5 Actionable Email Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
By Alex SouchoroukofEmail marketing remains one of the most rewarding marketing strategies. If you don’t believe me, research shows that for every dollar you spend, you get a return on investment of 42 dollars. To me, this is crazy, and I think that companies should invest more in this tool to increase their revenue but also their brand awareness.
Emails are a great way to get in front of your customers’ screens as it’s aiming for people who have already shown an interest in your brand by subscribing to your newsletter. These people are more likely to buy from you as they already trust you.
Email marketing, therefore, is perfect for boosting your sales, but several guidelines can transform a mediocre campaign into a successful one. So here are some of the actionable tips that can enhance your performance as a small business.
1. Avoid Only Selling with Email Marketing
A lot of companies are indeed using email marketing to sell their products or services. The problem here is that using email marketing only to score more sales can become intimidating to your subscribers.
Instead, try to mix things up. Spice up your emails through engaging newsletters. Create emails that help you build and grow customer relationships. Send out your company’s news, how-to articles, questionnaires, discount codes, or offers.
By providing your subscribers with a variety of content, they will be more likely to read the newsletters and stay subscribed. You can also get a place in their hearts and make them remember you when they decide to buy. With this kind of mentality, you will be the first on their list. This is priceless.
2. Leverage Content to Build Fans
The key to every good email lies in the quality of the content. More and more companies use a lot of resources to craft compelling copy for every email. This is what separates these companies from their competitors.
Your copy needs to be well written and contain some striking visuals like images, infographics, or small videos. Visual interest may transform a boring text into a beautiful and successful campaign.
Keep in mind that if you want to make the most of your campaigns, you’ll need more than just some good visuals. With every email you send, you have to guide your customers with an engaging call to action in the copy such as “Buy today and get a 15% discount” or “Subscribe now and get 2 months free”.
These are actionable ways to make your reader take action which will end up in more conversions on your side. Remember that it is about offering value first, and then asking for something.
3. Design Newsletters to Fit Your Brand
Every email marketing service provides the tools for brands to create engaging content to mail to their subscribers.
With easy-to-use software, you can create newsletters and landing pages, often using drag and drop features and text editors. This can give a pleasing and aesthetic feel to your emails even if you’re not a designer yourself.
To take full advantage of your newsletter design, you have to match it to your corporate branding. Including your logo in the newsletter and using colors and fonts similar to those on your website will make a huge difference. As a result, users are more familiar when they come to open their emails because of the consistency of your brand across all channels.
4. Personalize Your Emails
Email personalization is one of the essential components that will set you apart from your competition. With the volume of emails in everyone’s inbox, we have to make sure that our brand conveys a different message. Personalization is a way to show subscribers that you are considering them. The more you personalize your content, the more loyal they will become. You can create engaging emails using their first name in subject lines or the salutation, for example.
Cart abandonment emails are another excellent way to show customers that you care about them but also increase your revenue. Show them that you understand, you want to help and solve their problems. You will see a massive difference in their behavior.
Last but not least, creating interactive quizzes, signup forms, and questionnaires can help you improve the experience in each email and create more engaging content for the next ones. Segment your audience into smaller groups and then send them personalized videos, product ideas, or how-to videos to grab their attention. Wait for the magic happen!
5. Test Your Campaigns and Pivot
The only way to improve your next campaign is by analyzing your metrics on the previous ones. Email marketing is about four types of data: open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates. Every time you send a campaign, it is crucial to test out these four factors to understand your marketing strategy’s success better.
You have to understand your subscribers and what kind of content they like most. The type of content customers like will be newsletters that have high engagement rates. Use them as a template for your next campaign.
To give you a deeper understanding of your campaigns and track your efforts, most software companies provide analytics options. The data tracked will provide you with the following information:
The best feature of these platforms is that they allow you to A/B test your campaigns. So, what exactly is this?
To put it simply, you may have two different versions with slight changes, and you want to check both of them. This method helps you send emails with version A to some people and version B to other people. Having the metrics of each version, you choose which one fits best the goal you set and proceed with this version for the rest of the campaign.
Pro tip: Before every campaign, make sure to run an email deliverability test to see whether your piece of content is optimized. With this method, we can improve our chances of not trapping our mail in the spam folder.
Email Marketing Benefits
Email is here to stay, and every brand that takes advantage of this opportunity will see its revenue grow more and more. Remember that it is about building relationships with your subscribers and offering value. Communication is everything with this marketing tool.
Hopefully, with all these tips and tricks, you can create a successful email marketing campaign or improve your existing ones. If there is anything to keep from this article is this:
“Any problem, big or small, always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn’t listening.”
Tell me in the comments which of these tips will you use first and why? Can’t wait to read everyone’s thoughts on the topic.
