While internet growth and technological advancement continue to shape the way, businesses market their products today, tech commentators have dismissed an e-mail campaign as a modern marketing tool, deeming the method ineffective. However, contrary to this opinion, e-mail campaigns remain one of the most lucrative digital marketing tools, with a capacity to offer an ROI of up to 4,400%. With over 3.9 billion e-mail users globally, there is no doubt that e-mail marketing may continue to be an outstanding strategy of convincing customers and growing business. The good thing is that e-mail campaigns are not just for the big players in the business world; start-ups and small businesses can also profit from this attractive tool. This article discusses the value of e-mail campaigns as a strategy to develop a small business.
What is the Benefit of an Effective Email Marketing Campaign?
E-mail campaign marketing is defined as a method of sending an email series of messages to existing and potential customers through e-mail to persuade, build loyalty, or sell a product or service. Before starting your email marketing efforts, you should define your email marketing goals to access how effective e-mail marketing campaigns has been; a small business can convert one-time buyers into loyal customers and turn prospects into clients.
What is E-mail Marketing Benefits for Small Businesses
There are plenty of reasons why e-mail campaigns are essential to start-ups and small businesses. Here is a highlight of the benefits that come with e-mail marketing for a small business.
1. Massive Return on Investment (ROI)
For most customers, an e-mail is a preferred platform for communication. As a result, e-mail marketing has become the leading digital marketing strategy as far as ROI is concerned. Today, effective e-mail marketing campaigns have been cited for having the capacity to yield an ROI of as high as 4,400%, according to a report by Campaign Monitor, a software company that provides e-mail solutions to businesses.
2. Brand Development
Growing a brand takes diversified tactics and strategies, and e-mail campaigns are a great way to build and develop your brand. This is because regular e-mails provide you with a direct opportunity to create a unique image, style, and voice for your customers. Every e-mail you send is an excellent way to solidify your brand in the minds of your customers.
3. Enhanced Customer Relationships
Customers are interested in knowing what a business is thinking and doing to make their experience better. They might want to see what you are up to, your next product launch, events, and general news, and e-mail campaigns are the most effective way to go about this. Pursuing this objective via phone messaging or mailouts can be quite costly and time-consuming. Over 99% of e-mail users check their e-mails for updates daily, which is why small businesses should capitalise on this tool.
Unlike Facebook where you never own the list of customers, with e-mail lists you have acquired a valuable asset which can be used over time to generate substantial income for your business
4. Efficient Use of Time and Budget
A small business’s success depends on how well business owners operate within a specified budget and time constraints. Marketing methods and tools that incur high costs might result in expensive campaigns that exceed your budget provisions. Fortunately, with e-mail marketing, you can rest assured of efficient use of resources as stipulated within your time and budget constraints. Designing messages for an e-mail campaign, for example, consumes lesser time and resources compared to sending flyers via mailboxes.
How to Launch a Successful Strategy of Email Marketing for Your Small Business
An e-mail campaign comprises of various moving components. However, this does not make e-mail marketing a complicated process as it may appear. Here is all you need to launch an e-mail campaign for your small business.
Identify an Ideal Email Service Provider
Before you build your e-mail list, you must have an e-mail marketing tool for the process. There are multiple options for e-mail service providers in the market today, and you can always find the right one for your business. The good thing is that you can switch to a new service provider at any phase of business growth and development. However, you might want to consider a well-reviewed e-mail service provider that will meet your business needs. Such factors as pricing, e-mail templates, and editor tools might be fundamental in informing your choice.
The use of email marketing software can improve your campaign. There many providers, I have used for some time are ConvertKit, which is ideal for small business because they have a free account for up to 1000 subscribers and provide landing pages and some automation. Convertkit can provide additional services as your business develops; however, the costs will increase from £0!
Build Your E-mail List
This is quite a critical step for your e-mail marketing campaign, and you must ensure that it is done in the right way. Typically, an e-mail list is built by creating a subscription or signup form placed on online platforms associated with the business, including social media pages and websites. It is essential to know that most are quite sceptical about why and to whom they are giving out their e-mail addresses. Therefore, you must remember to include the objective the e-mail addresses will fulfil when customers issue out their e-mails.
Some more common ways used to build an e-mail list include the following;
• Call to Action (CTAs):- A call to action is a great e-mail marketing strategy when it comes to building your e-mail list. You can include some CTA buttons on your blog posts to encourage your readers (customers) to sign up to your e-mail listing for more updates on a service or product.
• Signup Boxes:– A signup box is non-intrusive. It is a way of encouraging customers to sign up without intruding on their browsing or scouring experience.
• Links:- You can also spread a word on a specific newsletter and issue a link for customers to sign up. This is not as effective as the other strategies, but it also works.
