How Small Businesses Can Do Email Marketing To Grow

There is no doubt a difference between email marketing done by a big corporation and a small business entity.

However, it doesn’t mean that the email marketing done by larger corporations is better than that of smaller corporations, the difference is just in the tactics and scale.

There are ways small businesses can take advantage of their size in carrying out effective email marketing.

We shall take a look at these angles small businesses can hang on to make the most out of their email marketing. Edges that might be very difficult for big businesses to reach.

How Can Small Businesses Take Advantage Of Email Marketing?

Small businesses have equal chances of success in email marketing as big corporations do due to their unique position.

With small businesses, there is an advantage of flexibility and the ability to build trust with their local customers faster than larger corporations can be able to do. Small businesses are able to resonate with their local community easily and faster than big businesses.

For email marketing to be successful and effective, it has to be transparent, honest and as open as possible with the target customers. This is an important practice because automatically generated emails are losing ground and going out of favour with the modern customers. An organic approach in email marketing is not becoming more effective on the modern market.

Getting Your Customers To Subscribe To Your Email List

An organic approach to an effective email marketing is the ability to get your customers to subscribe to your email list on their own.

This means you have to offer them something worth the while that will encourage them to always look out for more quality products and services from your business.

And as you focus on getting your customers to subscribe to your newsletter, you can build a powerful and robust emailing list.

For your opt-in form to be effective, ensure it doesn’t have too many steps and don’t make it too fancy.

You should also help your potential subscribers understand what to expect from you in terms of content before they sign up.

When potential subscribers input their email with the expectation of getting a newsletter they will quickly lose trust in your brand when the content they get is different from what they were led to expect before signing up.

You should cherish the interests of your subscribers when they input their email into your opt-in form because I believe you understand how difficult it is to grow subscribers.

Losing them is much easier.

The internet is a competitive space with so many businesses vying for attention. So if you are fortunate enough to get subscribers, these potential customers and their expectations should be cherished and met.

Your customers expect nothing less than high quality and exclusive content in your newsletter, so take care to meet up to their expectation in the next email you send out.

Another advantage small businesses have over big corporations in email marketing is that they can present their brand as an expert in their niche.

Small businesses are already equipped and armed with regional expertise of their target audience, their location and what is most desired. It becomes easy to model their marketing strategies to better reach out to their target customers.

To build a stronger customer relationship that is vital for the growth of any small business, developing a reputation as a local expert via your email is very important. So working an efficient and conservative use of your email marketing in a strategic way should remain your priority.

How to Measure Email Marketing Success In Small Business

We talked about how you can design your email marketing strategies to suit your target market and position you as an expert in your field.

Well that can’t be possible if you’re not able to measure your campaign to know what works and what doesn’t.

The key to successful email marketing for any small business is to develop an effective campaign.

There are several metrics that can be used in the measurement of success rates in the different types of campaigns you’ll be carrying out.

Not all emails you send will be opened, some will be marked as spam while some will be forwarded.

You should be able to keep track of these emails and also track of emails that were deleted before and after they were opened. These are the most important types of metrics to be compared so as to know what works and what doesn’t.

With the metrics you get from these campaigns, you can get valuable insights that can help you plan future newsletters and email marketing campaigns.

Are you aware that up to 70% of emails are viewed on mobile devices 

With this information you can arm yourself to make your email campaigns very effective. There are many reliable email service providers with featured responsive templates that can automatically optimise your email for mobile devices.

Mobile responsiveness for the newsletters you send out can increase conversion rates.

Little tweaks like this make the difference between emails that are red and emails that are deleted immediately after opening them.

For small businesses, email campaigns give them a competitive edge that can open up new markets for them and bring in new customers. 

This ability to build strong and long-lasting relationships with their customers gives them the advantage that is essential for business growth.

25 Email Marketing Tips Small Businesses Can Apply For Growth

There is this negative assumption that email marketing is no more effective in promoting a business – that it is dead. This is actually not true because it remains one of the best ways to reach out to new customers, increase sales and build loyalty with your customers.

If you have a small business and you’re researching ways email marketing can help your business grow, then you are in the right space. Reason being, there is a lot to gain from this sector. If you’re ignoring email marketing then you are leaving a lot of money on the table and missing out on lots of opportunities.

Small businesses can come in different forms like the regular website for small businesses, a blog or an e-commerce store.

Whichever category your business falls into, email marketing remains a great way to retain current customers and a very powerful way to convert first-time visitors into returning customers.

Another wrong assumption is that, with the rise of social media marketing, email marketing has lost its space in the digital marketing world.

Research and current email marketing statistics continue to show that 44% of email recipients make at least one purchase a year based on the newsletter they received.

The use of coupons and discounts in your businesses can be effective when used in email marketing because statistics show that seven out of 10 people make use of them in making purchases.

The percentage of businesses that have increased their email marketing is on the rise as there’s a $44 ROI on every dollar spent on their email marketing investments.

This is a 440%increase and profit on their investment.

In order to make the most out of your email marketing strategies, it’s important that you accumulate a quality email list which is gotten organically by encouraging your first-time visitors to subscribe.

An organic email list makes the difference when it comes to conversion and return on investment on your campaign.

The major work is the ability to grow your email list so it is necessary that I help you with marketing tips that will help you do it correctly.

1. Easy and Variety of Opt-in Forms

One of the easiest ways to grow your email list is to give first time visitors an easy opt-in form to register with. Do not make it too complex or too fancy.

