Email marketing is getting stronger than ever.
Currently, there are 244.5 million active email users in the U.S. alone (and it’s still growing), and 60% of them prefer to receive regular updates and promotions from companies they are interested in via email. That’s a huge potential!
Does your small business have the means and budget to leverage email marketing? Absolutely, it’s one of the most cost-effective marketing channels, boasting an average $36 return on investment of every dollar spent. If anything, it’s a must-have for growing your business.
So, how do you do email marketing? In this blog post, you’ll get to know:
- What makes up a successful email marketing campaign;
- What types of marketing campaigns are there, and some of the best examples from other small businesses;
- Best practices of email marketing;
- Most human-friendly but affordable email marketing tools.
But before anything else, let’s learn why email marketing is the go-to solution for your small business success.
Email Marketing: Vital for Small Business Success
Every marketing dollar counts for small businesses, and getting the most from your budget can be a game-changer. This is where email marketing shines, offering the following opportunities:
- An impressive return on investment. On average, email marketing generates $36 for every dollar spent, with 18% of companies achieving a remarkable return of $70 for each dollar invested;
- A direct line of communication with your customers. Via email, you can establish direct and personal connections with your customers, fostering stronger relationships and brand loyalty;
- Regular reach to customers through their inboxes. You can expect consistent visibility and engagement by reaching customers where they frequently engage—their inbox;
- Highly effective marketing solution with targeted audience engagement. By tailoring your message to specific audience segments, you can maximize the impact of your marketing efforts and drive higher conversion rates.
And by leveraging these opportunities, you can expect:
- Subscriber growth – an increase in your subscriber base, expanding your audience reach;
- Brand awareness – a heightened visibility and recognition for your brand among your target audience;
- Improved customer communication and understanding – an enhanced customer communication leading to deeper insights into their preferences and needs;
- Increased revenues – higher sales and revenues, driving overall business growth and success.
Now, let’s delve deeper into what makes email marketing a cost-effective choice, its ability to reach targeted audiences, and how it improves customer engagement.
Cost-Effective Marketing Strategy
Email marketing is accessible for small businesses because it’s so easy to start. You don’t need to empty your pockets to kick off your campaigns—those initial costs are pretty low, ranging from $15 to $120 monthly. Plus, as your business grows, you can adjust your email plan.
Even better, there are tons of email marketing services out there that understand small businesses. They offer affordable packages tailored just for you; some even have free options with limited features if you’re starting.
These services usually charge based on how many emails you send, so you’re not stuck with hefty bills. For example, if you want to send 30K emails monthly, you can pay as little as $16.
Targeted Audience Reach
Don’t settle for people reading your emails. You also want them to be interested in your products and services. That’s the power of targeted audience reach in email marketing.
By segmenting your audience, you can divide their audience into specific groups based on demographics, interests, purchasing behavior, and more. This level of targeting ensures that each email resonates deeply with its recipients, boosting engagement and conversions.
But the benefits don’t stop there. With a targeted audience reach, your small businesses can go beyond just delivering messages; they can deliver value.
By tailoring content to different audience segments’ unique needs and preferences, you can provide relevant and timely information that enhances the customer experience. Whether it’s offering personalized product recommendations, exclusive promotions, or helpful tips and advice.
Improved Customer Engagement
Email marketing isn’t just about sending messages; it’s about sparking meaningful conversations and lasting connections with your audience.
Through personalized and targeted email campaigns, you can captivate their customers’ attention, driving higher levels of engagement and interaction. In fact, you can expect your personalized emails to be opened 82% more than generic emails.
We’ve already mentioned that email marketing allows us to deliver tailored content directly to each subscriber’s inbox. But that’s not all the ways it helps boost engagement.
Email marketing also provides a platform for ongoing communication and relationship-building with your audience. By asking for feedback, responding to questions, and providing helpful information, you show customers that their opinions matter. This two-way dialogue grows trust and strengthens the bond with the audience.
Essential Elements of a Successful Email
A successful email has several essential elements, including a captivating subject line, engaging content, and a powerful call-to-action.
