If you’re a small business owner, you probably often juggle multiple hats. Unfortunately, the marketing hat can often fall by the wayside in favor of other items on your to-do list. The good news is that you’re not alone.
Roughly 73% of business owners aren’t sure their marketing is working. The bad news is it may be time to change things up. A great way to breathe life into your marketing strategy is to focus your efforts on email marketing.
It’s a cost-effective method that can offer powerful results. Keep reading for our simplified guide to understanding and implementing an email marketing strategy.
What Is Email Marketing?
In a nutshell, it’s the way you connect with your customers via email, by delivering your marketing messages directly to their inbox. Through email marketing, you can share promos and updates, and more importantly, build relationships with your audience without breaking the bank running high-cost ads.
And unlike the fickle love of social media, there are no algorithms deciding who sees your content. Essentially, you control your audience and the messages they receive from you.
Why Your Small Biz Should Care About Email Marketing
- Excellent ROI: According to Litmus, you can expect a return of $36 for every $1 you spend.
- Connect Direct: Instead of competing for attention on social media, your emails go directly to your readers. Provided they don’t get marked as SPAM, of course. Side note… don’t SPAM.
- Personalized Messaging: Depending on the email client you use, you can tailor your messaging. Drill down by purchase history, behavior, preferences, and more!
Outline of a Successful Email Marketing Strategy
We’re not talking about popping off the occasional newsletter here. Consistency is the name of this game, and building a successful strategy means creating a consistent presence in your customers’ inboxes with emails they love to open.
How to do it:
- Set a Clear Goal– Don’t hit send until you know what it is. Maybe you want to drive sales for a particular product, get them engaged on social media, create buzz and drive traffic… know your goal.
- Ensure Your Email List is Clean– Your list needs to be made up of folks that actually want to hear from you. Don’t buy cold lists of people who have never heard of you. Use double opt-in, build your list organically, and use your email client to help you segment and message them effectively.
- Create Engaging Content- Short, visually appealing emails are efficient. Keep them focused on things your audience cares about and offer value. This might be deals, tips, behind-the-scenes peeks, or something else. You know your audience best.
- Commit to a Consistent Schedule- Commit to a regular send schedule, but don’t go overboard. Typically, weekly or biweekly can work well for a small business with a small to medium-sized list.
- Include a CTA in Every Email– Circling back to your goal, your email needs a purpose with a clear call to action to get them to execute the purpose. If you want them to click a link, say so. If you want them to visit the store, put that instead. They may need to redeem a code to get a discount. Whatever your CTA, it needs to be clear and easy to do.
How About Those Drip Campaigns?
You may have heard of a drip campaign. Essentially, it’s a series of pre-created emails that go out automatically based on triggers or actions you set up ahead of time. It’s kind of like a set-it-and-forget-it thing to keep customers engaged.
Most Common Types of Drip Campaigns:
- A Welcome Series: Just what it sounds like. You send new subscribers a set of emails that welcome them to your newsletter and introduce them to what you do and what you have to offer.
- An Abandoned Cart Series: This is used to give customers who might have added items to their shopping cart but didn’t follow through on a purchase a gentle nudge to buy.
- A Post-Purchase Follow-Up: Essentially an appreciation message that offers customers a thank you when they purchase, and points out items or services they might like that are complementary.
- Drip campaigns can be a simple and incredibly useful method of sending relevant, timely messages to your audience without your constant participation or oversight.
When Should You Use a Drip Campaign?
You will find a drip campaign useful at pretty much any stage, but sometimes they are especially helpful, including:
- When You’re Relationship Building– Want to make a great first impression to your subscribers? Create a relevant welcome series.
- When Driving Sales- You can use an abandoned cart series to remind customers of items they might have forgotten they had an interest in and recover lost revenue as a result.
- When Nurturing Your Leads- Drip campaigns help keep your biz top of mind for your customers who may be engaged in a longer sales cycle.
- When Your Time is Short- Drip campaigns are time savers. You get to automate pieces of your business and free up that time to focus on other things.
Email Marketing Simply Works
Because email marketing is efficient, scalable, and trackable, it’s valuable for small businesses struggling with marketing due to time or budget constraints. You can start small, grow as you go, and reach hundreds or thousands of customers by working smarter instead of harder.
Track your results and adjust accordingly. Plus, with the right tools, getting started and connecting with your audience is relatively easy. The reality is that your customers are already checking email every single day.
Your job is to make sure they find YOU when they do.
Ready to make a plan that works? We’re here to help.
