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Let’s say, you start a small business these days. When it comes to marketing, the first thing you might think of is to sign up on a social media platform to promote your goods or services.
Social media is indeed the most obvious option in 2024 and you should make use of those social media channels that are relevant to your brand. While it’s a valid strategy, don’t overlook the enduring power of email marketing. Fashion comes and goes, and classic email marketing is alive and well like a little black dress, and still takes up a huge portion of the marketing structure.
Email remains a powerhouse for small businesses. It’s not about choosing between email and social media – it’s about leveraging both strategically for maximum impact.
Small business email marketing is used to strengthen the relationships with the customers. Tools may differ, but the approach remains — to get closer to each customer and to give him exactly what they want.
Mainstream ads often reach people who have little to no interest in the product. Whereas emails deliver personalized and highly anticipated messages to their subscribers that boost engagement and conversion.
Investments are a pain point for every small brand, especially when they are just making their first small steps in the big world of business.
Forget blowing your budget on pricey ads. Email marketing gives you a megaphone for your message at a fraction of the cost.
Any business — big or small — values its clients, but for small businesses especially, every single prospect matters. Direct communication through email marketing improves sales by fostering personal connections and trust.
Good email marketing is very direct and personal, getting your message straight into your subscriber’s inbox. The subscriber has already shown interest in your product or service by doing so much as opting in.
Email is becoming an even more powerful marketing tool, with people having separate messages for work, private communication, newsletters and deals, etc. No wonder, social media platforms ask for a valid email address to sign you up and send you notifications about likes and shares using this channel, which makes emails almost omnipresent, with no geographical or age distinction.
Starting with the very first welcome email and on, email marketing is about building strong relationships with a customer and nurturing continuous trust on their part. With email marketing, you can keep your brand top-of-mind with regular, valuable touchpoints to distinguish yourself among the ocean of other companies.
You collect your email list yourself, and you are not tied to the decisions of other businesses like social media platforms (like those who are trying to expand their businesses using only social media channels). It means, the platform’s sudden collapse won’t take your list down, if anything.
With well-segmented lists and personalized emails, your recipients are more closely engaged with your brand. It means that they are more open to providing honest feedback about the product or service, which is a key point for future growth.
It is crucial for assessing your company’s performance and planning future campaigns. Key metrics can help you keep up with your target audience and improve your business strategy.
When you create emails based on scenarios, your subscribers receive only what they are interested in. This is important for turning potential buyers into real ones. This direct approach encourages your audience to take action — click on links, subscribe, make a purchase directly from the email. This increases the conversion rate, and therefore the income.
Before launching your email marketing, it’s a good idea to think the strategy over in all detail. Here are some clues to what you should begin with.
Pick an email marketing platform that aligns with your needs and budget. Look for user-friendly interfaces and robust features like automation and analytics (if you need those, that is).
Set clear, measurable objectives. Are you aiming for more sales, better engagement, or increased brand loyalty? Be specific and track your progress.
Decide what emails you need to send in the first place. Among all types of emails that are used in email marketing, there are three types that every small business should try. They are:
Get to know your people. What are their pain points? What solutions can you offer? Use surveys and data analysis to understand your audience’s preferences.
Quality trumps quantity. Grow your list organically with opt-in forms and lead magnets. Avoid the temptation to buy email lists — it’s not just ineffective, it’s often illegal.
Here are tips on how to build a high-quality list:
Again, never ever buy an email list! It’s like buying friends, which is no good. Bought contacts may be indifferent to what you have to offer or may consider your unexpected messages as spam cluttering their inboxes.
One size doesn’t fit all. Take care of segmenting the new list before sending your first campaign. Group your subscribers based on interests, behavior, or demographics.
Why is this important? Collecting customer data and preferences will allow you to offer them a personalized experience, and according to the latest HubSpot data, 96% of marketers note that such customers with a positive personalized feedback often become regular customers.
It will make your campaign relevant and unique to a particular group of recipients. As a result, it will boost opens and conversions, as the content of emails to segmented audiences is what they are really waiting for. Say, the male audience of an online underwear store won’t be bombarded by female bra offers.
To increase customer engagement, companies need to be customer-centric, building trust by making their emails targeted, relevant, and the benefits clear. Offer tips, insights, or exclusive content that your subscribers can’t resist.
This all begins with the content and the design you choose for your campaigns as marketing psychology still works wonders. The goal of an email design is to make reading your message a memorable experience so that your subscriber wants to stick with you.
Here are some things to consider from a psychological point of view:
Many will report emails as spam if marketers don’t get the content and frequency right, even if your email isn’t actually spam. Consumers have the power to get rid of the irrelevant messages that are cluttering up their inboxes, so make their experience with your small business exceptional and memorable to escape the spam folder.
How many emails to send then? Well, it depends on the type of messages you are sending. A good tip here is to set expectations and to tell your recipients how often they will hear from you (and probably what day of the week/ time of day, if you write twice, for example), which you can do as early as in your welcome email.
