With the days of 2011 literally numbered, many companies have already set their sights on 2012 and what they can do to make an impact next year. According to various studies, a number of companies are planning to further incorporate social media into the mix, while some have expressed an increased interest in mobile integration. That is all fine and dandy, but in this article, we will take a look at why a small business should consider signing up with an email marketing provider in 2012.

Highly Targeted Platform

By nature, email is a highly targeted platform that is perfect for building relationships with an audience of people. This is mainly because it is fueled by a permission-based element that sees subscribers willingly interacting with your marketing message. Of course you must do your part of delivering the goods, which in this case means staying in touch and engaging them with relevant, valuable, and interesting content. The commitment to this critical aspect makes it possible for businesses of all sizes to utilize email marketing as a means of building relationships and fostering loyalty in their audience members.

Easy to Track and Measure

Whether you are promoting a new line of products or the latest innovative web-based service, you need a viable way to track and measure your efforts. Sadly, this can be extremely difficult with traditional tactics or even worse, when your are trying to conduct your efforts from a standard mail client like Gmail or Outlook. One of the many great things about partnering up with an email marketing provider is all the powerful features they supply, which includes tools for tracking and measuring your success. Choose the right partner, and you will discover just how easy it is to learn how customers are interacting with your message in terms of opens, clicks, and even unsubscribes.

An Ideal Match for Any Marketing Strategy

Perhaps the biggest reason your small business should enlist the services of an email marketing provider in 2012 is because such a company can help you perfect a tool that will likely accommodate what you’re already doing. Over the years, several brands have learned that email plays nice with a variety of different methods, including trendy tactics like social media and mobile, in addition to traditional techniques such as direct mail and radio advertising. Of course each of these tools are incredibly efficient on their own, but they become so much more effective when combined in a single, unified, multichannel marketing strategy.

Excitement looms in the air as we move closer to 2012. Many businesses welcome a new year with open arms because it gives them the opportunity to refresh, and even take new directions with their marketing strategy. What does 2012 hold for your small business? If email marketing is a part of the plan, it could be something wonderful.

Rick Kane is an advocate for email marketing provider best practices for permission-based email services.