Small businesses love email marketing because it's cost-effective and delivers the best return-on-investment (ROI) on the planet. But, there's a catch.
Email marketing only works when you stick to the fundamentals and avoid the endless cycle of going for quick sales. Your ultimate goal is to build and nurture subscribers so that they become long-term customers.
This small business guide is your email marketing resource center. You'll find all the tips, tricks and know-how to help you grow and manage an email marketing operation with a return-on-investment that'll put a smile on your face.
We all know that the term "small business" is a catch-all for hundreds of different types of businesses, so we packed the second half of this guide with industry-specific email marketing resources to give you more detailed insights for your business.
Email marketing for small businesses starts with collecting email subscribers and sending them content and offers that in the end, hopefully, turn them into customers. Small businesses tend to put email at the center of their digital marketing strategy because of its low start-up cost, but also because it's one of the only "owned" channels. You own your email list forever and you control your content.
Why is that important? Small businesses that spend their limited budgets on things like Facebook will never have access to their followers. They also can't control who sees their content. And, if you stop using Facebook or they delete your page (which happened to us), all those followers are gone forever. Yikes!
Email marketing puts small business owners in control of their marketing assets and gives you the tools to continually grow with minimal investment. And it starts with email marketing fundamentals.
11 email marketing fundamentals for small businesses
When you get the fundamentals right, your email marketing will run like a well-oiled machine and the sky's the limit. We've identified the most important building blocks and created guides for each step of the process.
Email marketing is a unique marketing channel because your audience has given you permission to talk to them. It's a relationship that must be maintained just like your everyday friendships.
These relationships start by attracting people to your business and inviting them to sign up and opt-in to your email list. This is a never-ending process that is the lifeblood of email marketing.
There are several techniques and strategies you can implement to build your email list and this chapter from our Ultimate guide will get you started. You have everything you need in MailerLite to build a healthy subscriber list by using landing pages, signup forms, pop-ups or a website builder where you can develop new content to attract new people.
2. Provide value with your email content
Your new subscribers trust you to send them things that matter to them. You made a promise when they signed up that you would deliver a certain type of content. Before you send out an email, ask yourself if you are providing value for them, not yourself.
Remember, readers can unsubscribe at any time. Email marketing is a transaction. People give you their time and attention and in return, they want something for it like quality content, news or special offers to name a few.
The creative possibilities are endless, but the content must be relevant and add value.
3. Write compelling subject lines
While the quality of your content will keep subscribers happy, it's worthless if no one opens your email in the first place. That's where compelling subject lines come in.
Imagine the hundreds of promotional emails that come through your subscriber's inboxes every day. At some point, people simply scan their marketing emails to see what grabs their attention.
You are mistaken if you think that you have to write a super creative line or try to clickbait to get opens. The truth is people want to know what is in the emails, so clarity is the #1 goal.
4. Design your email
Most of us are not trained designers, but that doesn't mean you need to hire a designer for your emails. MailerLite's intuitive drag & drop editor, pre-built email templates and other design features make it easy for anyone to design beautiful newsletters and emails.
When it comes to email design, there are a few best practices that you'll need to keep in mind so that your message is clear and your aesthetic is appealing.
5. Include a call-to-action (CTA)
What do you want people to do after they read your email? You can have them click through to an offer or your content, you can have them fill out a survey in the email or a number of other actions.
Whatever it is that you want from them, you can't be shy about it. Overtly tell your subscribers what they need to do and make it easy for them to fulfill your goal. Your entire text and design should contribute to leading your reader to the end goal.
6. Make automation your best friend
The last time you subscribed to a email newsletter, did you receive an email a few minutes after to welcome you? That was not a human who sent the welcome email, it was email marketing automation.
Email automation is not a technical thing that only professionals use. MailerLite helps you set up automated workflows with a clear step-by-step process.
You can do really cool things like send birthday emails, send emails to people who click on a certain link or send reminder emails to customers who abandoned their carts (if you're an e-commerce business).
Once auto responders are set up, it continues to work and reach all your subscribers while you worry about other things.
7. Segment your list to improve engagement
Your customers live in different places, buy different products and have different habits. Email segmentation is a way of dividing your subscribers into smaller audiences based on a set of characteristics that you choose.
You can segment your subscribers automatically or manually based on the characteristics that you think matter to your marketing strategy. For example, if you sell swimsuits you can send potential customers in California a different email than customers in New York during the winter.
8. Personalize your emails
Small businesses offer their customers something that big companies can't—a personal touch. Email is perfect for small businesses because it can deliver what seems like a one-to-one message, even though you're sending out the same email to thousands of people.
While standard personalization tactics like using the subscriber's name in the email are recommended, there are other ways to go even deeper with personalization. It's worth taking the extra time because the results are eye-opening.
9. Split testing gives you an edge
It's hard to know if a subject line or a CTA will work. Instead of guessing, why not try your favorite two versions to see what works?
When you set up an A/B testing campaign, you can test subject lines, content or the sender's name. MailerLite will send the two emails to a small sample in your subscriber list. You can then send the winning email to the entire list knowing that you are sending the better option.
10. Combine email and social media
In addition to email marketing, most small businesses promote themselves through social media. Social is a great way to engage your audience on a daily basis, build communities and provide customer support. Why not combine your email marketing with social media to get more out of each channel?
The best way to use email marketing with social media is to figure out how to get your social media followers to join your subscriber list. Remember, your social media channel can disappear at any time and you'll be left with nothing.
Start by bringing those followers into an email list that you own forever. On the flip side, you can use email to promote your social media posts using special social media blocks within your email newsletters. Want to learn more?
11. Advertise your landing pages
If you are not getting enough traffic to your website or landing pages using SEO and inbound marketing tactics, you'll have to consider promoting them with ads.
There are many ways to approach online ads and it can be overwhelming and expensive if you do it wrong. This guide will help you figure out the best online advertising strategy for your small business.
cover photo: MailerLite
Source: MailerLite