The subject line invites recipients to open the email and explore more. Once opened, the email content must resonate with your audience, whether it’s informative, entertaining, or promotional. Lastly, a strong call-to-action guides the readers toward the desired action.
Let’s explore these elements in more detail:
- Compelling subject line. Your email subject lines should be clear, concise, and descriptive, ideally with fewer than 50 characters to prevent truncation. Look at them as summaries of your email content, irreplaceable for grabbing recipients’ attention and improving open rates.
- Engaging content. Deliver valuable and relevant content to engage your subscribers and prevent unsubscriptions. Ensure email content aligns with the subject line and comes in various formats.
- Strong CTA. A strong call-to-action (CTA) is clear and concise and motivates your reader to take the next step, such as purchasing, signing up for a newsletter, or visiting a website. Make it stand out visually and use actionable language to encourage action.
Want to create professional email newsletters with irresistible content? That couldn’t be easier with Sender’s drag-and-drop email builder!
Types of Email Campaigns for Small Businesses
Integrating different types of email marketing can enhance the overall marketing strategy of your small business. Let’s see what those types are:
Promotional Emails
Promotional emails inform customers about special deals, product launches, or exclusive offers, directly impacting sales – more than half (59%) of people say they’ve purchased because of a marketing email.
How do you craft an effective promotional email? Consider a few key factors.
First, it’s behavioral targeting. This tactic ensures that your customers are notified about sales on products they’ve already shown interest in, boosting engagement through the roof.
Another thing no excellent promotional email can go without is inducing urgency. Create it through time-sensitive offers and limited-time promotions to encourage immediate action. For example, a flash sale email featuring a countdown timer is an (almost) unbeatable duo for bringing in sales.
Newsletters
If you want your audience to stay informed, engaged, and connected with your small business, look no further than regular email newsletters as you can:
- Share news to keep customers informed and engaged. Keep subscribers in the loop with the latest company updates to make them feel involved and foster loyalty.
- Highlight company news. Spread the news about milestones, achievements, and upcoming events to strengthen your brand identity and keep customers connected.
- Share recent customer reviews. Showcase positive feedback from satisfied customers to grow trust in your brand and products.
- Provide research findings. Share industry research or insights to demonstrate expertise and help subscribers learn more.
- Update customers on product updates. Inform customers about product enhancements or new releases to keep them excited and invested.
Overall, newsletters do wonders in fostering a sense of community among your subscribers.
They’re kept in the loop on your brand news and understand your products through educational content. For example, a monthly newsletter providing a sneak peek into an upcoming collection can make a subscriber feel like a true insider, strengthening the bond with your brand.
Transactional Emails
A type of email ecommerce and SaaS can’t go without? Transactional emails. They’re a necessity that keeps customers engaged with timely updates. If subscribers get a response triggered by their specific action or milestone, they’ll trust you more.
The best example is order notifications. Your customers eagerly await them to know if their payment has passed through and when they can receive the goodies.
Best Small Business Email Marketing Examples
These examples prove that even small businesses can pack a big punch when it comes to email marketing:
Welcome Email by Kin Euphoric
Coming from a small business, you know best how much it costs to bring in new prospects. That’s why first impressions are crucial. Represent yourself well from the very first word with welcome emails.
A few sentences, or a whole paragraph long, these emails are eagerly awaited by 74% of users once they subscribe to an email list. This results in an impressive average open rate of 69%. It’s your business’ best time to shine. Just take a look at the example below:
A person on the Kin Euphoric marketing team did a good job creating such a welcome email. It has all the right components. Not only does it make the new subscriber feel welcomed, but it also tells the brand story and shares a welcome gift.
What we loved:
- The email feels welcoming and gives a glimpse into what the brand’s future communication would look like;
- The brand story gets the subscribers familiar with the brand and its mission;
- The email has a discount on the first order, motivating the prospects to convert.
