Email marketing can be beneficial for small business owners in any industry as it can improve customer relationships, strengthen brand presence, and ultimately lead to increased conversions and growth.
Small business owners frequently believe that email marketing is not suitable for them, ineffective, or overly costly. However, this is completely false! Within this article, we will dispel various misconceptions related to email marketing for small businesses and demonstrate its effectiveness for businesses of every scale.
Email marketing is often acknowledged as the most profitable type of online marketing, delivering a return on investment (ROI) of 4400%. What’s even better is that these significant returns are not limited to large companies. Undoubtedly, small businesses can also greatly benefit from email marketing.
Top small business email marketing tips
When it comes to creating email campaigns, sticking to a routine can hinder your progress. It is crucial to constantly seek fresh email marketing tips that will assist you in consistently curating valuable and captivating email content.
1. Choose an email marketing tool built for small businesses
Email marketing is time-consuming because people often try to do it manually, which is a challenge for small business owners who have limited time. Additionally, they are restricted by the features offered by their email service provider, such as Gmail, Yahoo!, or Outlook. While they may be able to schedule emails, they have to figure out how to use the BCC line to send bulk emails. Moreover, personalization of emails and comprehensive tracking of metrics are not possible. Therefore, the initial step towards embarking on an email marketing journey is to search for the appropriate email marketing software that caters to the specific needs of the business. Below is a selection of essential features that other small businesses are seeking.
The ability to personalize. The significance of personalizing emails has increased significantly in recent decades. According to Yes Lifecycle Marketing, incorporating recipients’ names into subject lines resulted in improved email performance, with a 50% increase in opens and a 58% increase in clicks. Your email tool should provide the option to include names, birthdays, and interests in your emails.
Having a drag-and-drop editor is crucial, especially when you lack coding skills (unless you have a team member who possesses coding knowledge). Email tools featuring drag-and-drop builders consist of a sidebar with various elements enabling you to create the design of your emails.
Tools may vary in their custom branding capabilities. Some provide the flexibility to design emails as per your preferences, while others offer limited options with pre-designed templates. To incorporate extensive branding in your emails, it is essential to find a tool that allows greater design freedom.
A feature for A/B testing, also referred to as split testing, enables you to send different versions of your email to your list in order to determine which one performs better. As an example, you can send an email with two distinct subject lines to your email list.
Using your tool, subject line one will be sent to 25% of your list, while subject line two will be sent to another 25%. The tool will monitor performance over time to ascertain which email performed better. Upon determining the superior-performing email, it will be sent to the remaining 50% of your list.
By utilizing a form builder, you can easily incorporate a signup form into various sections of your website, such as the homepage, social media account, blog page, and individual articles. This allows individuals who are interested in your content to conveniently subscribe to your mailing list.
No matter the device your readers are using, responsive design features will ensure that your emails look great.
Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and MailerLite are among the top email marketing platforms suitable for small business owners. These platforms offer beginner-friendly tutorials, all the aforementioned features, and competitive pricing options.
2. Quality over quantity
In 2023, a crucial aspect for achieving high email deliverability and engagement lies in the caliber of your email content, rather than the sheer quantity of emails sent. Constantly bombarding recipients with promotional messages is not well received by anyone.
Instead of focusing on other things, concentrate on creating emails that are of interest to your subscribers. Ensure that your campaigns contain valuable content for your subscribers. To guarantee that you meet your subscribers’ expectations, you can ask them what type of content they would like to receive when they subscribe to your email list.
3. Use an embedded sign-up form rather than a link in your menu
When it comes to sign-up forms, utilizing an embedded form is generally preferable to using a link. By embedding your sign-up form, the process of adding new subscribers to your email list becomes even more convenient.
If you opt to utilize pop-up sign-up forms, be cautious about disrupting the user experience as they can discourage website visitors from subscribing if they are not given the opportunity to engage with your content organically.
Encourage the registration process wherever possible.
Continuing with sign-up forms, ensure that you provide multiple opportunities for your customers to subscribe to your emails.
A valuable email marketing suggestion we have for you is to strategically place email sign-up forms throughout your website. Make sure to incorporate a sign-up call-to-action on your homepage, contact page, significant landing pages, and in the footer.
Make sure to offer customers the opportunity to subscribe to emails when they enter their email addresses during the checkout process on your ecommerce store. Similarly, for physical stores, having a sign-up clipboard can be effective. Simply ask customers during checkout if they would like to receive updates and promotions from your business.
