When it comes to small businesses, no marketing tool kit is complete without a good email marketing strategy. Many small business owners might be hesitant to implement this strategy because they’re afraid of being just another email in someone’s junk folder. While this is a valid concern, it’s important to understand why email marketing is so effective and how you can use it to your advantage. 

Why Use Email Marketing?

Unlike other marketing strategies that involve casting a wide net and hoping for the desired result, email marketing you to communicate directly with your target audience. These are just a few of the benefits that you can expect from a good email marketing campaign…

• More Long Term Customers- Email marketing allows you to keep your customers connected to everything new and exciting that happens with your business. Fostering these relationships will help you build a base of loyal customers over a longer period of time.

• Increased Brand Awareness- Having a consistent stream of communication between you and your customers will increase their awareness of your brand with every email you send. This allows you to remain at the top of their mind even when they aren’t logging into social media, searching on Google or passing by your brick-and-mortar store.

• Get Results Without Breaking the Bank- Email campaigns are significantly more cost-effective than other advertising options. Most email campaign platforms will allow you to easily assess the success of your strategy with built-in metrics, split testing, and more.

How To Do It Effectively?

Like anything else, the success of your email campaign really comes down to how strong your strategy is and whether or not you are adjusting it based on your results. There are a few best practices that you should keep in mind to improve the performance of your next email campaign. 

• Avoid Generic Emails-Nobody likes a pointless email. Make sure that every email in your campaign has a clear purpose and concludes with a direct call to action statement.

• Make It Easy- When you first launch your campaign, you’ll quickly funnel out those who are or aren’t interested in your message with the option to either subscribe or unsubscribe. This is a good thing because it allows you to further narrow down your target audience. Make sure your subscribe/unsubscribe feature is clear and easy to use.

• Optimize for Mobile Use- Did you know that almost 66% of emails are now opened on a mobile device? That makes it imperative to ensure that all of your emails are designed to look just as good on a phone screen as they would on a computer.

• Watch Your Metrics- Marketing is a metrics game and email campaigns are no different. You should be regularly checking your email performance and making adjustments based on what is or isn’t working.

Conclusion

If you aren’t already using an email marketing strategy for your small business, you could be missing out on a huge opportunity for improved customer loyalty, increased brand awareness and so much more. Add these tips to your marketing tool kit to help your small business grow.