Sale Email by Fatty 15
Few phrases make your subscribers’ ears perk up (or rather, eyes widen) like ‘Last Chance!’, meaning your sales email will get particular attention. Do the email well, and it will boost your sales.
That said, it comes with challenges. During the most popular sale periods, like Christmas and Black Friday, your subscribers’ inboxes are filled with sale emails.
To make sure yours gets noticed, opened, and clicked on, you must stand out from the rest. While a considerable discount on flashy lights might do, there are better ways.
We recommend you save this Fatty 15 sale email on your hard drive:
The brand leveraged two senses—urgency and curiosity. Separate them, and they’re still impactful, but together, they’re impossible to resist.
Fatty 15 concealed the discounts from their subscribers, compelling them to visit the website and find out. The message that time is running out urged them to do it quickly.
What we loved:
- The email creates FOMO (Fear-of-Missing-Out) driving immediate action;
- Hiding the sale details evokes curiosity and increases click-through rate;
- The CTA makes the subscriber feel exceptional, as the sale is only for them.
Pro tip: While sale emails often bring in more revenue than others, bombarding subscribers with too many can lead to fatigue and reduce overall email effectiveness.
In the long run, it’s better to balance promotional content with valuable, subscriber-focused content to build stronger connections and loyalty.
Cart Abandonment Email by Ollie
73% of consumers abandon their carts. That’s a huge ouch for any business, not to mention the small ones. Luckily, email marketing presents an effective solution – cart abandonment emails.
When done well, cart abandonment emails remind prospects of the nice things they’ve missed before checking out. Sweetening the deal with perks like a special discount code or highlighting the benefits of those items compels them to return and go through the checkout process.
Even skilled editors wouldn’t find what to fix in this example:
Understanding that first-time buyers are their biggest cart abandoners, Ollie created a special cart abandonment email just for them. It offers to slash half the price of their first purchase, leaving them no other option than to return to the cart and go through the checkout.
And if that isn’t enough, the email also explains why the purchase is 100% worth it, listing the main benefits.
What we loved:
- The brand understood the main reason why the cart was abandoned and addressed it;
- It gave a massive discount for first-time buyers, making sure they convert into customers;
- It listed all its products’ key features and benefits, increasing its value in the recipients’ eyes.
Best Practices for Small Business Email Marketing
These practices have been proven time and time again to improve the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns:
List Building and Segmentation
Building your email list is like creating a community of individuals who are all ears to what you have to say. With this list, you have a direct connection to your audience, allowing you to nurture relationships, promote products or services, and ultimately grow your business.
Here’s how you can start:
- Incorporate email sign-up forms on your website to make it effortless for visitors to join your list and stay updated on your latest news and offers;
- Use attention-grabbing popups to capture visitors’ interest and encourage them to sign up, boosting your subscriber count;
- Offer alluring lead magnets to compel visitors to leave their email addresses in exchange;
- Take advantage of your social media presence by promoting the subscription to your followers, gaining your reach, and attracting new subscribers;
- Keep your subscription forms short and sweet, making it easy for people to complete and join your list without hassle.
Once you’ve established your list, you can take your email marketing efforts to the next level with segmentation. This means dividing your subscribers into specific groups based on their interests or behaviors, allowing you to send targeted and relevant emails that resonate with each segment.
And don’t forget about list maintenance! Regularly cleaning your list by removing inactive subscribers ensures that your emails reach engaged and interested recipients, maintaining high open rates and maximizing the impact of your email campaigns.
Mobile-Friendly Design
As more people use smartphones, it’s important to ensure your emails look great on any screen. That’s where mobile-responsive design comes in! It means your emails automatically adjust to fit different screen sizes and devices, so everyone gets a great experience.
A negative mobile email experience can make people quickly delete emails or even unsubscribe. For instance, 70% of mobile email users will delete a message within three seconds if it’s poorly formatted.
But if your emails are well-optimized for mobile, it keeps your subscribers engaged and happy – they can easily read and interact with your content on their phones.