Moreover, our experience shows that if you decrease the number of emails to inactive subscribers, the relative metrics for your campaigns will increase, and the deliverability of your emails (which is based on how your messages are read) will improve, as well. And psychologically, for a subscriber, it’s nice not to have their inboxed crammed with piles of emails. Besides, usually, if you send less, you will have to pay less to your ESP.
If your emails are not mobile-first or at least mobile-optimized, you’re missing out on a lot of potential connections, customers, leads, and sales.
Make your email campaigns visually appealing and functional. Use responsive design to ensure your emails look great on any device. It’s very easy to do in Selzy’s email builder:
Most email service providers offer responsive email templates that are based on grids to help you keep design consistency on any screen.
Small businesses typically find themselves strapped for time to do marketing, as they have operational tasks to perform. To create a continual stream of business and to find new customers, businesses need to unceasingly market themselves.
And here is when automation is of great help. They spare your time for more important strategic tasks while taking care of the routine. Isn’t routine what we all want to get rid of?
Work smarter, not harder. Set up automated sequences for welcome emails, abandoned carts, and more. Litmus says that 87% of B2C marketers use automation as part of their email marketing strategy.
Consider sending an email series – flexible trigger-based (preferably dynamic – changing with the choices made by the subscriber) messages that adapt to subscriber’s behavior boosting their experience with your business. The first thing to do here is to analyze which triggers influence your subscribers’ behavior.
Ask subscribers for their preferences and take advantage of customer behavior and insights like geolocation, past purchases, customer status, and more to make their experience as personal as possible.
Numbers don’t lie.
When your campaign is sent, it’s time to analyze the efficiency. With the right tools, email marketing is your most measurable channel. It includes basic metrics like deliverability, unsubscribes, open, click-to-open, and conversion rates — all created to track each subscriber’s behavior and preferences.
Here is why a small business needs to track the performance of its campaigns:
Take your time and analyze your performance, as such a valuable lesson learned will help you improve your email marketing campaigns in the future.
According to our own findings, the best time to send a marketing email is in the morning, from 9 am to 12:00 pm, and the worst time is from 1 am to 3 pm.
As for the days of the week, try sending on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Some new research also suggests Wednesdays and Mondays.
Test different send times to find your sweet spot.
Every appealing email begins with a catchy and personal subject line. It’s like the image of a person that attracts your attention before you have exchanged a word. Make use of your subject line to entice your subscribers into opening the email and getting your message through. More converting subject lines are known to contain names, emojis, FOMOs, metaphors, etc.
Go deeper than “Hey [First Name].” Use behavior and preferences to make your content relevant to each of your subscribers. Personalized subject lines can increase open rates.
Tell your subscribers what to do next. A clear call to action affects clickability rates. The click-through rate allows you to get an idea of how many of your total subscribers visit your website and ultimately make email conversions.
Consistency is the key to recognition. And when people recognize you, it means stronger bonds with your brand. In practice, consistent design and content for all of your emails in a series or types of series means your recipients will understand it’s you before they have even started reading. And make sure that your email properly displays on different devices and has a recognizable layout if, for example, the subscriber opens it on their iPhone first, and later on a desktop.
Show off a little. Use testimonials, reviews, and user-generated content to build trust.
Your whole marketing campaign depends on the quality of delivery — on the number of open mailings, clicks and spam reports, so prioritization will have a huge impact on the success of your e-marketing. Avoid that your campaigns fall into the spam folder. Follow best practices to keep your emails landing in inboxes.
Play by the rules. Stay up-to-date with email regulations like GDPR and CAN-SPAM. Non-compliance can result in hefty fines and damage to your reputation.
Email marketing for small businesses isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s a must-have in 2024. It’s your direct line to customers, a sales booster, and a relationship builder all rolled into one. Start small, stay consistent, and watch your business grow. Ready to hit send on your success?
Email marketing services are special services that are used to send email campaigns, track and analyze their efficiency. Here are 5 popular options:
User-friendly interface with the most flexible email builder on the market. And it is also possible to get 24/7 support – via chat, email or by phone, even on the free plan. Perfect for small businesses looking to scale their email marketing efforts.
A more complex (and pricey) option, but might prove ideal for businesses seeking an all-in-one marketing solution. Its email marketing tool integrates seamlessly with CRM and other marketing features, providing a holistic approach to customer engagement.
A budget-friendly option with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor. Great for small businesses that want professional-looking emails without breaking the bank.
A solid all-rounder with a built-in landing page builder. Offers a good balance of features and usability, making it suitable for businesses at various growth stages.
Known for its robust transactional email features. Excellent choice for e-commerce businesses or those requiring advanced email automation capabilities.
You might wonder why there are so many of them, why people are just not sending commercial emails from their personal email accounts.
Email marketing isn’t just a nice-to-have for small businesses – it’s a must-have strategy in 2024. It’s your direct line to customers, a sales booster, and a relationship builder all rolled into one powerful tool.
This article was originally published in August 2021 and was updated in October 2024 to make it more relevant and comprehensive.
