our final thought and the ninth benefit is about staying ahead of your competition.  If your peers within your industry are blogging regularly, they are talking to customers that could be coming to you.  Providing a different view, another perspective gives the consumer the opportunity to decide which business they would like to purchase from or work with. 

  We have witnessed first hand the power of blogging. And if the written word is something that you are not comfortable with another option is vlogging,  Vlogging is a fantastic option, but ensure that the medium you use for vlogging is sharable in all platforms. Don’t limit yourself to one platform and you will have a great new way to share your business. 

Add your business today to www.shopbayofquinte.ca so that you can share your blog on our site as well. 
 

 

 

 

Many times a day , I hear from small businesses that they feel that email marketing is not a tool that they feel is right for them. One misconception is that email marketing is old school and annoying to consumers.  They just delete the email never read it and the reasons keep on going. 

 The reality of email marketing is really much different.  59% of B2B users state that email marketing is one of their largest revenue generators and one of the best methods of customer retention. 

Here 6 of the best reasons to reconsider using email marketing ;

1.  Effective email marketing builds better relationships.   Becoming the local authority about your product and services.  Be the voice of the local coffee shop, clothing store or professional service.  Offering articles about your expertise that is not a sales pitch, offers solutions to consumers issues.  Intriguing and informative emails will engage your followers and keep them looking for more.

PRO TIP:  Local is key. Consumers are looking for local businesses that can provide the information that they need.  Don’t bombard them with just any information, take the time to think through the message you want to convey.  Is it relevant? Useful? Will it keep your readers engaged? 

2.  Marketing emails can be hyper- personalized and even targeted.    When devising email lists, you the small business owner are able to devise lists that ensure that your subscribers are only receiving emails on topics that interest them.  Email marketing makes this a much more effective method of marketing in comparison to social media posts which are often generated with a more general/generic audience in mind. 

PRO TIP: When gathering email subscribers you are able to ask them the topics that they are most interested in.  When developing your lists you can then label each list by interests. 

3. Effective email marketing keeps your brand in mind.    On average email users check their emails on average three times per day.  So, why not market to someone in a place that they frequent on a daily basis?  

PRO TIP: Balance is key when emailing your followers.  You want to email regularly so that your brand is always on their mind but not so much that they delete you.  

4.  Email marketing is relatively inexpensive.   Email marketing can be one of the most cost effective methods of marketing that you can offer.  There are several email services and even some local marketing platforms that offer email mailing systems within in their platforms.  Once established email lists are easily maintained and the cost is minimal if there is any cost at all.  Check your software before purchase for alternatives that best suit your needs.
 PRO TIP: check out local business directory for their email tools: www.shopbayofquinte.ca/packages

5.  Emails, in general :  are action-oriented. 

Emails naturally prompt responses—replying, forwarding, clicking through. By including direct calls-to-action (CTAs) with clear benefits in your messages, you can take advantage of this impulse to react and drive traffic to your site or encourage the desired conversion event.

PRO TIP: Don't be afraid to include multiple CTAs in your emails. A common mistake marketers make is stuffing as much into the message as possible and then using only one call-to-action (CTA) per email. A better tactic is to provide enough information to pique the target's interest and then include links where he can learn more. But be sure not to use too many CTAs, which can overwhelm the reader—try to keep the total below three.

6.  Email marketing is measurable and testable.

One of the great things about email marketing campaigns is the objective metrics—delivery rate, open rate and click-through rate, among others. Marketers can evaluate performance and make data-driven decisions about how and where to optimize. This is a benefit not all marketing avenues have.

Email marketing also lends itself well to A/B testing. Marketers can test several different elements, including subject line, email length and CTAs. And with the data you gather from these tests, you can make confident decisions about which approaches work and which don't.

While email marketing is a great strategy, it's important to keep in mind that if your messages aren't crafted properly, it may be all for naught. Your emails must possess the following characteristics to be effective:

• Interesting. Don't let your messages be more clutter in your recipients' inbox; make them feel fortunate to have received something informative and entertaining from you.
• Valuable. The recipients of your emails should be enthusiastic to consume the content you provide. Ask yourself, "If I received this email, would I find it valuable?" If the answer is no, then it's likely your subscribers will feel the same.
• Relevant. If your email isn't pertinent to them, prospects and buyers will quickly delete the message. And if the content is consistently irrelevant to them, they'll probably unsubscribe. Make sure the emails you send speak to the subscriber's unique pain points.
• Timely. A big part of relevancy is timeliness. Consider a prospect's location in the buyer's journey to avoid jumping into a sales pitch too early.

Marketing is one of those fields where the latest technology is assumed to be the best, but you shouldn't ignore the tried-and-true methods. "Newer" doesn't always mean "good," and "older" doesn't always equate to "bad." Email marketing may have been around for a while, but it is constantly evolving, and when used correctly, can engender brand loyalty and generate revenue.