If you, as a small business owner, have been considering email marketing for a long time but doubt how effective it can be for your business, this article is for you. Regardless of your industry, the right email campaigns can help you improve your customer relationships and build a stronger brand, which means more sales.
The key features of this marketing tool for small businesses are price, efficiency, and the ability to implement email marketing on your own with minimal resources and time, thanks to modern tools. We explain to you how to do this in this article.
Why are email marketing campaigns effective for small businesses?
Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing tool for small businesses. Together with other marketing efforts, it helps build customer trust, expand your customer base, and enable regular engagement with customers, ultimately increasing sales and revenue.
Here are the benefits you will get when you start using email marketing:
- build strong relationships with clients and be able to retain them longer thanks to constant communication;
- build your authority as an expert in the niche, which is very important for small businesses;
- increase your profits, as email helps generate sales and encourages customers to buy regularly through promotions, discounts, and special offers, as well as surveys to understand customer needs better;
- get a high ROI on your marketing investment — email marketing’s ROI is $36 for every dollar spent on campaigns.
To get the most out of email marketing, you need to follow best practices and gather inspiration to make your email campaigns effective.
of small businesses use email marketing to reach customers (Campaign Monitor)
The basics of email marketing strategies for small businesses
A successful email marketing strategy can look like a very detailed plan. We will name the foremost components to consider as a small business when building your email marketing. We will also estimate the approximate email marketing costs for small businesses.
Stage 1. Collect a contact list
The first practical step in email marketing is to collect email addresses. Your existing customers and potential customers must give you their emails and confirm that they are interested in receiving emails from you.
To create your contact list, you can use the following paths:
- create a double opt-in sign-up form on your website on high-traffic pages;
- use an embedded form or a pop-up form on the page at a specific location;
- offer something valuable for subscribing to your newsletter — this could be a discount on your next purchase or a file with useful information (lead magnet);
- attract your target audience to the page with a subscription form on social media and other promotion channels.
(Source: Pop-up form by Claspo)
Remember to collect contacts constantly because acquisition depends on this.
To create attractive pop-ups, you can use a special tool, such as Claspo, to create pop-up forms. The basic plan costs $8 per month.
Stage 2. Choose email marketing software
Key small business email marketing software you’ll need:
- Email marketing and automation software — you need an email marketing platform to upload your contact list, send emails, create automated drip campaigns, and collect analytics. Regular email clients cannot handle this, so it is better to use specialized tools, such as Mailchimp, GetResponse, Klaviyo, Brevo, or any other email service provider (ESP).
On average, using an ESP or any email marketing tool with the basic plan will cost $15–$25 a month.
- Email design tool — you can create attractive emails easily and quickly, which will be displayed correctly in different email clients and have a responsive design for mobile devices and elements of interactivity. For example, to make using Stripo straightforward, we offer a drag-n-drop tool and ready-made email templates suitable for small businesses from different fields.
The drag-n-drop editor is critical if you don’t know how to code. As the name suggests, drag-n-drop email tools have a sidebar containing various elements that you can use to create your emails.
(Source: Stripo editor)
Stripo costs $15 per month (basic plan). This is enough to solve all the problems related to email production for small businesses.
Stage 3. Decide what emails to send
Developing a communication strategy with your clients, namely, what emails and how often you will send them, is one of the most significant components in planning email marketing.
Our interview with an industry expert has top insights and recommendations for building an email strategy. Here we outline the types of emails you can use.
The main types of emails for small businesses:
- welcome emails — an email sequence that is sent immediately after the customer signs up, which may include a simple greeting or a special discount offer;
- transactional emails — to deliver important information to users;
- promotional emails — to offer sales with coupon codes or discounts and incentives to encourage transactions;
- monthly or weekly newsletters — to keep your business top of mind and send updates;
- reminder emails — to encourage targets to complete purchases or make another.
You can complete the tasks of preparing and sending emails within a small business using the tools mentioned in Stage 2.
Stage 4. Prepare your email design and content
To speed up the creation of email campaigns for small businesses and make them as simple as possible, we recommend preparing and using branded design templates for the main email types and changing the information and some elements.
Another great practice for speeding up email production is using saved modules. For example, in Stripo, you can use saved independent content modules, which already include all the necessary parameter settings (fonts and colors). You create and save in the editor's library any number of module options for different aspects of emails — header, footer, and product card.
When creating an email campaign, you combine modules and quickly get an attractive and functional result.
In the next section, read more about best practices and email marketing tips for design and content.
The total cost of implementing email marketing for a small business is around $50 per month. Also, you can use an email production cost calculator to calculate time costs.
You can calculate for your own business how many additional sales will be enough to make this investment profitable.
Best design and content practices for small business email marketing campaigns
Five important points of each email that will help you make it strong and memorable for your readers and, most importantly, lead to results:
- Subject line — use a headline that will grab attention from the start and show you have an exciting offer.
Here are some examples of catchy subject lines from my inbox — note that they often have personalization and a special offer:
- Alina, charming new pieces for you and yours — Pandora.
- Limited Time: $25 Sweatshirts & Sweatpants — VS PINK.
- A trend we've basically perfected — Free People.
- Don’t forget! 25% off eye + brow products — NYX Professional Makeup.
- Want to build a 7-figure business this weekend? — AppSumo.
- Copy style — keep it short. Don’t waste your subscribers’ time on unnecessary information. Focus on the main points, using bullet points, subheadings, and keywords to highlight them.
- Brand design — create emails with elements in the same style as your website and other promotional materials. This way, you will create awareness of your business.
- Call-to-action button — in each email, offer your subscriber an action — for example, buy, read an article on the site, or answer your question.
- An email signature with social media accounts is a great solution to make your emails more personal while reminding subscribers where else they can follow you.
Small business email marketing ideas for your inspiration
We have collected exciting ideas for email campaigns that will show small business owners what emails could look like to engage subscribers in communication. We were inspired by emails from brands of different levels and industries, but you can use ideas from big brands for yourself.
Welcome email
Make welcome emails with discount coupons for the first purchase. If you sell goods and products, be sure to show them in all their glory right away.
(Source: MailCharts)
Please note that you can prepare such an email using Stripo templates for welcome emails in just 10–15 minutes.
Announcement email
Share what’s new or updated in your business. For example, this could be the launch of a new service or the arrival of new stock.
(Source: Milled)
Anniversary email
Use your business anniversaries, as well as your client's anniversaries with your company, to generate additional sales. Personalized attention like the email below always gets a good response.
(Source: ReallyGoodEmails)
Promotional email
Make offers your subscribers can’t refuse, and design them with attractive promotional emails. Let the words and images speak for themselves.
(Source: ReallyGoodEmails)
Weekly or monthly newsletter
If your blog posts new articles regularly, compile them into a weekly or monthly digest for your subscribers. Such newsletters allow you to build trust and an image as an expert.
(Source: Email from Stripo)
Seasonal emails
Don’t forget to congratulate your subscribers on the holidays and make special offers before them — everyone loves to receive attention and buy gifts. To avoid missing holidays, use our calendar.
(Source: Milled)
Wrapping up
As you can see, email marketing for small businesses can be a simple and affordable solution that will bring in new customers and allow you to interact more effectively with existing customers.
We hope this article will help you start making the most of this important form of digital marketing and achieve your goals. Arm yourself with the right strategy and inspiring ideas, and start taking action. If you want to stay up-to-date with email marketing trends in 2024, be sure to check out our guide, where we have collected the most influential trends and opinions of industry experts.
In the comments, share with us if you have already tried using email marketing for your small business. What went well? What difficulties did you encounter?
0 comments