There is no need to ask for lots of information, their name and email is all you need.

A long cluster form will discourage them. People rarely spend time on a form unless it is very necessary for them.

Ensure subscription is made possible with just a single click. With just their name, email and one click, they are already part of your email list.

An innovative way is to make it easy to opt in to your subscriber list with the use of their social media accounts.

With a single click and granting permission to access their social media accounts, they automatically added to your subscribers list.

2. Offer Quality Freebie

In order to encourage subscription to your email list, you can offer an incentive for free when someone registers.

It gives your visitors a reason to drop their details because there’s something to benefit from that action.

Always remember that at first you have to offer quality before encouraging them to subscribe for more.

An opt-in form is magnetic when the benefits they will receive is shown clearly on the registration form.

These incentives can be a free eBook, a coupon or discount on their next purchase – that is in the case of an e-commerce website.

3. Opt-in Form Placement

Just like placing ads on your website, the position of your opt-in form can affect the rate of subscription for first-time visitors.

Some of the best places to put your registration books are:

• Above the fold: That is the part of your page that is visible before visitors start scrolling down.
• Top right sidebar: That is for web pages that make use of a sidebar.
• After the article: This is the most common place and also known to be effective when it comes to placing opt-in forms. After someone reads your article to the end, they will most likely love what you offer and register to your email list for future posts. It becomes easier for them when you offer them free stuff or a convincing incentive.
• Footer is also known to be another high converting place for email sign ups. It is known to be more effective for websites that have pages and not regular posts like a blog.

For websites with direct visitors that have the majority of them landing at the homepage, placing your opt-in form at the top of the homepage can generate more sign ups to your email list. 

Many popular websites and marketers use this method to increase their subscribers list.

4. Provide a Clear Newsletter Expectation

We talked about how your brand can quickly lose trust when the newsletter your subscribers are receiving is different from their expectations when they signed up.

It’s important that you tell your subscribers the kind of information to expect from you and how often they will get it.

And ensure you deliver on the promise made.

If they are subscribing for new posts then you post should be what they get in their emails. Same it is  with infographics or coupons or offers.

Also let them know if they’ll be receiving emails from you daily, weekly or monthly. At least they know what to expect from you.

Be sure to be honest and do not try to promise something you cannot deliver or else your email marketing campaigns will be less than effective.

5. Customised Emails Are More Effective

If you want your newsletter to resonate with your audience and build a stronger bond with them, you should try to customise the emails and make them more personal.

Furthermore, help your subscribers understand each step of the registration process. For example, that they need to confirm their registration by clicking the confirmation email in their inbox to finalize the process. Don’t forget to ask them to check their spam folder just in case it is not in their inbox.

Spend some time to customise the message you send to your subscribers. It connects more with them when you greet them by their name before the rest of the mail is read. Generalizing your greeting is not as effective as calling your subscribers by their name.

The good news about email marketing is that the involvement of AI technology is now making increased engagements possible just as personalization is now becoming an important aspect of an effective email marketing campaign.

6. Make Your Emails Easy To Read

Short attention span is causing internet users not to spend much time on content so it is important that you customise your emails to get their attention in a couple of seconds.

It is also important that you make your text easier to read because it’s not every time your email will be read and when it is not captivating, don’t expect your subscribers to spend too much time on it.

One of the best ways to grab their attention is through titles. So you want to work on your ability to write catchy email subjects.

Make your content easy to read and to scan, use headings and small paragraphs and if you are to use images in your emails, ensure to set the alt tag since most email clients do not show images by default.

7. Social Media Is Not Your Enemy

The increase in social media engagement doesn’t make email marketing any less of an effective strategy to grow your small businesses.

You can learn to make the most out of social media in increasing your email subscribers. Your website should not be the only medium for you to grow your email list. It is possible for you to get the emails off your target market on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social media networks.

It becomes easier for them to subscribe when you clearly explain the benefits of doing so. Do not be afraid to ask your social Media contacts to register and be part of your email list.

8. Stick With Your Promise

More emails doesn’t necessarily mean better results. If your subscribers are expecting your newsletter once or twice a week, sending more than expected might bring negative results. 

If you have the intention of sending more than subscribed for, your subscribers have the option of changing their subscription preference.

If they love what you send and want more of it, they have the option of increasing or decreasing the number based on their choice.

Whatever the case maybe, do not break your initial promise.

9. Your Email Should Contain The Required Information

One of the main aims of increasing an email list is to drive traffic to your website. But it makes no sense to have more visitors with little or no conversion.

The essence of a newsletter is to increase conversion and not just visits to your websites. You can increase conversion by ensuring that the main information is in the email.

An example is when you’re offering a course at a discount, in the email you sent out to your subscribers should contain everything they need to know about the course. Your website should only be the landing page for purchase. Do not send them to your website to read about the details of the course. The email is the perfect avenue to explain what the course is all about. It is now left for your subscribers to decide if they will buy or not.

10. Make Your Email Mobile Responsive

Even with Google’s SEOl, it is always mobile first for search engine results. If you want to rank higher in SERPS, then your web pages should conform to mobile standards.

Just as it is with search engine optimisation so it is with the effectiveness of an email marketing campaign.

It’s a known fact that up to 70% of all emails sent will be opened on mobile devices. Your emails can easily be deleted when it is not mobile compatible with your subscribers devices.

