Despite the fact that email has been recently pushed aside in favor of new marketing techniques such as social media, the platform can still be effective, especially for small businesses.

According to a recent report from Small Business Trends’ Lisa Barone, there are several ways companies can use email as an effective marketing campaign. Barone encourages small businesses to deliver a compelling offer through their email and, once they are interested, provide them with something extra.

“Sweeten the deal by giving them a little something extra upfront,” said Barone. “Maybe it’s a free download of a white paper you wrote, maybe it’s a tool or gadget they can download, or maybe it’s a coupon to your site or one of your partner’s stores.”

Barone also believes small businesses should show their consumers how their service will be beneficial to them, as well as be open to how their information will be used.

Since most people have an email account, small businesses can still use this platform as a successful marketing tool. According to a MySouthWestGA.com report, regional development director for Constant Contact Lanelle Henderson said that email lets companies present a greater volume and more depth of information than social media.

Small businesses searching for ways to successfully market to their consumers may want to focus more on customer experience.

According to a recent report by Small Business Trends’ Jeanne Bliss, a hospital approached treating their patients in this manner. The facility has now garnered a 99 percent recommendation rate by focusing on the experience of patients, rather than simply executing tasks.

Bliss encourages small businesses to ask whether they have a purposeful beginning and end to their contact with customers and if their customers “rave” about their experience.

“How would you rate your intent and ability to create purposeful moments of customer contact?” said Bliss. “How would your customers say you are doing? What are the marquee moments in your customers’ experiences with you?”

Other marketing experts point to the importance of successful customer service to grow their brand, including through the development of mobile applications.

According to a recent Information Week report, Appsbar founder Scott Hirsch told the news provider that small businesses should focus their efforts for developing customer relationships and market research to help their companies.

For small businesses and ecommerce companies, the mobile subscribers market is a thriving industry and an opportunity to reach more consumers.

According to a recent ecommerce-guide.com report, marketing expert Jeff Judge offered several tips to establish a successful mobile marketing campaign. Judge encourages companies to decide what they want to achieve from their strategy and deliver a simple message.

Since many consumers pay to use text messaging each month, companies are advised not to send too many messages at a time. Judge said the information should include a promotion or contest entry, according to ecommerce-guide.com.

To grow their mobile customer base, Judge said organizations should advertise their mobile subscription service through their website, newsletter and anywhere they do business, the report stated.

A recent Technorati report revealed that 4.6 billion own a mobile phone, compared to 4.2 billion who have a toothbrush. This market is the perfect platform for small businesses to market through.

“Mobile phones, and in particular the smartphones, can and should play a huge role in the local area marketing of small business,” said Technorati’s Quentin Aisbett. “Most of the options available are really affordable and much more effective than traditional advertising mediums.”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG2kWxVrb1A

Cbeyond SMB Expert Tips:
To say social media has fundamentally changed the way marketers conduct business would be an understatement. Today, nearly 60 percent of U.S. online users are involved in social media in some capacity. Much as it does for customers, social media additionally creates great opportunity for businesses to expand and enhance their online presence. Building a corporate social media profile requires a little work up front, and continued updating and monitoring afterwards.

Author, radio host and small business expert Mark Deo reveals eight opportunities for small businesses to expand their social media reach, and why being “socially enabled” can win over new customers.

Social media can be an important marketing platform for small businesses, but many companies may not have the comprehensive strategy to maximize its potential.

According to a recent Business Insider report, there are certain tips to help small businesses avoid social media marketing mistakes.

“The problem [with social media] is that many users that jump onto these tools are doing very little thinking about their strategies,” said the report. “If you’re a small business owner, you cannot afford to touch these social tools without a strategy.”

Although social media allows small businesses to share an abundance of items, every social activity should revolve around their company brand. According to the report, social media marketing can be implemented quickly, but a proper strategy can make it a successful one.

A recent Noobpreneur.com report indicated that social media is the modern marketing tool for companies. According to the news provider, small businesses can use the platform to help grow their company and increase their staff because of the advertising outreach it offers to find new talent.

Social media may be a valuable marketing tool for small businesses, but companies cannot simply use the platform without a proper game plan.

