Connect With Your Audience With These Email Marketing Tips For Small Businesses

There was a moment there where markets were saying email was dead. Boy were they wrong. (They must have just been lacking our bold email marketing tips for their small business!) By the end of 2019, 2.9 million people will be using email worldwide. Email marketing is a personal way to reach your target customers. It can be tailored to customer actions so that every email is relevant to their interests. So let’s get to some email marketing tips for small businesses.

11 Newsletter and Email Marketing Tips For Small Businesses

Email is a great content vehicle to reach customers when you have a limited marketing budget. By adding email marketing to the list of digital tactics, your business will be able to improve their reach and visibility, allowing you to engage and convert more potential subscribers.

How will you take advantage of this sea of potential customers this year? Through a killer email marketing strategy of course.

 

1. Review Your List and Audit Your Processes

How do people sign up for your email list? Before you can update your email marketing strategy, you should assess where your business currently stands.

Ask yourself:

• How many subscribers do I have?
• By how many subscribers (or what percentage) did I grow my email list in the last quarter?
• How would I like to grow in the next quarter?
• In what ways can people currently opt-in?

After you’ve answered these questions, it’s time to figure out how people access your newsletter. Offer website visitors something valuable so they feel like they’re getting the better deal when they sign up for your newsletter. This could be a great discount, a helpful guide, a free webinar, or something that draws them in and makes them want more. (A free course on how to find certified organic pet food for 50% off? Yes, please!).

Make it easy for users to sign up for your newsletter and the sign-up form noticeable. Start experimenting with different locations and new call-to-actions. This will draw new visitors to your website and will bring new subscribers to your newsletter. 

 

2. Welcome New Subscribers

Give a warm welcome full of branded hospitality to your new subscribers. They chose to receive your emails because they found your brand interesting. So when sending out welcome emails, be sure to send messages based on their interests and buyer behavior (this is where email marketing, web analytics, and social media market analysis intersect).

You might even send new subscribers a thank you “gift” right off the bat. A free downloadable, a coupon, a welcome video, or any exclusive content that seems fit work well. Let your emails show your brand has game.

 

3. Be Direct and Authentic

When subscribers interact with your brand, they’re engaging with you … on purpose! Create emails that are direct, authentic, and keep them engaging. Whether you plan to send your subscribers company updates, daily deals, or weekly tips, it’s essential to let your readers know what to expect from your emails.

Remember, email marketing is another avenue for sharing your content and conveying your brand values and “why”. Be mindful about balancing promotional content with educational and entertainment branded content. Customers subscribed to your emails because they relate to your brand.

 

4. Keep It Brief and Skimmable

Busy people (all of us!) receive A LOT of emails every single day and may not have the time to give your company their undivided attention. By the end of 2019, we can expect to see 2.9 billion worldwide email users. Out of those billions of email users, on average, office workers receive 121 emails per day. If you are not providing value to your emails, it will be hard to set your business apart from the pack.

Instead of slapping them between the eyes with a huge block of text, break your content up into short paragraphs (take a note from designers: the more white space, the better).

Design your emails to match your brand’s look and feel. Include subheadings, gifs, interactive elements, and images to guide readers through your email and make it easier to skim. If your emails are consistent with your company’s brand, then readers will feel connected to your brand’s story.

 

5. Segment Your Audience For Personalized Content

If you want to succeed with email marketing, you can no longer send the same email to your whole list. Personalization is everything! Your audience is 75% more likely to click on emails if they’ve been segmented compared to non-segmented campaigns.

When emails are tailored to your recipients’ interests and needs, they’re more likely to resonate with that segment of your audience. Those segments are already more likely to purchase what you have based on their interest, which will lead to more conversations. You may also segment your email list based on where your customers are in the buyer’s journey. This will help you provide your customers with content that interests them.

Categorize your emails using an email marketing software. Email marketing software has “tags”, drip campaigns, and triggers to help you organize your lists and create meaningful content for your sub-audiences.

For example, if you own a pet shop, you might want to tag dog and cat owners. You can then go further and tag dog owners with big dogs, dog owners with puppies, and so on. Now you will be able to send dog food promotions only to the dog owners.

The more you organize your email lists based on personalization tags, the more relevant you will be to that audience and they will stick around to hear what you have to offer.

 

6. Repurpose Your Content

Are you struggling to create new content? Repurposing content is a little-known secret that keeps driving traffic to your site.

Great content drives traffic to your website and strengthens your brand’s reputation. But you don’t need to start from scratch every time — use what you’ve got. When repurposing content, be mindful of only sending content to lists that actually want it.

Email marketing software can help you segment based on e-commerce history, clicking behavior, and any other activity that may occur.

For example, if you are a skincare brand and you have lists for each of your product lines (anti-aging, acne, environmental protection) then you will want to send relevant anti-aging content to the anti-aging group, and the acne content to the acne group.

When repurposing content and sending emails to your lists, make sure to pay attention to spam rules.

 

7. Pay Attention to Spam Rules

You may be sending spam without evening knowing it. While your business may know how to set up, format and schedule promotional emails, you might not be familiar with the federal compliance guidelines that are in place to protect the consumer.

For example, if you collected a bunch of emails at a speaking engagement, you can’t send emails unless you directly communicated your intention to do so when subscribers provided their email.

Make sure to read up on the latest CAN-SPAM act to avoid sending spam to your subscribers.

 

8. Create Shareable Content

Content can make or break a brand. Great content helps your business connect with your audience, build positive brand associations, and increase revenue for your company. But even great content must be shared to be seen. Create shareable content that inspires, entertains, or educates subscribers in creative ways.

Here are a few examples of shareable content:

• Infographics
• Social media links to your newsletter
• Webinars
• Videos
• Podcast Episodes

Make it easy to share your content. It’s a lot to ask for people to forward your email. Add social media icons to your emails for easy sharing. You can also repurpose content from your emails onto other platforms.

 

9. Delegate Tasks to AI

AI is your friend! Update your email marketing strategies with AI-bots and automated software.

AI helps to:

• • • Understand how customers engage with your content
    • Show you how to personalize content
    • Analyze customer behavior to better predict when they may unsubscribe
    • Create a better experience for customers while taking some of the load off your shoulders

AI is in huge demand and there are plenty of opportunities to incorporate AI into your email marketing strategy. Tools are used to analyze data and personalize campaigns based on subscribers behavior and interests. Artificial intelligence can even provide the best offers for each user, create an email sequence, and even choose the best subject lines!

 

10. Optimize Design For Mobile Viewing

What happens to your email campaigns when they are read on a mobile device? Are they properly formatted? Poor mobile email formatting is the number one reason people close out of your email or unsubscribe.

Think about your own experience when you encounter an email that doesn’t display properly on your mobile device. Instead of putting your reader through this experience, you can create mobile-friendly emails that display properly on any device.

Work with your web designer or content marketing team to make sure your site is ready to go for all mobile devices.

 

11. Experiment, Test, and Measure Success

There’s no guarantee your first idea will be the best one. A mobile responsive website design displays your content properly no matter how someone views your website, and you can ensure that the emails you send look great as well. Experiment with testing to see what design, copywriting, and other elements convert more customers. MailChimp is a great email marketing software known for its A/B email testing. Send two emails out to see which design and copy combo works better.  

Let’s Talk Email Marketing For Your Small Business!

Hope you enjoyed these email marketing tips for small businesses!

Need some help and ready to update your email marketing strategy for 2019? Bareknuckle is well-versed in crafting wildly creative emails that convert. Grab a beer with us to see if we’re a match.