Apart from making your emails mobile responsive, you need to also have a mobile strategy to increase conversion with your campaigns. 

So before you send out your next emails, ensure that you test them against all major mobile devices. They are online mobile emulators that you can use to see how your email looks like on different devices.

11. Correct Tracked Errors

Unlike building niche websites, email marketing strategies are not the set and forget type of business.

It doesn’t matter if you’re running an SEO campaign, social media marketing or email marketing campaign, it is important to monitor your results and take corrective action before you set out on another campaign so as to make the most out of your investments.

Results you can track are your email opening rates, click rates, unsubscribe rates, conversion rates, deleting before open or after read rates.

Tweaking your email marketing campaign to be effective is not a one-time thing rather it’s a continuous process until desired result is achieved.

As you continue to monitor results and adjust to what works, you will grow in experience and learn better ways to do market segmentation.

You will also learn how to navigate these different segments of your email list. But first, the majority of your efforts will go to performing basic monitoring and control.

12. Study The Competition

One technique that can help you have a peek into the strategy your competition uses is by registering on their email list.

This way you learn of the kind of emails they send out, how often, the kind of products they promote and many more.

Comparing it with your strategy, you can develop and learn what works and what doesn’t.

The aim here is not to copy your competition’s practices but to stay ahead of their game and learn of better ways to secure your market share.

13. Make It Easy To Unsubscribe

Most business owners don’t like being told that there is a possibility that their subscribers might leave their email list.

In their quest to discourage this action some of them tend to hide their unsubscribe link or button.

I will advise against it because it doesn’t work to keep someone on your list against their will.

For subscribers that cannot find the unsubscribe link or button, they can easily click on the spam indication in their email accounts or block your email entirely.

For an effective email marketing campaign, you want to ensure you minimise your spam score and  keep it as low as possible.

14. Email Marketing Has Its Own Content Marketing Strategy

Firstly, there is a distinct difference between email marketing, content marketing and social media marketing. Three of them are not the same so should be treated differently.

In the case of email marketing, there is a content marketing strategy that works.  You have to plan the type of content to deliver by email and the best time to deliver them.

You have to find the purpose and meaning of the type of content you send out and how often you do so.

The essence of planning your content marketing strategy for your email marketing is to make them more interesting to your subscribers and keep them on your list.

Another purpose is to increase conversion rates for any badge of email you sent out to your list.

15. Cross-Selling And Up-Selling is Possible With Email Marketing

An example of cross-selling and up-selling is what you get when you register with Amazon.

Talking about taking a peek into what your competitor does, you can register for Amazon and study the kind of emails they send you.

For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, when you view a product on Amazon, in the next few days you receive an email about similar suggestions.

It is the same when you buy a product from Amazon; they will send you an email of more products they feel are similar to the one you purchased earlier.

You might not have an idea or the programming skills to better study your customers but if you have a better understanding of your customers and niche, you might be able to come up with ideas for upselling and cross-selling.

16. Promote Your Social Media Accounts In Your Email

Through your email marketing, you can give a boost to your social media account and use them as other channels to connect with your customer base.

We talked earlier about growing your email list through your social media accounts. You can also grow your social media following with your newsletters.

The simplest and most effective way is to add social media buttons to every email you send out so that as your subscribers share your newsletters,  they can also connect with you on these social media platforms.

The more followers you get on your social media accounts, the more channels you have to be able to market your products and content.

How small business owners make mistakes with their email marketing campaigns

The first 16 parts are ways that can help business owners improve in their email marketing campaigns. The rest tips will help you understand the mistakes made by small business owners and how you can avoid them.

17. Not Having An Email List In The First Place

It is unheard of for a business owner not to have an email list. This is the first emailing marketing mistake that most small business owners make because they don’t feel it is important.

But I can tell you that there is absolutely no excuse for not having an opt-in form to collect as many interested subscribers as possible for your online business and websites.

If you’re reading this post right now and you don’t have an opt-in form on your website I believe you know the first thing to do when you are done here..

18. Collecting Emails Are Not Sending Out Newsletters

Some small business owners have high converting opt-in forms and are very good at collecting emails from subscribers but they are lazy in sending out newsletters.

This is the second common mistake that is popular with small business owners. You hear them talk about how they have grown their email list to hundreds and thousands and are still in the planning stage on how to cash in on those subscribers.

Not keeping your subscribers engaged means you’re leaving money on the table. 

There is no excuse because you are not communicating with your customers and readers and you are not building that connection that is required for trust and brand building. Trust in your brands makes it easy for selling and cross-selling.

19. Just Creating Opt-in Form With No Incentive To Encourage Sign Up

It is understandable that you might have wonderful content on your website but very few of your impressed visitors will sign up to future posts on their own.

It is easier to encourage first-time visitors to leave their details with you when you offer them an incentive.

Offering incentives for email subscription is also very effective when you’re selling goods and services. You can offer discounts, coupons and special deals for anyone that signs up.

If you don’t have any incentives to encourage email subscription I recommend you start thinking of it right away. This is a major way to increase your email list and also the main reason why you’re not getting good return from your investment.

20. Purchasing Harvested Emails Or A Competitor’s Email List.

When it comes to achieving better results with email marketing campaigns there is no shortcut to this success. It is the same with any online business.

Do not assume you achieve success by purchasing emails from some sites on the internet because it doesn’t work that way.

Most of your emails will be marked spam because the receivers did not subscribe to your content or websites.

