Square launches integrated marketing platform early for Aussie SMEs

Digital payments giant Square is rolling out a new marketing tool, allowing Aussie SMEs to deliver email marketing campaigns that integrate with its payments platform.

The tool gives businesses the ability to create and send marketing emails that can be automated and personalised to grow or target customer reach. There’s also an analytics function that gives businesses the ability to track and monitor communications.

Colin Birney, head of business development at Square in Australia, said the early launch of the marketing platform to current Square users will help businesses engage with their customers after a tough 18 months of COVID-19 restrictions.

“Restaurants can share special offers or info about loyalty programs, retailers can sell more gift cards, and tradies can keep customers in the loop about when they’re operating, Birney said.

The major features of Square’s marketing tool relate to increasing buyer engagement and return on investment (ROI) and planning and automating email campaigns.

Businesses can also measure campaign results using real-time analysis available in a dashboard that shows open and click through rates as well as sales.

Saumil Mehta, general manager of customers and Square point of sale, said the analytics features give SMEs highly accurate insights because the marketing tool integrates with Square’s payments systems.

“That means that sellers can experiment with different marketing strategies, and fully understand just how impactful they’ve been,” Mehta said.

Since Square began testing the tool in August, a select number of Australian businesses have piloted the platform, including a fish shop in the Victorian suburb of Castlemaine.

Chris Dimopoulos, the owner of Blue Sea Fish Shop, was already using Square for online store and gift cards and now using the email marketing tool to promote those products to customers.

“Lockdowns have been hard on regional Victoria, but having Square Marketing over the past few months has helped us have more meaningful conversations with our customers,” Dimopoulos said.

The early release of Square Marketing is only available to current and new Square sellers and is free for the first month.