Key takeaways
- Email marketing stays cost‑effective for small businesses and can deliver strong returns on a small budget.
- Make it easy to subscribe: place sign‑up links in social posts, on your blog and homepage and in multiple locations.
- Send a welcome email that thanks new subscribers, sets expectations and outlines your sending schedule.
- Keep emails short and scannable: save longer or more complex content for your website.
- Stick to a consistent sending schedule to maintain momentum and meet subscriber expectations.
- Prepare canned responses or templates for common subscriber questions to save time and stay responsive.
Introduction
While “trendy” marketing tends to skew towards social media and user generated content platforms, email marketing remains a great way for businesses to reach out to their customers. This is especially true of small businesses, where the budget is often tight and big returns on any investment are necessities. When it comes to small businesses, there are a few things that can be done to help ensure a successful campaign. Let’s take a look at how small businesses can create the best marketing campaign possible using email marketing.
Easy to Subscribe
The first thing small businesses should do is ensure that it’s easy to subscribe to their campaign. This will likely mean different things for different brands and industries. Some companies might spend a lot of time promoting on social media, for example. In this instance, placing a subscription link in a Facebook post or a tweet would be an easy way for their followers to sign up for the campaign. Even beyond that, however, it’s important to have a link at places like a blog or a homepage on the company website. It’s okay to have links in multiple places! You want people to be able to subscribe when the fancy strikes – and if they have to go hunting to figure out how to do so, it’s entirely possible they’ll lose interest and you’ll miss your chance.
Welcome Subscribers
Welcome emails are so important! I know it might not seem like they’re necessary – after all, subscribers knew what they were signing up for when they clicked the “subscribe now” link – but I assure that they are. In fact, welcome emails are one of the most important tools that you can use in your email marketing campaign. Take your time to welcome new subscribers and give them an idea of what they can expect. Fill them in on your schedule and when they should be on the look out for emails. Thank them for taking the time to sign up and read your emails, and overall just make them feel like they made the right choice to subscribe to your email list.
Quick Reading
While it’s true that people signing up for your email campaign did so knowing they would be receiving emails to read, it’s a good idea to assume that you don’t have their undivided attention. After all, society today is filled with distractions and activities, and users can check their email from almost anywhere. If your subscribers are checking their email in the car, for example, do you want to have a long, drawn-out piece or a quick bit of text that’s scannable by readers? Shoot for easy to digest topics and writing structure. If you have a great idea for a more complicated piece, consider creating an eBook and offering it on your website instead of sending it out in email form.
Keep Up the Momentum
It’s easy to pull together a few emails. What’s harder – much harder, sometimes – is finding the motivation to keep creating interesting and valuable new emails a few weeks into your campaign. It’s important to keep up your momentum, however, and stick to a schedule. Once you’ve set your schedule and started sending out emails, don’t stray! People like structure, and they like to know when they can expect to hear from you. Don’t keep them waiting!
Stay in Communication
Once you’ve started your email campaign, it’s likely that you’ll receive some responses or queries. Do you have emails read to go for some common questions you might anticipate? Small business owners don’t have much time – in fact, they tend to be swamped with a million different tasks a minute. That’s why you should take the minimal amount of time it takes to type up a quick email template or select one in your email marketing program for common questions or concerns you think customers might have. Doing so will help you stay in touch with readers, which is always good. Even more importantly, however, taking the time to create or designate set responses for certain questions will save you an incredible amount of time in the future. Instead of answering the same question over and over, you can quickly respond with a well thought out email with the click of the mouse.
Email marketing can be an incredible boon for small businesses. It’s cost effective and extremely efficient, and requires only a small amount of time to keep going. Follow the tips above to create a dynamic email campaign that will suit your readers’ needs and keep them coming back for more!
FAQ
Email marketing is cost‑effective and efficient for small businesses, requiring relatively little time while offering the potential for strong returns on a small budget.
Place subscription links in multiple obvious places people already visit. For example, social posts (a Facebook post or a tweet), your blog and your homepage, so visitors can sign up whenever the fancy strikes.
Welcome subscribers, thank them for signing up, explain what they can expect from your emails and outline your sending schedule so they know when to look out for messages.
Keep emails short and scannable because subscribers may not have undivided attention. If you have more complex or lengthy content, offer it as an eBook or on your website instead of emailing the full piece.
Set a sending schedule and stick to it. Maintaining that schedule helps preserve momentum, meets subscriber expectations and prevents you from losing audience interest.
Prepare quick email templates or select canned responses in your email marketing tool for anticipated questions. Using them saves time and helps you stay in touch promptly.
Yes. You should add links in several locations, such as social posts, blog pages and the homepage, so people can sign up whenever they choose without having to hunt for the option.