5. Make your emails mobile-friendly (responsive email design)
Ensuring your emails are mobile-responsive is crucial as approximately half of Americans access their emails on their phones. It is imperative in 2023 to adapt your email design to fit screens of various devices, including desktops, tablets, and mobiles.
You certainly don’t want your subscribers to face any challenges when reading your emails!
Creating responsive emails is made easy with tools like Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Responsive emails can be automatically generated using drag & drop email design tools. Additionally, beginners can easily create responsive emails by utilizing newsletter templates.
Generate a categorized segment for your highly active customers.
Cultivating relationships with a loyal customer base that consistently interacts with your emails presents an excellent chance to enhance brand loyalty and boost sales. These subscribers have demonstrated a heightened level of interest in your company, making it a guaranteed and cost-effective method to drive conversions.
One effective method of ‘cultivating’ is to establish an email list exclusively for these contacts, which allows you to send them exclusive deals and promotions with the aim of motivating them to engage in transactions with your company.
In order to enhance progress, consider integrating your sales CRM system for improved monitoring of segments and optimization of conversion rates.
7. Send automated emails
Make sure your small business starts sending automated emails in 2023 if it hasn’t already. Implementing automated emails not only strengthens customer connections but also enables you to save significant amounts of time and effort.
To ensure a favorable start and cultivate trust with your brand, establish an automated welcome email for new subscribers when you send a regular newsletter.
Additionally, you have the option to establish automated emails according to a contact’s previous actions. As an illustration, you can reach out to your customers regarding their preferred products or suggest complementary items to those they have recently bought. Moreover, you can send automated re-engagement emails to customers who have not made any purchases for a significant period of time.
8. Make your emails accessible to readers with cognitive or visual impairments
Email accessibility is already a popular subject among email marketers in 2023 as it pertains to making content easily available to visually-impaired email subscribers by utilizing voice assistants and screen readers.
To ensure that your emails are accessible, you can take several steps.
- Make your content concise and legible. Use bullet points and short sentences, and avoid industry jargon.
- Use headers so that screen readers process your content in order.
- Provide helpful descriptions in the ALT tags of any images.
- Choose a font, layout, and colors that make the email as readable as possible.
- Use descriptive anchor text for any links. (For someone using a screen reader, a link labeled ‘Click here’ doesn’t provide enough information about the destination URL.)
9. Get new subscribers and build your mailing list with social media
After completing your signup form, it is crucial to ensure signups by making the form highly visible through various marketing channels. Incorporate your signup form into your website as well as all your social media accounts. To illustrate, on Instagram, you can include the signup form in your “link in bio” section using Shop Grid by Buffer, and on your website, consider adding a popup signup form through your email tool. Remember that your content on both platforms serves as the lively, attention-grabbing attraction that entices people to engage. Therefore, focus on creating captivating posts that are relevant to your audience.
To entice readers to join your eco-friendly clothing brand’s mailing list, publish an article detailing the process of crafting sustainable clothing. It is crucial to have a signup form popup on the blog page, then use captivating and vibrant images on social media to promote the blog post. Since individuals who follow you on these platforms are already intrigued by your content, ensure a strong bond with your audience by obtaining their direct access via their email inboxes.
10. Track your results
It is important to track the performance of all your emails using your email tool. Email analytics provides valuable data that indicates whether your emails are effective and how engaged your audience is. If you receive unfavorable results, there’s no need to panic; simply take a step back and reassess your approach. By tracking your data, you gain insights on how to enhance performance. For instance, if your open rates are low, consider experimenting with new subject lines or sender names. Alternatively, if your click-through rate (CTR) is low, try placing your link higher within the email to enhance visibility. Let data be your guide throughout your email marketing journey to maximize your investment. Here are some essential metrics to monitor in small business email marketing:
Open rate refers to the percentage of individuals who have opened your email in relation to the total number of recipients in your email list.
The click-through rate (CTR) measures the proportion of individuals who clicked on the links in your email in relation to the overall number of individuals who opened it.
Bounce rate refers to the proportion of emails that were unsuccessful in being delivered to the recipient.
The unsubscribe rate refers to the proportion of individuals who opt out of receiving your emails in relation to the total number of recipients on your mailing list.
Conversion rate refers to the proportion of individuals who have successfully performed the desired action in relation to the total number of people who have clicked on your link.
Side notes
By maximizing your extensive social media presence and leveraging your impressive email conversion rates, you can achieve the ideal marketing combination. On social media, although your followers engage with your content, they generally do not click on links or become loyal customers, particularly on platforms like Instagram with limited link functionality. However, by utilizing social media to expand your subscriber list and employing email marketing to convert interested subscribers into new customers, you build an exceptional marketing alliance.
