An effective email marketing campaign offers numerous benefits to a small business owner. It enables them to build stronger customer relationships, promote new products or services, drive sales, and enhance brand awareness. Hence, it is considered as one of the most valuable digital marketing tools.
Small business owners are recognizing the value of an effective email marketing campaign as a cost-effective way to maximize their marketing budget. According to statistics, 64% of small businesses use email marketing to engage with their customers. In this blog post, we will explore the key advantages of email marketing and why it plays an essential role in small businesses’ digital marketing strategies.
1. Build credibility and brand awareness
Small businesses can establish credibility and recognition as an expert in their field by consistently providing high-quality content through email marketing. This approach allows for increased familiarity with your business’s name, thereby enhancing brand recognition and fostering trust among people.
According to research, it has been discovered that it typically requires 5-7 instances for individuals to become familiar with a company logo. Additionally, a significant majority of males (80%) and females (76%) tend to gravitate towards purchasing from brands they are familiar with. In order to establish recognition and convert first-time buyers into repeat customers, small businesses can employ email marketing campaigns.
2. Build and maintain relationships with loyal customers
Email marketing is an effective method to inform customers that you are considering them, as well as to ensure they continue to consider your business. It enables you to maintain customer engagement with your website and business, even if they are not actively seeking to make a purchase.
If your business includes advertising events, shopping, and dining in your locality, such as Love Burlington, it is highly probable that tourists make up a portion of your target audience.
Tourists are not always engaged in shopping, dining, or attending events in your area, according to the definition. However, they may engage in such activities in the future. A great method to remain memorable to these individuals is by sending a monthly newsletter that informs them about upcoming events.
If you happen to own a flour company or a specialty food store, you might want to think about sending your customers monthly recipes that incorporate your products. Since everyone eats and a significant number of people enjoy cooking, it’s a great way to strengthen your bond with customers by assisting them in uncovering new and exciting dishes!
To establish authority as an expert in your field for a business serving other businesses, a practical approach is to send industry-specific tips and news. Since small business owners have a hectic schedule, offering them valuable information can be an effective method to enhance relationships.
3. The opportunity for personalization
Email marketing offers the advantage of customizing the content in the emails to cater to your target audience.
You can ensure that you are reaching the appropriate audience and sending personalized content to your customers by categorizing them into distinct lists based on their interests – when people perceive an email as specifically intended for them, they are much more likely to open it.
Small businesses can benefit from email marketing because it provides the opportunity to showcase creativity. Unlike other marketing channels, there are no restrictions on space or characters, granting the freedom to utilize as much content as desired (although concise and scannable emails generally yield better results).
You, as the business owner, have an understanding of your existing customers and a solid grasp on the characteristics of your potential clients. With this knowledge, you can create meaningful content tailor-made for them, ensuring that your marketing emails directly address their concerns, preferences, and requirements.
4. Increased sales and ROI
The high return on investment (ROI) is one of the biggest advantages that email marketing offers to small businesses.
The average return on investment (ROI) for an email campaign is 3600%. In certain industries, the ROI is even higher. This is not a mistake as spending $1 will generate a profit of $36 on average. Hence, it is not surprising that 37% of companies are increasing their budget for email marketing. With minimal expenditure, they are able to realize substantial gains.
An effectively executed email campaign has the potential to enhance sales in a direct or indirect manner. Promotional emails have a high likelihood of promptly augmenting website traffic and stimulating sales, whether it is through an immediate purchase or by creating leads for future transactions. In fact, marketing emails have been reported to influence 60% of consumers to make a purchase.
5. Develop your own unique brand
Consider some of the most famous brands worldwide. Some brand names have become so established that they are associated with the specific industry they function in. Kleenex is an excellent illustration of this phenomenon. Imagine if your small business could have a similarly distinct brand.
Email marketing is an excellent method for establishing your brand as it allows direct access to the email inboxes of customers or potential customers. Consistent updates provide an excellent opportunity to establish a distinct voice, style, and image among your subscribers.
Do you have a vision for your brand? Develop a brand guide and ensure that every email you send follows it. Each email presents a chance to engage with your subscribers and reinforce your distinct brand identity in their minds.
6. Build strong customer relationships
If you want to show your customers that you consider their needs, it’s important to keep them informed about the latest happenings in your business. So, why not keep them updated if that’s what they desire? Of course, reaching out to all customers by phone is almost impossible, not to mention the significant amount of time it would consume. Additionally, mailing notifications is both expensive and inefficient.
When it comes to quickly informing your customers, nothing beats using email as the most effective method of communication.
Regular newsletters are a great platform to discuss the latest product launch, your next big event, and any news related to your business. If a customer has given permission to receive emails, you should not hesitate to send emails and engage with them.
Are you still not convinced that email marketing is one of the best ways to reach your customers?
Imagine if your business could be among the first things to cross someone’s mind even before they leave their bed, considering that most individuals instinctively reach for their phone to check their email updates.
That can be accomplished through email marketing.
7. Email marketing is efficient with your time and budget
Small businesses often face time and budget limitations that cannot be avoided. Although it would be desirable to purchase a Super Bowl advertisement, it is not feasible for the majority of small businesses due to their marketing budgets.
Even if you specifically send flyers to people in your vicinity through targeted direct mail campaigns, it can still be quite expensive. The expenses for designing, printing, and mailing can add up, reaching several dollars per flyer. If you distribute flyers to a thousand individuals, it quickly becomes a costly campaign without any guarantee of achieving desired outcomes.
The duration spent shooting television commercials or recording radio ads can also impact your overall profits. Any moment spent away from your business means missed earnings or, at the very least, a missed chance to establish personal connections with people.
The efficient use of time and budget is one of the major advantages that small businesses can benefit from when using email marketing.
Designing a professional email marketing campaign is both simple and efficient in terms of time. Additionally, sending emails to a considerable number of subscribers proves highly cost-effective as it grants direct access to potential customers’ email inboxes without incurring the expenses associated with direct mail.
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing available to your business, considering the amount of money spent.
8. Easily measure results
A key advantage of email marketing is its ability to be measured, enabling immediate observation of the impact of one’s email marketing endeavors.
The email marketing software you choose will give you detailed reports on how well your campaign is performing. These reports will provide metrics on the number of emails sent and opened, along with click-through rates for the links in your email.
If at any point the number of people unsubscribing is higher than desired, the reports will indicate that you need to provide more valuable content for your customers.
9. Reach a wider audience – wherever they are
With the prevalence of digital platforms, there is a high probability of connecting with existing or potential customers through various social media channels. While numerous individuals possess Twitter or Instagram profiles, the notable advantage of email campaigns lies in the fact that virtually EVERYONE possesses an email address.
Not only do they possess email, but they also have it accessible on their mobile devices, resulting in receiving notifications whenever a new email arrives in their inbox, even if they are not near a computer. People tend to check their email at least once daily, and frequently even more. Additionally, they are interested in hearing from you – 72% of adults in the US have a preference for obtaining email communications from businesses.