Legal Requirements
You may have come across the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as a legal framework for collecting and processing personal information from individuals who live in the European Union>on your website. You should have a privacy document to explain collecting data and how you use it.
The second is anti-spam, requiring you to have an unsubscribe button at the end of every e-mail you send. With Convertkit this problem is resolved because each e-mail has an unsubscribe button on the footer of every e-mail sent. This is useful because there is little point in sending e-mails to anyone who is no longer interested in your service or products.
Choose the Kind of Email Types You Want to Send
Now that you have initiated building your e-mail list, it is time to choose the e-mail types you wish to send. Today, there are numerous types of e-mails that vary with the products or services you sell and your target audience. Here are some examples of email marketing options to consider;
• E-mail Newsletters:- E-mail newsletters function like digital magazines, which are designed to deliver fun and exciting content on a weekly or monthly basis. They are an excellent way of informing your customers of special events, sales, product launches, and other announcements.
• Promotional E-mails:- These are e-mails designed to increase awareness of your most recent offerings and sales. You must be extra careful when sending promotional e-mails, as too many product links with valuable content can put off both potential and current customers.
• Transactional E-mails:- Transactional e-mails are used to keep your customers updated on their signups and purchases. These e-mails tend to come with very high open rates, as they relay information expected by a significant number of customers. Recent studies indicate that transactional e-mails are likely to yield up to six times more revenue than other e-mail types.
• Dedicated Sends:- These e-mails are forwarded to specific subscribers to drive conversions. They may include messages on anniversaries or birthdays, inactive customers, and loyal clients.
E-mail Content and Designs:-You already have ideas that you wish to share with your customers or subscribers. The next step is to translate these ideas into attractive e-mails that will capture the subscriber’s attention every time they pop into their inbox. To do this, you will need to be well-informed on design creation and content writing skills to remain on top of the game. You might want to consider top-reviewed templates and other writing tools.
Develop a Schedule for Your E-mail Campaigns
Once you have the right e-mail content and designs, you will need to develop a schedule through which your e-mail campaigns will run. This is to help you maintain consistency in your marketing campaigns and stay focused on what you will be doing in the next campaign.
Performance Analysis:- Analysing your e-mail campaigns’ performance is fundamental to help you establish challenges that should be corrected and opportunities to incorporate in your e-mails. There is plenty of e-mail marketing analytics that you can use depending on the type of business you are operating. Some of these metrics include the following.
• Conversion Rate:- This metric indicates sales made relative to the number of e-mails forwarded in a campaign.
• Open Rate:- Open rate is the percentage rate at which e-mails are opened. It is calculated by dividing the e-mails opened by the total number of e-mails sent less bounced e-mails. The average open rate for e-mails is 20.9%, if you are achieving less than this, look at the subject line of the e-mail and contents; modifying these may increase your open rate.
• Bounced Rate:- This measures the total number of undelivered e-mails relative to the total number of e-mails sent. If you manage your list effectively, that is to delete customers who never open your e-mail, your bounce rate should be no more than 2%. Perhaps give them one last chance, by offering a discount on your product, it is worth the effort because they then may become an asset.
To reduce your e-mail bounce rate:-
1. Only use a permission-based e-mail list
2. Continually update your subscribers’ list.
3. As part of the opt-in process verify the e-mail address
4. Have a routine in sending e-mails, not too often
5. Write quality e-mails which provide useful information
• Click-through-Rate
This metric compares the clicked e-mails with the total number of opened e-mails. The average click-through rate is 2.5%
• Unsubscribe Rate
This metric measures the rate at which customers choose to opt-out of your e-mail list; the average is around 0.5%
• Referral Traffic Rate
This is the total number of visits you receive on a website that is derived from your e-mail.
• List Growth Rate
The list growth rate indicates the speed at which your e-mail list is growing. It is calculated by dividing the unsubscribe requests by the total number of e-mails sent.
E-mail Campaign Tips for a Small Business
With the right e-mail marketing strategy, your campaigns can see you remain on top of the competition in e-mail campaigns.
Here are some tips and strategies that you can employ in your campaigns.
1. Go for Quality and Not Quantity
When it comes to e-mail marketing, quality must remain your top priority. Focus on creating content that subscribers are willing to read and instead of sending endless promotional e-mails.
2. Consider a Signup Form Instead of Links
Using an embedded signup form makes it easy for customers to subscribe to your e-mail list. This can see you grow your subscription rate with over significantly over time, and you will have created a significant asset for your business.
3. Mobile-Friendly E-mails
Today, a majority of e-mail users check for updates via phone. Ensure that your e-mail content and design are responsive in various screen types, including desktop, mobile, and tablets.