There is one crucial marketing area where many businesses are sorely lacking. And that is in the area of email marketing. Are you guilty of this costly mistake?

As a dedicated business owner who wants to succeed in your local town or city, you have undoubtedly taken several steps to market your business and your product. You likely have a store and a website, and you probably do giveaways, manage a few social media accounts and regularly purchase advertising. You also know the importance of advertising online as well as off, since so many people check out a business’s website before they decide to buy.

Getting your company name and product in front of your target customer is one thing, but if you want to convert these leads into dedicated and repeat customers, simply reaching them one time isn’t enough. Studies have shown that the average customer has to see a new product numerous times before he is prompted to purchase. If you aren’t staying in the forefront of your customers’ minds, you are losing out on sales.

While regularly engaging on social media is a fantastic way to form meaningful working relationships with your customers, social media also comes with several disadvantages. You can’t control what types of messages you can send, and you can’t control who will see it–at least not as well as you can through email. Plus, those sites could shut down at any minute, taking all of your subscribers with them.

This is why email marketing is so crucial for your company’s success. With email marketing, your company and your message aren’t at the mercy of social media sites. Instead, you have the freedom to connect with and keep your customers.

An even bigger reason why you need to focus on email marketing is simply the fact that it works! You might be surprised to hear this, but if you were to share the same link on social media and on email, you would almost certainly have a much higher click through percentage from your email list than through your social media page. Emails have a much higher conversion rate than social media updates.

If you want to grow your business and increase your sales in your local town or city, building your email list is absolutely essential. Start building it today.

Here are some great tips for building your list.

1. Place Conspicuous Opt-In Forms on Your Site
Don’t make people hunt for your forms. Put them at the top of your site, the top of your sidebar and the bottom of your posts. Don’t forget to use your social media sites to drive traffic to your mailing list as well.

2. Use Pop-Ups
Pop-ups may be annoying, but they work! Increase their effectiveness with delayed timing or by having them appear when your visitor is scrolling over to leave your site.

3. Offer an Incentive
Do you know why people should sign up for your emails? Do your customers? Give them a clear reason. E-books, webinars, free services, discounts and insider information are all fantastic incentives.

4. Offer a Giveaway or Promotion
Giveaways and promotions are great ways to increase your traffic and grow your email list. Make signing up for your list one of the ways that people can enter, and sit back and watch your traffic grow.