It is best if you grow your own email naturally using various whitehat techniques.

At least your subscribers know what they are getting involved with before leaving their contact details with you.

21. Not Asking For Email Verification For Every Subscription

There is a need to confirm every subscription before adding to your email list most especially if you’re offering free incentives like a free cheat sheet or download.

Some readers don’t want to subscribe but want the information you’re offering for subscription.

This can make them leave a bogus email in order to test if the download is possible without confirmation.

In order to build a quality email list it is best to ask for email verification. If they subscribe confirmations is better than loads of inactive email accounts.

22. There Are Best Practices To Sending Out Bulk Emails

Email marketing campaigns don’t give you the licence to spam your subscribers.

One mistake small business owners make is not following the best practices for sending out newsletters in large quantities.

When you want to send out bulk emails to your subscribers, it is important to follow the best standards and practices otherwise most of your emails will be considered spam.

An example is to add your email address together with an unsubscribe button.

Most importantly, for the first email you’ll be sending out to your subscribers, it’s important to help them understand where you got the email from. 

Some of them may subscribe and not remember leaving their emails with you. Reminding them of your websites will help them remember that they are getting this email from you because they subscribed for it.

23. Used Bulk Mail Vendors

Do not attempt to use your regular email address to send out bulk messages. This is far from recommended and it’s a common mistake that some small business owners make.

It is recommended that you make use of bulk email services because most of them will not only guide you but help you prevent common mistakes that can depreciate returns on your email marketing campaign.

Most email marketing vendors offer free services for a limited number of emails.

You can always check them out before upgrading to a paid version as your subscriber list increases.

24. Not Carrying Out  A/B Testing

Earlier in this post, I made mention of email marketing not being a set-and-forget type of business strategy. There is constant need for tweaks and corrections of errors made in order to make the most out of every campaign.

Most small business owners make the mistake of not carrying out split testing on what works and what doesn’t.

Apart from monitoring the performance of the emails you sent out, it is necessary to carry out several tests to find out the types of email that resonate better with your target audience.

Several testing that you can carry out are:

The best placement for your opt-in form. The part of your website that converts most in getting visitors to enter their details into your phone.

The type of emails that resonate better and convert better.

The best time to send email in order to reach most of your target audience 

The use of subject titles and images in the emails 

These are some of the tests you need to carry out in order to know what works best.Talking about titles, they are emails to send out that require long titles, while they are emails that just need short but mysterious titles 

What is important is that the mind of the target audience is intrigued enough to want to open the mail to read rather than delete it without attempting to open it.

25. Not Asking Your Subscribers To Add It To Their Contact Lists

The advantage of getting your subscribers to add you to the contact list is that it makes every of your email appear in their inbox and not marked out as spam.

If you’re able to convince most of them to add you to their contact list, you have automatically increased the number of people that each email marketing campaign reaches out to successfully.

The Power Of Email Marketing In A Business World

The invention of email has led to many innovations in the business world that makes it possible to communicate and transact with potential customers from all parts of the world. 

With about 3.9 billion email addresses, there is no limit to how much can be achieved through this means to reach out and engage our audiences.

When properly utilized, email marketing can play a huge role in creating long lasting and profitable business relationships between all levels of businesses with their customers.

Statistics show that more than 80% of business professionals consider email marketing as a vital aspect for building strong customer relationships.

40% of B2B marketers consider email marketing as a critical factor for business success.

If email marketing is used properly, it has the potential to bring high return on investment through every marketing channel used.

A consumer survey showed that 73% of buyers preferred email as a marketing channel.

One major advantage of email marketing is that it is easier to see the likes and shares expanding in real time than when compared to social media marketing. 

Email has continued to produce excellent results for more than a decade and professionals don’t see the trend going down anytime soon.

At this stage, I will now take a look at what email marketing is and how it can be very useful to help your business grow.

What is Email Marketing?

Superficially, email marketing may sound like a business promotion strategy that deals with sending out emails to customers but it goes deeper than that.

Successful email marketing is all about building relationships.

They are unending examples of email marketing gone wrong most of which are visible in your spam email folder.

Some desperate marketers make use of clickbait, phishing and glitchy content displays that add pop up all over your screen.

This wrong approach tends to give email marketing a bit of a mixed reputation, That said, professional email marketers have continued to master this new business model in a much more impactful way.

They are safe ways to build an email list so you don’t appear to be sending spam mails.

An effective email campaign to a business doesn’t involve the customers alone but also the brand.

In order to achieve long-term business success with an email marketing campaign, you mustn’t focus only on sending out contents and waiting for sales or traffic to come.

You have to find a balance between the following process:

•  gaining subscribers

That is the technique to apply in increasing subscribers. This has to do with you opting for placement and incentives you offer to visit us if they subscribe to your email list.

• getting to know them

The next step it’s getting to know your first time subscribers and how the needs of your existing subscribers changes.

You can do this by carrying out surveys and encouraging your subscribers to participate so as to know how to better serve them.

• communicating with them

Communication is an important aspect of building strong relationships with your subscribers and customers.

This is why it’s important that you commence communication immediately after a new subscriber drops his or her contact details. Do not pile up your email list with the hope of monetizing it later in the future. Effective email marketing campaigns don’t work this way.

• responding to their concerns

To show your subscribers that you really care about them, you have to be ready to respond to their concerns and complaints.

Email marketing is a very strong angle that can be used to build memorable business brands.

