As small business owners, it’s important that we investigate every tool at our disposal to promote our businesses. Yes, there are powerful new technologies being invented and released every day. However, this doesn’t mean that we should overlook classic digital marketing strategies such as email marketing.
After all, 79% of digital marketers report email marketing being their most effective channel for generating new and repeat business.
Digital marketers recognize a variety of reasons to implement email marketing as an important component to an overall marketing strategy. Moreover, there is tremendous opportunity with this form of marketing because nearly everybody has an email address. Currently, there are 4.3 billion active email users, and the number continues to rise every day.
With regards to digital marketing strategies, current data shows that email marketing has the best ROI a business owner can find. In 2019, the average ROI of email marketing was $42 for every $1 spent!
Ultimately, email marketing is tremendously popular and effective because it’s available to everybody, from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies.
Albeit, everybody understands how to use email, there are some aspects of email marketing that are particular to small businesses. Below are various email marketing tips for small business owners.
1. Write Better Email Subject Headlines
As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. As such, your email’s subject line is a chance to make an impression on your reader while steering them towards the next action—opening the email.
There are many different ways you can start to improve your email subject lines. For starters, you should stick to the point, even if you’re tempted to get cute and creative. The email provider Mailchimp conducted a study proving that simple, straightforward subject lines perform better than complicated ones.
However, straightforward doesn’t have to mean boring. Humorous headlines can be a breath of fresh air in a dry, stuffy inbox. Be careful with this approach because humor can be subjective; each person’s sense of humor is unique. Do your audience research to ensure you tailor your emails to each specific audience.
2. Segment Your Audience
Studies from email marketing leader, Mailchimp, show that email marketing that has been segmented by audience gets 14.37% more opens along with a 64.78% higher clickthrough rate. Audience segmentation allows you to customize your marketing emails for different demographics, which is one of the main reasons that email marketing is so powerful.
Be mindful that audience segmentation is an artform in-and-of-itself. There’s a wide array of ways you can divide your audience. Dividing your audience by demographic is the most common but it’s certainly not the only approach.
Consider using a survey or quiz to segment your audience. This approach is similar to other content marketing strategies such as marketing funnels and landing pages. Yet it’s important to note that quizzes and surveys have the additional benefit of being entertaining if they’re handled in a thoughtful and creative way.
Engagement rate is also an effective way to segment your audience. This model of segmentation is also relatively easy to implement as open and click through rates are measured by nearly every email marketing platform. The metrics offered from engagement rate illustrates email marketing’s potential above and beyond more traditional marketing strategies.
The buyer’s cycle has grown intensely longer and more convoluted with the advent of the internet. As a result, all digital marketing needs to be undertaken in a thoughtful way. Trying to get a customer to make a purchase when they’re still in the research stage of the buyer’s cycle can be a crucial mistake, alienating your customers when you’re simply trying to build a relationship.
Email marketing combined with a content marketing strategy presents an opportunity to actually make your customers look forward to your marketing!
3. Try, Try Again
One of the joys of digital marketing is the ability to easily re-use your digital content. Do you write a blog post and just share it on your social media? If so, you’re missing out on a critical touchpoint involved in a marketing relationship with customers who often take at least 7 forms of communication before they convert.
In email marketing, many will utilize the double open strategy. The double open strategy simply means re-sending a sales or marketing email again with a different subject line.
The double open strategy can be handled in a number of ways. For example, you might try repackaging your email for different audience. On the other hand, you might change the tone of the subject line. Or you may consider using a lighthearted subject to capture the attention of a younger audience. Whereas, appealing to logic and reason is an easy way to reach more business-minded individuals.
An important component of your email marketing strategy that you shouldn’t dismiss is the time you send your emails by staggering the times you send out your communications. Perhaps you sent your initial batch at 9 a.m. to reach your professional audience first thing in the morning while they’re drinking their coffee. What if that’s not the time when they make their business decisions, though? Do your research, use A/B testing, then look at the analytics to figure out when your target audience is most open to engaging with your email.
4. Focus on Copywriting
Email marketing can be thought of as a simple way to communicate the other components of your overall digital marketing strategy. As a business owner, or marketer, you’ll need to be at least comfortable, if not proficient, with each element of your digital marketing strategy if you want your email marketing to perform successfully.
Yes, writing attention-grabbing subject lines is necessary if you want your email marketing to be successful. However, focusing too much energy on headlines and not enough on your content is the equivalent of writing click-bait.
With all of your email communications, be sure that there is both substance and style to your marketing messages. Otherwise, there’s nothing to entice your audience to perform the call-to-action (CTA) you’re hoping for.
Spend some time developing your copywriting skills. Accordingly, learn about how formatting can influence a reader’s mentality. Moreover, spend time on grammar to learn how things like active vs. passive voice can help lead to higher conversions.
Fundamentally, email marketing is an incredibly powerful tool when you know what you’re doing. It combines the best of content marketing, social media marketing, and direct advertisement when handled correctly as a part of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.
Want More Email Marketing Tips?
Promoting your business online is a vast and ever-changing discipline. There are so many different approaches, tools, and strategies. Taking the time to master them all yields incredible dividends, though.
Whether you’re looking for email marketing tips or how to master social media marketing, we are here to help guide you through your digital marketing journey. Contact us today and let us know how we can help you achieve your business goals and dreams!
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