As we enter a new decade, while certain social media platforms and apps have continued to rise in terms of popularity, emails have remained a consistent and reliable method for marketing. Additionally, marketing automation has allowed for more ways to create email content to appeal to your customer base. Here are four email marketing trends you should be aware of for 2020.

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The majority of prospects will arrive on your website from a search engine. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) works to improve your company's organic ranking with Google and other providers, making you stand out more and bringing more customers to you. Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) is a more direct approach, where you pay for better search engine visibility – such as the "Sponsored Links" you'll see at the head of a Google results page. Let's look at how the two options compare.

You're probably expecting the straight answer "Yes" here – but it can be hard to believe this if you've had bad experiences with an agency in the past. However, all agencies are different, and the best ones are successful for the simple reason that their strategies genuinely work at delivering greater growth and profits for their customers! Working with an agency is both an investment and a relationship. Getting the best results requires some input on both sides and time to really understand each other and work with each other’s strengths. In the same way as it takes a new employee a while to find their feet and achieve full productivity, you should expect a period of ‘onboarding’ and assimilation before you start seeing concrete results from your agency partner.

If you're running a niche business, gaining sales can feel like fishing in a small pond – your number of potential customers is restricted. So, is a ‘mass marketing’ strategy such as Inbound marketing appropriate for businesses such as these? Yes. In fact, inbound marketing is the perfect growth strategy for specialist businesses operating in a small sector. In this article, we’ll explain why – as well as reasons why some businesses may have struggled with inbound marketing in the past.

As Hubspot says, “Email isn’t dead. It’s one of the few marketing channels we can use to build an authentic connection with the humans that keep our businesses alive”.

An email marketing strategy is significant as it helps builds awareness around your brand by sending messages into people’s inboxes which they can read at their own convenience. Personalising emails by adding customers’ names and tailoring the content within can win the subscriber’s heart and can potentially turn into purchases not just from existing customers but also new ones.

You need to keep track of your relationships with your customers, but are you doing that in the most cost-effective and resource-efficient way? Many businesses rely on basic spreadsheets, and some still rely on piles of physical business cards. Keeping everything accessible and easy to manage with these outdated approaches can be a nightmare. Fortunately, if you need to build an intuitive and accessible database, there's a great alternative FREE option: HubSpot CRM.

When you launch a brilliant new product or add a great new feature, you'll want to tell people about it. An email campaign is an excellent way to do this. The problem you'll often come up against is how to write that email to get what you really want: conversions. c

If potential customers are already knocking on your door, it can be tempting to rein in your marketing activities. If you do, however, you could be missing out on lucrative business opportunities. No matter how well your marketing strategy is doing, you should never underestimate marketing’s potential to be doing even more to bring new sales to your business. Let's examine why it's so important to continue promoting your company on an ongoing basis, and the activities that you should be engaging in.

LinkedIn is a fantastic, business-focused social network, and all companies – of any size and in any sector – should be taking it seriously. Unlike the other big social media platforms, LinkedIn was set up purely for business networking. LinkedIn users are therefore more receptive to marketing messages and the potential for connecting with new suppliers. There is also less generic, or non-business related content to contend with. It is, therefore, an excellent place to reach out to your target customers and start bringing in leads. Here’s how you can get your brand out there on LinkedIn and start building a really strong online presence.