One possible way of doing this is proving to your customers that you care about your feelings and needs and you are ready to make adjustments to suit these desires.

• keeping them informed

Subscribers should be aware of any business changes and new developments.

An example is letting them be the first to be notified of a new launch that will favour them before any other potential customers.

This way you make them feel like they’re part of something great – a part of a community.

• Analyzing your performance

You should analyse the performance of various email marketing campaigns in order to pinpoint the ones that resonate with your target audience.

You want to ensure that you have an effective campaign that brings the highest return on investment.

• Generally keeping up with what’s important to your audience.

The major goal of your email marketing campaign should be keeping up with what’s important with your audience.

Their needs will help you shape your campaign in a way that will not only favour your business but also provide them with the answers to questions they have and problems they want solved.

The different formats and opportunities that can be used on effective email marketing campaign

If you want tried-and-trusted Trek tactics used in different formats and opportunity in email marketing then here are some of them:

Welcome email for new subscribers:

When it comes to important email marketing strategy for any brand it is a welcome email.

If you have ever subscribed to a new newsletter, this is the first kind of email you received. It is the prime opportunity for businesses to set expectations with their new subscribers.

In your quest to build a strong relationship with your potential customers, welcome emails happen to be the top most performing campaigns because they achieve the highest open rate.

Keeping your customers updated with your newsletters:

Once in a while you send regular emails are done weekly monthly or bi-monthly containing news about your company. Do you use this opportunity to update your subscribers about the industry you’re in and the products you have.

This informational newsletters is also a channel to talk about the current customer reviews, interesting insights and the latest research on issues concerning your business.

This is one of the reasons why your subscribers left their contact with you in the first place.

Incentives for subscribers through special offers:

If you have any newest products to launch, your email marketing campaign is the fastest way and the most effective method of communicating the launching of the sales and special promotions.

If you have access to behavioral targeting, you can even use these personalized emails to make each subscriber feel special.

For example, if you have a way of understanding the needs of your subscribers, you can let a particular section of them know when a product or something similar they would love is on sale.

This is also another opportunity to send the best section of your customers a special discount to appreciate them for their loyalty.

Updating customers about your brand:

If there are changes to be made to an event or a favourite item or there general changes going on in your business, reaching out to your subscribers through email is a brilliant way to keep them informed.

If there is some other notification of this order, it is always expected by your customers when they purchase something from you site.

It makes it easy for them to track your order and schedule their delivery

Reminding your customers to take action:

If you are selling from your website, you will definitely get abandoned carts from time to time. Sending out abandoned cart email campaigns is a good way to remind your subscribers to complete their order and this form of email is very effective.

These are the kind of email you send to online shoppers that add items to their account but have not checked out. You use these forms of email to remind them to come back to your site and complete the order they left behind.

These reminder emails are also effective and work similar to product targeting.

Let subscribers know of special occasions:

For any business, they will definitely be special occasions that are worth promoting. Sending out emails on these special occasions such as birthdays or anniversaries are ways to keep your subscribers in loop of what’s going on in your business.

It makes them feel special when you tailor the content to specifically suit therm

The usefulness of email marketing campaign

The essence of marketing is to build relationships. The end goal is to benefit from each other.

The brand wants something from the customer and the customer wants something from the brand. Therefore, the most useful means of marketing are the one that helps build that connection into a long-lasting relationship.

The relationship is definitely between the brand and their customer and potential customers and it’s at this level that email becomes a useful tool.

Before you can open an email, it must be a necessary action which makes committing their email to your hands is a personal decision for them. 

It is more personal than scrolling past a social media timeline.

The moment a subscriber opens your email, he or she is immediately committed to the content you sent and must be engaged with it.

It’s all about gaining a spot in your subscribers inbox. The moment you are able to do so you will be able to communicate with them on a far more personal and individual level.

Email is a channel that guarantees a one-on-one communication between two parties.This is the reason why most businesses use this medium to reach out to their existing and potential customers.

The power of email marketing campaigns enables you to speak directly to your customers on an individual-level.

Be able to send them contents, offers and updates that are relevant to their subscription.

Through email you are able to address their personal concerns and engage them in the best possible way. This is one of the best tools that help you retain the loyalty of old customers and build a strong bond with new customers.

There is a lot you can do with email because it is so versatile in a way that helps you say a lot in a well-crafted campaign.

As long as your campaign lands in their inbox and your subscribers are interested with what you sent, there is no limit to the kind of content you can send to them.

This opens up the channel of an unending stream of opportunities for expanding your customer base, building strong relationships and marketing your brand.

How Email Marketing Can Help Build Your Business

Of all forms of marketing, email happens to be the one that generates lots of return on minimal investment.

It can help you reach out the vast audience and also retain your current customers. These are the reasons why it is a very popular means of marketing for many businesses.

Through the use of email marketing, you can learn a lot about your business and arm yourself with information that can help you grow your business.

Email is said to be a two-way street which means it is the closest to direct communication you can get with any customer.

As a matter of fact, it is just like being able to liaise with your clients on a face-to-face basis. The difference is that talking to people in person deals with a lot of resources but email saves you that stress.

Face to face form of marketing is rare in the modern business world and besides it is unpredictable because you never know what to expect. On the other hand, email marketing provides a kind of control that helps you test the waters and arm yourself with information that can help you draw useful data on how your campaigns are landing

Technology has made it very easy to gather, measure and analyze data from modern email marketing statistics.

