Tips on Email Marketing for Small Business Growth
You take a look at your inbox and before even reading the details of an email, you delete it. We’ve all done it.
Even if you swear up and down that you haven’t done it, your consumers are probably doing it. In 2020, over 300 billion emails were sent and received every day. No wonder people are deleting before reading.
How can your company get past that hump? Read our guide on email marketing for small business growth to find out.
Be Compliant
The most important tip to email marketing for small business growth is to stay compliant by following the CAN-SPAM Act. This Act was created to keep consumers from receiving unsolicited emails.
To be compliant, you must only send emails to those who have subscribed to the email list. This could be through an opt-in form on your website or social media.
It also needs to be easy for consumers to opt-out of your email list. There shouldn’t be a long process that they have to go through to get out of receiving emails. It needs to be done with a one-two click of a button.
The best way to do this is by allowing users to opt-out through each email that is sent. When you follow these rules, not only are you compliant with the law, but you can keep consumers happy.
After ensuring you are compliant, you can begin building your email list. The signup section of your website or social media should have a clear statement on what exactly users are signing up for.
Avoid these common email signup mistakes for the best results:
- Having too many CTAs on your website
- Not making the CTA relevant to the content
- Failing to offer value through an email signup
- Requiring too much information to signup
- Using a bad design
If you fail to avoid any of these mistakes, you lessen your chances of having users signup for your email list.
Email Personalization
Email marketing is one of the harder ways to get the attention of your target audience because they are likely to receive multiple emails a day. However, this doesn’t mean email is not effective. You just have to do it right.
You can get more people to see what you want them to see through personalization. If you don’t put in enough time and effort into your email marketing, you aren’t going to see small business growth with this method.
To personalize your email production, research your audience and create great content. If an email is not relevant, a user may not even give it a read. Don’t let your email be the one they delete before even opening it.
Make It Brief
A concise email is easier to read and understand. If you have too much content in an email, you are going to lose a consumer’s interest before they get to the end.
As a general rule of thumb, you should never have long and heavy paragraphs in an email. When you break down content and use bullet points, readers can scan the email easier to find what they need.
You can break down the consumers in your email list into small groups. This personalization tip can get you a higher conversion rate. You are going to get more clicks by personalizing your email content to specific groups.
Check the data you have on your current email list to get started. You can segment the groups in the following ways:
- Demographics (age group, gender, geography)
- Past purchasing behavior (product categories, number of purchases, sales and promotion purchases)
- Brand loyalty (longtime customers, new leads, VIPs)
- Email engagement (customers who look at every email, customers who don’t open your emails)
A lot of consumers tend to read the beginning, middle, and end of emails. So start strong and end stronger!
Add Some Visuals
One of the best tips for email marketing is to add some visuals. You can add pictures, videos, gifs, memes, whatever you think your target audience will appreciate.
Although emails should always have words, they shouldn’t only be words. Don’t forget, users may be using their mobile devices to read emails so make those visuals fit their screens accordingly.
Include a CTA
Your email should include what you want the audience to do. Without a CTA, aka call to action, this won’t always be clear.
Some great examples of CTA’s you can use in email marketing include:
- Reading a blog post
- Checking out your website
- Linking to a specific product or service
- Scheduling a call with your business
- Connecting to a specific person within the company
When you prompt the consumers to complete a follow-up action, your conversion rates will be higher.
Analyze for the Best Results
You already know people are interested in your brand when they agree to sign up to be a part of your email list. However, to get the best results possible, you need to analyze your current strategy and adjust if necessary.
What emails do your consumers prefer to see in their inbox?
Take Advantage of the Subject Line
If you want better email marketing results, use the subject line to your advantage. This is what consumers see that helps them decide whether or not they will open your email to read it further.
Get to the point. Shorter is better when it comes to the subject line. Make sure it is relevant to the topic you are explaining throughout the email.
For example, if you have an upcoming sale, new blog post, or limited-time products, this should be in the subject line.
Track Email Engagement
To see real small business growth through email marketing, you need to track email activity. If you are tracking your current strategy, you’ll be able to send emails to those who actually want to see the information you are presenting.
If someone hasn’t opened one of your emails in months, stop sending them messages. Not only are you wasting your time, but you are also wasting a good amount of your marketing budget.
Lead With Value
Some things don’t belong in an email. For example, if you’ve recently fixed a problem on your site that no one even noticed, don’t send a blast email about it.
Not only do your consumers not care, but they also make think less of your business. Your content should always be lead with value.
What problem does your consumer have that you can solve? Tell them exactly what you can do for them and why they should choose you over the competitors.
If you aren’t sure if a draft email is of value, ask yourself if you would be excited to receive the email as a consumer. If the answer is no, it is safe to throw the email in the garbage.
Stick to Your Branding Guidelines
If you haven’t already figured out your branding guidelines as a small business, now is the time to do so. Once you have it down, you can take those guidelines and use them in email marketing.
When you have a consistent image, consumers can spot you from a mile away. This will help the design aspect of your emails which is equally as important as the content.
You don’t have to take your designs over the top. Although you should add visuals, they don’t have to be as perfect as a painting you’d find in a museum.
Build a Connection
In general, marketing is all about building a connection between your brand and your target audience. The best tip we can give to a small business is to start small.
You don’t always need fancy tools and pricey designs to get your point across, especially when it comes to email marketing.
Your goal should be reaching out to get to know who your audience is. When a company isn’t genuine, a user can sense it with ease.
Think of email marketing as a networking event. They are more focused on building a connection instead of selling their products. When you have that connection, the sales are going to flow in with time.
Using Email Marketing for Small Business Growth
This guide provides you with enough information to launch an email marketing strategy for small business, you just need to implement it.
The biggest point you should take from this is that email marketing comes in many different forms. Depending on your audience, you may be writing emails that are completely different than what you had before.
Whatever the case may be, this guide is sure to push you in the right direction. Watch your business grow with higher email marketing conversion rates when you use these tips.
At EmailOversight, we offer different services that can take your email marketing to the next level. Contact us today to learn how we can help your small business.
