Social media can also be an effective customer-service tool, letting you communicate with customers in a fast, public-facing way.
8. Build an e-newsletter
A collection of email addresses of clients who have agreed to receive periodic emails from your business can be a critically useful thing to have. Promoting product sales and special events is an obvious use, but more creative uses are an option as well. Unlike social media, e-newsletters allow for split messaging, i.e., sending half your email list one message and the other half a different one. This opens a wealth of product research and testing options for your company that might not be available otherwise. You could track which products people are most interested in or which email subject lines get opened more, or offer two different ways to redeem coupons, etc.