With the right email vendor, you are able to gather information about open rate, click engagement and many more forms of engagement for your campaign.

 You are able to track these statistics across every audience segment.

This is important if you intend to get good performance with your campaign, replicate them and improve on them. 

There is an element of chance with some campaigns but most of them can be measured and replicated if they’re successful and as long as you have the right data to work with.

Businesseses can gather valuable data from the email marketing campaign. This way they are able to understand their campaigns, that customers and even their competitors.

In addition to gaining and retaining valuable customer relationships and also getting the best return on investment for their email marketing campaign, it is also a top resource for businesses to stay updated with trends and keep in touch with their clients.

This way they are able to remain a force to reckon with in their sector and in the marketing world.

Growing Businesses Through Email Marketing In The Modern World

There are lots of options to take when it comes to digital marketing.

It can be confusing at first if you don’t know which directions to take and the one that is most profitable.

Some businesses opt for social media marketing and put all their focus on it instead of email marketing as a primary means of connecting with their audience.

From a personal point of view, I think that is a big business mistake because you’ll be losing out on a lot of opportunities

In the United States alone more than 90% of adults make use of email for communication.

Even with the use of social messaging apps, 74% of teenagers also make use of email.

Email will always be an important means of engagement for serious businesses.

So ignoring this channel as a means of growing your business signifies you are leaving a lot of money on the table.

It is obvious that small businesses have lots to again through email marketing.  

It doesn’t matter what your target audience is, where they live, work or play. There is a high chance that they have an email account which provides an opportunity for you to reach out to them.

All you have to do is convince them to leave their information with you.

It doesn’t matter if you’re running a blog, a small business website or an e-commerce shop; the most powerful form of digital marketing tool that can help you convert first-time visitors and retain them is email.

Retaining the loyalty of old customers has never been easier with the use of email outreach.

There is no limit so how much you can achieve through this means of business marketing.

Let us now take a look at how you can grow your business this year through this channel.

Why email marketing can effectively promote your small business 

There are many reasons why email remains a powerful tool for small business growth.

Talking about branding, email can help you create more awareness, expand your customer base and build the trust and loyalty that makes a brand worth connecting with for customers. You can also use email marketing to showcase your industry expertise and ultimately grow your business revenue.

Benefits of email for small businesses

Let us take a look at ways small businesses can benefit from email marketing as a tool to grow their businesses.:

High returns on investment 

I will never stop reiterating how important email marketing is and how reliable and cost-effective it can be as a means of communication between brands and customers.

Studies continue to show that this form of marketing has a high return on investment which is more than double what you get using other forms of digital marketing.

Retaining the loyalty of old customers

Through email marketing be able to build stronger customer relationships through constant engagement.

The ability to get into their inbox provides you a form of communication that helps you reach out to them wherever they are and at any point in time.

With other forms of digital marketing, it is almost impossible to reach out to followers on a one-on-one basis just as email marketing is able to.

Establishing industry expertise 

With the use of email marketing you are able to position your small business as a source of authority in your niche.

You can position yourself as the go-to person for solutions to their problems.

The best form of branding is your ability to present yourself as an authority in your field and you can do this by sending high quality and informative content to your subscribers – contents they find useful and helpful.

Increased conversions and revenue

The market share of email marketing in the business world is worth billions of dollars each year and it keeps rising.

Email marketing has been a channel for many businesses to generate revenue by increasing conversion.

It provides an opportunity for small businesses to benefit from impulse buying. For instance, with a well targeted campaign, you can entice the customers to make purchases. This is possible by sending out special/discount offers for products related to their previous purchases.

Improve brand awareness

With a well customised email marketing strategy any small business can be able to improve their brand awareness.

Having your subscribers add you to their contact list grants you access to their inbox. This way, you have direct access to them.

All you have to do is send out the emails that are relevant and well-curated and which sets your business apart from others and positions you as an identifiable brand.

This gives you an edge over your competitors.

Identify the needs of your target audience 

From the data you get from your email campaigns, you are able to learn more about the likes and dislikes of your customers.

With the data you get, you are able to categorise your customers according to their preference. This enables you send targeted and personalized content that resonates with the different segments of your subscribers list.

Understand what works and what doesn’t

With email marketing, a business owners can learn what works and what doesn’t using the metrics gotten from different testing and tracking such as click-through-rates, open rates and so much more.

Learning how to do email marketing the right way can help you take advantage of the immense benefits that come with the best practices.

The Different Types Of Email

There are many different types of emails small businesses can send out once their email list begins to grow. It’s important that a business owner understand the types of emails and how they work so as to make the right choice for their email marketing campaign.

Below are some of the effective types of email you can choose from to enable your business meet its goals and objectives.

Email Newsletter: The primary aim of a newsletter is to enable businesses keep contact with their subscribers. It is quite a popular type of email that is sent periodically to customers.

Promotional Emails: These are the types of email you send to your subscribers to inform them of special offers or discounts. The aim is to entice customers to purchase a particular product or service. Normally, these are the kind of emails you get from e-commerce sites.

If you ever subscribe to any email list, there are times you receive emails that come with 50% off membership. These are promotional emails that encourage you to make purchase

Loyalty Program Emails: In this kind of emails, the aim is to reward your dedicated customers by setting up loyalty programs for them. 

Before you send out these forms of emails, you must have segmented your loyal customers in order to reward them with special offers or discounts on a particular product or service.