According to PostMedia News’ Andrew Duffy, small businesses must map out a strategy or they may actually do more harm than good.  Marketing expert Mhairi Petrovic agreed, saying that although 60 percent of North American companies use social media, few utilize the platform successfully.

“Take a step back and understand who you are trying to reach and why are you using these technologies,” said Petrovic. “Is it to build traffic to a website? Communicate with an existing network? Or reach a new audience? It’s important to understand these things before you start.”

One dangerous situation small businesses may find themselves in is if they establish a Facebook or Twitter presence too quickly and are slow to respond to consumers, said Duffy.

To help boost social media marketing success, small businesses can use free tools to lower their costs and increase their outreach. According to a recent Miami Herald report, Polly.IM, Timely.is and CrowdBooster are low-cost tools to help manage social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Before the introduction of social media, small businesses often had trouble competing with larger companies and their deeper marketing pockets.

According to a recent Business Insider report, there are several social media tools that can help small businesses increase their profits and compete with bigger companies. HootSuite allows organizations to manage up to five social networks at a time for free.

WildFire is another useful social media tool. The platform lets small businesses offer discounts, promotions and contests through their social presence. According to the report, companies can also manage marketing campaign performance using Klout, which uses a unique algorithm to determine the effectiveness.

“For a small business, new and improved online marketing tools only makes it easier to increase your social media hustle and cash flow in a 24/7 universe,” said the Business Insider report.

Social media not only lets companies expand their brand, but also lower their costs. By establishing a presence on Facebook and Twitter, a local bar owner in Indiana reduced his marketing budget by $500,000, according to a FoxBusiness report.

Customer loyalty is key for any company and the introduction of social media has allowed consumers to follow their favorite businesses like never before.

According to a recent Small Business Trends report, if not properly used, social media marketing may actually harm small businesses. If a company promises their consumers special perks or promotions and do not deliver, it could be a detriment to customer loyalty.

“If someone called your store with a question, left you a message, and you never called them back, you’d understand why they might get angry and never return,” said Small Business Trends’ Lisa Barone. “You’d probably recognize that ignoring them wasn’t the way to build customer loyalty or increase satisfaction. Well, the same thing happens when you ignore them in social media.”

Barone also said that small businesses should avoid inconsistency, not responding to comments and sending out irrelevant social media messages that may seem like the company does not care about their consumers, according to Barone.

Although simple to use and launch in many respects, a crucial aspect of any successful social media marketing campaign is diligent planning from the beginning, according to a Forbes report.

Although some companies may not have a social media presence, experts believe the medium is an essential marketing tool, especially for small businesses.

According to a recent Noobpreneur.com report, social media marketing is considered an “essential” platform for small businesses. By using websites such as Facebook and Twitter, companies can broaden their brand awareness and interact with consumers on a greater level.

Social media is also useful for growing a small business and increasing their staff, the report said.

“Many online recruitment companies use live feeds on social media channels to advertise new vacancies to fans and followers, although a live job feed on your profile won’t be necessary for you (unless you’ve had a sudden growth spurt) you can still use social media to source a valuable new recruit,” said the report.

According to a recent Miami Herald report, there are several free tools that can help small businesses take advantage of social media. Polly.IM helps monitor customer responses and Timely.is allows companies determine when people are most active on social media websites and writes Tweets in advance to meet the demand.

With so many customers using social media, many consumers are turning to reader comments when deciding on a product or service.

According to a recent Boston Globe report, there are ways small businesses can turn these comments into customer testimonials to help boost sales. Companies are encouraged to offer a form that consumers can fill out to leave positive or negative feedback and sending email campaigns asking for reactions.

“Because it’s not promotional, customers will appreciate being asked to weigh in,” said the Boston Globe‘s Jason Keith. “Social media followers on Facebook or Twitter can also be ideal places to pull from, if those properties are something your business engages in.”

Keith also suggests that small businesses seek customer approval regarding their comments and use longer quotes for their testimonials. To maximize the power of customer feedback, companies can also create a tab or dedicated page of testimonials that offers consumers the chance to view the information.

Although negative feedback received through social media websites may be viewed as hurting a small business’ reputation, companies are still encouraged to respond through this medium to help solve the issues, according to Forbes contributing writer Pamela Springer.