Tracking and Analyzing Metrics
Keeping an eye on email metrics like open and click-through rates is important for understanding how engaged your subscribers are. These numbers give you insight into what content your audience loves, likes, or isn’t a fan of (giving ideas on how to tweak it).
Plus, analyzing your email campaign data lets you see the bigger picture – like which subject lines or content types get people excited and clicking.
But it’s not just about opens and clicks! Other metrics, like conversion rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe rates, give you even more insights into your emails’ performance. By keeping tabs on all these numbers, you can make smarter decisions to fine-tune your email marketing and keep your subscribers happy and engaged.
Email Marketing Tools for Small Businesses
Coming from a small business, you’re probably feeling pressure to find the best email marketing tool. After all, the wrong choice might be strenuous on your already stretched budget.
These email marketing services present the best cost and quality combination, so you can choose without worries:
Sender
You won’t believe how easy email marketing can be until you try Sender. It has everything you need to craft effective email marketing campaigns in no time.
You’ll have a form builder for effortlessly building email lists, a drag-and-drop builder for responsive email creation, a human-friendly automation builder, and so much more at your fingertips.
If that doesn’t convince you, wait until you see the price tag — the tool is free for up to 2,500 subscribers!
Constant Contact
Constant Contact is widely known for its friendly interface, making it popular among email marketers.
It’s especially great for newcomers, providing simple yet effective tools for crafting impactful email campaigns, managing your contact lists with ease, tracking how your emails perform, and creating professional-looking email templates.
Brevo
Brevo offers an email marketing solution that’s flexible and grows with your business. With its tiered pricing, even small businesses can start strong and expand effortlessly.
As your needs evolve, Brevo steps up with advanced tools and higher sending limits to support you every step of the way.
Key Takeaways
Now that we answered YES to email marketing for small businesses in all possible ways, let’s take a final look at the key points:
- Email marketing is thriving. Users prefer updates and promotions via email, presenting a significant opportunity for businesses;
- Remarkable return on investment. Averaging $36 for every dollar spent, email is making it a cost-effective channel, particularly for small businesses;
- Use segmentation tools. Divide your audience based on demographics, interests, and behavior for tailored emails, boosting engagement and conversions;
- Foster trust and connections. Personalized campaigns spark a meaningful dialogue through feedback and valuable content.
- Boost engagement. Craft compelling subject lines, engaging content, and strong CTAs for interaction and response;
- Ensure mobile-friendliness. For seamless experiences across all devices;
- Grow a loyal subscriber community. Utilize website sign-up forms, social media promotion, and list maintenance for targeted emails.
Want to take a deeper look at the email marketing tools for small businesses? Check out these articles:
- 8 Best All-In-One Marketing Platforms for Small Businesses
- 11 Best Bulk Email Service Providers for 2024
Frequently Asked Questions
How to do email marketing for small businesses?
To kickstart email marketing for your small business, begin by building a community of subscribers who genuinely want to hear from you. Offer incentives or valuable content to encourage sign-ups and make it easy for visitors to join your list.
Next, get creative with your emails! Share engaging stories, helpful tips, or exclusive offers that resonate with your audience. Choose a user-friendly email platform to design eye-catching messages and schedule them when your subscribers are most likely to engage. Monitor your campaign performance to see what’s working and what needs tweaking.
Is email marketing good for small businesses?
Yes, email marketing is highly beneficial for small businesses. It offers a cost-effective way to reach and engage with customers, build brand awareness, drive traffic to websites, and ultimately increase sales.
With targeted messaging, personalized content, and the ability to track and analyze campaign performance, email marketing allows small businesses to connect with their audience effectively and compete with larger competitors on a level playing field.
What are the essential elements of a successful email campaign?
The essential elements of a successful email campaign include a compelling subject line that grabs attention, personalized content tailored to the audience’s interests and needs, clear and concise messaging, and a prominent CTA that drives action.
What are some email marketing tools that small businesses can use?
Small businesses can use email marketing tools like Sender, Constant Contact, and Brevo for their human-friendly features and scalable pricing structures.
Also read:
