Looking for Small Business Email Marketing tips? Are you just starting your own business or are you a small business owner who's already set the first step to grow?
Before anything, you'd set up your website, social media and blog. What do you think about when it comes to building an audience and making sales and customers, what's your approach for it?
To give you a suggestion, you can start with Email Marketing. There are many benefits for you. Most of the people look through their emails to find coupons, discounts or some types of lessons or tips to be better at what they do.
Big Business Owners as well as Small Business Owners get a great part of the sales of their products and services from email marketing only. So why not get into it and one more way to hustle and grow?
But don't be anxious, we won't leave you hanging up and getting tensed about how to start and grow. We've listed and explained the way to start email marketing and all the tips you can follow to grow your small business!
Let's Get You Started With Email Marketing!
You are aware that you have a website, some social media accounts and maybe a blog too. You've products and services that you're offering others. You've a decent amount of audience who comes to you sometimes, but isn't regular.
How can you turn them into your regular readers and customers? Email Marketing. So let's start -
1. Email List Building
Well, if you don't have an audience, who'll you offer your services and products to? So, let's build an email list first. Why is it important?
- To keep a record of your audience and customers
- To send them regular updates and make them a regular consumer
How to build an email list? I'm not giving you any advice to buy a list of email addresses from someone; that's like hitting up people who don't even want to see your face.
And if you do so, you'll get very less or no responses. And then, all your hard work goes into vain. So, how to build an email list?
- Create a sign-up form and put it on your website, blog and social media.
- Set it up at a place where the traffic is high, like, the homepage of your website, bio, blog and social media.
- Offer a small free service in exchange for their emails.
This makes sense right? These people who'll sign-up or give you their email addresses are your target audience. They have similar interests as what you're offering to them. And so, this is an effective way to build your email list.
2. Email Type
Now that you've learnt how to build an email list, what are you going to send them to be connected to them?
It depends on the business you do. Every business have different perspectives and services to offer. But every business can follow the listed ways of being connected to their audiences.
- Share monthly newsletters with your subscribers updating them about updates, products, services and upcoming events. Other than newsletters you can:
- Send promotional emails ( for offers and sales)
Seasonal emails (holidays and events news)
- Personalized emails ( educating them, sharing discounts and coupons)
- Transactional (receipts of ecommerce and appointment bookings)
These are going to keep you audience engaged as well as interested when they'll get benefitted from you.
3. Designing Emails And Content
Before creating any content or design, always keep one thing in mind “your audience decides yor growths”. So, all that you craft, it should be for your audience.
- Email Design
Designing emails used to be a complex task but thanks to technology; there are tools that offer easy designing of emails. Even unskilled people can use this tool and design. Or say, this tool was made of unskilled people to effortlessly design their emails.
Now that you've known the tool, be sure to not spend tons of time just to design. The tool was to made to save your time. Be basic and true to your personality.
What matters is that your audience feels familiar and relatable to you.
Also, add CTA, Call To Action, to actually encourage your audience to make a move. You can ask them to
- Read a blog post of yours
- Browse for some product or service
- Purchase something you offer
- Download a newsletter or an ebook
But make sure to just as one CTA, or it'll confuse you audience and make them procrastinate.
- Email Content
First thing first, your content is for audience. Things to take care of -
- Write what your audience wants to listen from you
- Give them solutions to their problems i.e., provide them value
- Keep your audience engaged with what their interests are in
- Instead of mass emails sending strategy, try sending emails to smaller groups of people with similar interests.
This way, you're actually on the same page as you audience is. They feel connected, and cared.
4. Hit Send And Analyze!
After you've done all of the steps above, what are you waiting for? Hit Send!
But hitting send isn't the last step. After you've sent the emails, trach your performance. Keep records of all the click rates, open rates and even the unopened mails. This will help you do learn from your mistake, if you did any, and become better.
That's all, keep going, keep growing!
This isn't the end fortunately. ;)
We've got some extra tips to boost your regular email marketing strategies. Stay and find out!
9 Tips For Small Business Email Marketing Campaign
Just doing the same things over and over again would be quite boring, right? Let's spice things up a bit. There are more of what you should do apart from just sending the emails -
- Quality Over Quantity
At this time, every second post, email, webpage content you see is made with the help of AI. Well, AI can be of great use when given commands in the right way. But if, your commands are generic, you content would be dull. And people are tired of it.
It doesn't matter if you're using AI to create content for emails or not, make sure to provide value. Your audience actually wants some true content. Or next time you send a general email, they're going to unsubscribe you.
2. Embed the Sign-up Form
This is a small tip but quite powerful. Embed your sign-up form instead of putting up a link on your website or blog or social media.
Personally, I wouldn't click on a link just to sign-up for some website. But if I get it embedded, which means, if t can sign up without going to a different page, I'm surely signing up!
We're all part of our audience. We should think like them, and act like them. And then only, we're going to be relatable to them.
3. Encourage Sign-up
Just putting up the form on platforms won't do any help. You need to encourage people to sign-up!
Have friends? Hit them up with a text to sign-up. Take their help and make their known people sign-up. Posting on social media? Put a link and caption, encouraging others to sign-up. Posting a blog? Mention the sign up link.
If you want to grow your business, you'll have to put efforts calling your audience.
4. Mobile Friendly Templates
We all have mobile phones in our hands. We aren't taking our laptops and desktops everywhere.
Whenever our audiences is free, or have a break in their day, they scroll. Where? Emails, messages, chats, social media.
Here, you're sending emails. Make sure your email templates are mobile friendly. Make sure they're easy to read and handle.
Difficult and pain to eyes type of things are often ignored and unsubscribed.
5. Keep A Different List Of Your Regular Customers
You're building your email lists. You're engaging with your audience. You're even offering them discounts and value through your content. But, the people who've been with you since start and have been regular, they deserve something special.
Keep them in a different list. Give them special treatment. They deserve offers and discounts that are just for them.
6. Automated Messages
You'll be sending newsletters to your audience regularly.
But imagine, someone comes to you directly and says, “content marketing is great, hire me, I'm a content marketer”. Awkward right?
So just image, if you send an regular email directly to your new subscribers how'd they feel.
Switch to automated messages. What it does it, whenever a new subscriber is added to the list, they get a welcome message. A welcome message introduces you to them, it tells about your services, how you'll be helping them and what they can expect from you in the future.
This helps building trust from start and keeping them interested in you.
7. Make It Easy For Your Visually Impaired Audience
Ever heard less words have greater meanings? Well, it's true. Not all your audience is same.
Consider your audience that's visually impaired. How can you help them in making it easy to be in touch with you?
- Create easy templates and content.
- Take help of simplified and meaningful images.
- Use less words.
- Use fonts, colours and size that's easy for them to read
- Use alt texts.
Giving value to your audience shows how much you care about them. And after all, they're helping you grow your business right?
8. Keep Up With The Promise
How did you make people sign-up? Did some black magic? Oh, no. I promised them a monthly newsletter.
Well, this was just an example, but you would've too offered and promised them something to sign-up, didn't you?
Believe, the most important thing is trust. Keep up with your promise, don't break their trust.
You're going to have the most loyal and trustworthy costumers.
9. Test Your Emails
Will I be posting this content without checking it's grammar and plagiarism and relevancy report? Oh, of course not.
Similarly, before hitting send, test your emails once.
There are online tools that help you check how effective your emails are. Use A/B testing. They're true help.
Conclusion
All the strategies and tips we provided will help you grow your small business into a great one. Email marketing seems difficult but once you're in it and knows the strategies, it's as simple as quick noodles. Just heat up the pan, put water, ingredients and stir. It's ready!
Be regular with your audience and keep their trust. Almost everyone breaks their trust be sure to not be among them. keep them happy, and they'll keep you happy!