Seasonal Emails: You sometimes get this kind of email from brands wishing you a merry xmas, a happy easter celebration or any other wishes that demands national holidays. The aim of these emails is to keep the business in the minds of their subscribers.

You can also use these emails to promote the season’s special offers and great discounts. It’s an effective way to cash in on seasonal purchases.

Transactional Emails: These are the kind of emails you send out to confirm a customer’s appointment or receipt of purchase made. You can also use this kind of email to confirm a new user’s subscription.

Drip Campaigns: This is a pre-scheduled type of email that is set automatically to be sent out to subscribers to remind them or to encourage them to take action. 

This kind of campaign can help you stay connected to your subscribers in a consistent, effective and efficient way.

Some examples of drip campaign emails are:

• Welcome emails
• Cart abandonment emails
• Product suggestion emails
• Thank you emails
• Informational emails

Dedicated Emails: This is the type of content you sent to a specific segment of your subscribers. An example is if you’re hosting a training webinar for a particular product , you can send a particular kind of email to a section of your subscribers you believe will be interested in this training.

Product Update Email: If you’re offering some form of services on your website, it is normal to send this type of emails to customers to inform them about new things like changes in features on the website and of the services you offer.

Importance of Staying Compliant With Your Email Marketing Campaigns

Because your subscribers give you their contact details doesn’t give you the right to spam the irinbox with unnecessary emails.

When sending emails for your marketing campaign ,it’s important that you remain compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act).

This act comes with requirements businesses and individuals are to abide with in sending commercial emails to their subscribers and customers.

Let us take a look at a brief overview of the CAN-SPAM Act regulations: 

• No false or misleading header information
• No deceptive subject lines
• Inclusion of an unsubscribe mechanism
• Inclusion of the sender’s valid physical postal address
• Identification of the message as an advertisement or solicitation
• Honor opt-out requests promptly.
• Monitor what others are doing on behalf of your business

These are serious regulations that come with a fine of up to 16,000 dollars for each violation. Not abiding by them can destroy the reputation of your brand and also come with serious consequences in terms of public relations.

You can learn more about this regulation on the FTC website

How To Have An Email Marketing Plan

There is a need to have a strategized email marketing plan pro to the beginning of your campaign. To effectively do this here are several steps every small business owners must follow:

Step #1: Set Your Email Marketing Goals

Different businesses have the different objectives that are to be achieved each time a campaign is to be launched. There are a lot of factors to consider which might affect and influence the desired goals. 

Some of these factors are

• Your budget for each campaign
• The size of your business
• Your email marketing experience
• The industry you are in
• The way your marketing channels are prioritized

…and so on.

You have the option of deciding if the goals will be quantifiable and number based or it has to generally be about building your brand.

Step #2: Define Your Audience

The next is trying to understand the characteristics of your target audience. This understanding will help you create a buyer persona which can help you create an effective email marketing campaign.

It is common knowledge in the marketing world that you cannot go after everyone. What is normal is to identify your target audience and condition your campaign to reach out to them effectively.

You want your email marketing campaigns to convert and this can only be possible if you target them to reach your ideal audience that are most likely to purchase your product and services.

Step #3: Start Building Your List

Sending out your email is not possible if you don’t have a list that you built organically.

If you have succeeded in setting your goals in the right order and identified your target audience, then you can start collecting emails

To start building your email list here at the steps to follow:

• You need an opt-in form for your website 
• If you’re making use of social media channels to increase your subscription then you should add sign-up forms to your social pages 
• Your email signatures should contain some form of call-to-action

We talked about offering free incentives earlier in this post. Ensure you clearly explain to users what they will get in exchange for their subscription.

That said, offering incentives has been known to be very effective in building an email list.

Don’t forget to make the form as easy as possible because long forms can discourage new customers from signing up.

Metro #4: Decide Which Emails To Send

It’s not time to start planning for the type of emails to send out to the list of contacts you are currently building. 

We’ve talked about the different types of emails to be sent out to subscribers, you’re to decided the particular email you want to send out at each point in time based on the type of small business you’re running.

Most business startups begin with a welcome message after which they send that newsletter once or twice a month just to keep the audience engaged.

At the right time, you can send out your promotional emails or product update emails. 

Step #5: Design And Craft Your Emails

Most small business owners are not aware of the importance of designing their email or if it is worth spending money on.

Some of them even argue that it is not worth it. But I can tell you that it is as important as the conversion you desire to achieve with each campaign you send out.

You’re already spending money to have your emails get delivered to your clients. Making a message look good is also worth spending your money and time on.

Though the contents of your email is the most important aspect of your campaign and sometimes a simple email is just what you need but there are times that rich media spices up the campaign and encourages engagement. 

That said, whatever form of message you choose to send out, ensure you put some thought into your emails so as to reflect your brand and also resonate with your target audience.

Step #6: Track The Results 

An untracked email campaign is just like a wasted effort because the lack of data you are able to gather means you cannot tweak your future campaigns in order to improve on your results.

It is extremely important to analyse your email marketing data in order to achieve success in your future campaigns.

That’s the only way you can learn what works and what doesn’t so that you stop wasting time and strategies that are not giving you the best results.

You shouldl rather put more focus on strategies that will generate the highest return on investment.

If already know the importance of tracking your campaign then you understand what it means to know the number of subscribers that:

• Opened your emails
• Who opened which email? 
• What did they click on? 
• opted out of your emails

… and so on.

With paid email marketing vendors you are able to get out this data which can help you take advantage of many marketing opportunities in your niche.

Simple Techniques That Includes Your Return On Investment On Email Marketing Campaign 

Let us take a look at 8 different strategies businesses can use to grow their followers and also keep their current subscribers engaged.

These are the strategies to keep in mind when executing your email marketing campaign. 

1. Knowing the right frequency of messaging

To get the most out of your email in campaign, it’s important you know about the right frequency that works.

People tend to be busy and your subscribers might forget about your business if they are not constantly reminded.

Whenever you send them an email, use gentle reminders so that your subscribers can think of your business when they have problems related to your niche.

At this stage, your business becomes the first to come to mind and this can only be possible if they don’t forget about the services you offer.

Maintaining that presence in their minds is only possible if you refresh their memory at intervals. Be reminded that overdoing it might bring negative results and annoy your subscribers. This can lead to higher rates of opting out of your list.

2. Your headline matters a lot

The ability to grab the attention of readers from the very beginning when your email hits their inbox is a strong determinant to how successful the open rate will be.

With a captivating email subject line, you can be able to communicate  a compelling business proposition.

The main aim of a subject headline is to capture the attention of your subscribers and make them want to click through to find out more about what you have to offer.

This works in almost all types of emails especially when you’re giving out discounts, doing giveaways and many more. 

3. Debrief

Most successful email marketing campaigns are known to be brief. Most subscribers are busy and will not want to spend more than a few seconds trying to understand what a particular email is all about.

Even for your most dedicated customers that are generally interested in your business,  it important that the email sent out to them is not too long.

Statistics show that long emails get low engagement rates. To achieve more with your campaign, learn to keep your emails short and sweet so you don’t lose the attention of your subscribers.

Bullet points on what is most important is encouraged and don’t forget to make use of subheadings and keywords that will catch the attention of your readers.

4. Make your text readable and scannable

How easy it is for your email to be read may determine the level of engagement it gets. To achieve higher engagement it’s important you make your text scannable and readable. 

Your subscribers should be able to skim over your content so ensure you design and structure them in a way that enables your subscribers to understand what your email is all about without spending much time trying to figure it out.

This is possible with the use of short sentences, small paragraphs and good formatting practices like italicising and bolding important texts and the use of bullet points.

5. Personalizing your email messages

The importance of segmenting your email list is to enable you cave out messages that resonates with different segments of you subscribers.

Your email gets a high rate of engagement when it’s relevant to the segment of the audience you sent them to.

Is best if you make each email feel personal in order to get the attention of the reader.

6. Alt tags are important for emails

By default most email clients do not make images visible to their readers which is why it’s important to make use of image ALT tags whenever you can.

It’s also important to provide the description of the email images in your email in order to reach out to a segment of the subscribers that are visually impaired and use screen readers.

7. Mobile-optimized email

We cannot stop stressing the importance of making your messages mobile responsive. We already know that the majority of your emails will be read on mobile devices so it’s important your readers don’t spend more time trying to scroll to different sections of your message.

They are mobile emulators you can find online and most email vendors have mobile emulators that enable you to study how your messages and they will look like on different devices. You have no excuse for sending out an email that is poorly optimised for mobile devices.

8. Include the social media profiles

You can double down on your subscribers engagement by including your social media handles on the emails you send to them. You should tell them to follow you on your various social media platforms in order to keep up with new developments about your business.

Most email vendors come to the option that enables you to promote the social media handles directly within your email.

Growing your small business

The growth of a business is the most important aspect that deserves the most attention for any entrepreneur. This growth is largely dependent on your marketing method.

There are lots of resources at your disposal that can help you achieve this aim.

To grow your email list here are six tips you can apply:

Encourage sign up every chance you get: provide the website visitors as many chances as possible for them to join your email list.

You can do this by adding your opt-in form to your home page to your blog pages, your contacts pages, top right side widgets, footer,  and social media..

Forms are better than links: to increase your sign up rate it is better to embed your signup forms rather than provide links for your visitors.

When compared to forms, email brings in more leads than links.

Categorising your subscribers: Throughout this post we’ve spoken about the importance of segmenting your email list.

This enables you to find out the number of subscribers that engage with your campaign. The aim here is to help you learn how to focus on cultivating brand loyalty and increasing revenue derived from your fans and followers.

Create autoresponders: The aim here is to free up as much time as you can in order to concentrate on some other parts of your business and marketing. Business automation can add immense value to your business and they can help you in analysing data, produce great email designs and customise your contents for your subscribers and many more.

Power of social media: You can get more subscribers from your social media handles and get more followers to your social media accounts through your emails.

This is a win-win option that can provide you multiple platforms to promote your content and give your business more exposure.

Promote on other platforms: When it comes to business promotion, YouTube channel is another powerful means of getting your business out there.

One can also use these videos to encourage sign-ups and increase revenue through drip campaigns.

In Summary 

There is so much small businesses can achieve with the use of email marketing.

The size of a business doesn’t matter; as long as there are clients you can serve and provide solutions. You definitely need to engage in email marketing in order to build new clients and maintain the loyalty of old customers.

Email marketing will continue to be a powerful tool because it provides you a face-to-face access with your client not minding their location. Even with a small business, you are able to reach out to local customers and clients faster than how large corporations are able to.

So do not allow the size of a business is college you from engaging in email marketing because they have as much chance at success as any big businesses.