Email Marketing For Your Small Business

Worldwide, the number of email users is expected to grow over 4.2 billion by the end of 2022.

Yes, you heard that right, 4.2 billion. Now, more than ever, it’s important to reach your customers directly. The thought of email marketing might make one feel overwhelmed, especially for a small business owner. Email marketing is huge, but taking it step by step allows things to not feel so big. There are just a few important key factors that will take your email marketing to the next level, and today, we’re excited to share them with you! By the end of this blog, you will feel motivated and ready to tackle email marketing.

Emails are a great way to promote your business, find your audience, and create a close relationship with your customers. With the amount of people using email, this marketing strategy can be a way to optimize your time and budget. An email newsletter is sent out to your customers periodically informing them about new products or information that has been released within your business. Further benefits include allowing your customer to stay informed and building your contact list. You may ask yourself, how can my small business benefit from email marketing? There are numerous ways a small business is able to benefit, but finding a way to effectively use your voice and expand your business is most important. It’s crucial that your email campaign focuses directly on your business.

Opening a new location for your boutique? Create an email campaign! Sending out an email campaign will bring awareness to fellow community members on what you’re bringing to town. Want to let your customers know you have scheduling availability for your cleaning company? An email campaign is the perfect way to provide an update. Let your customers know who you are and what you can offer them.

When creating your email campaign, including your brand’s voice is a great way to have customers coming back for more. It’s important to know your identity when thinking about what you’re going to say, how you’re going to say it, and who’s in your target audience. Writing an email for your newly opened bakery? Pull tasty adjectives into your newsletters content to make readers hungry. Use your brand’s voice to reflect your offerings and appeal your product or service to your customers.

There are numerous websites to help one achieve their desired email campaign. Some websites allow many free starter templates such as Stripo, Beefree, and Sendinblue. While others such as Constantcontact, and Mailchimp allow free trials, but ultimately require a subscription payment for advanced features. All of these options offer visually appealing and easy-to-use templates making it easy for you, the business owner, to be successful and reach your desired audience.

So, how do you create an effective email marketing campaign for your business? When creating an email campaign, there are five important components that one must include.

1. Concise but intriguing subject line

2. Proper greeting

3. Essential information only

4. A solid closing

5. Appealing photo

For starters, creating a concise yet intriguing subject line is very important. The first thing that grabs the recipients’ attention is the subject line. The subject line can be used for telling a joke, giving a deadline, or reporting an announcement that relates to your small business. For example, if you’re having a promotion on your candles, be sure to include that within the headline. It’s also important to keep it short and sweet with one to two sentences at a maximum. Having a long introduction could potentially stop the recipient from even checking the message. So, be sure to focus on hooking your audience.

Next in the process is going to be implementing a proper greeting. This doesn’t necessarily need to be anything special, but a “Good afternoon, how’s it going?” is always beneficial in catching the reader’s attention. Not only does a casual greeting encourage the recipient to respond back, it is also allowing the business owner to start that personal connection we are striving for.

The next step is focusing on your writing. Not many recipients will want to read a long paragraph about what you’re sending, so getting right to the point is important. Say things that will help you promote your product, build your brand, and get your message across. Those three things will make your writing successful.

Moving on, it’s important to have a solid closing. Without a solid closing, the email may feel incomplete or make your recipient feel like the conversation hasn’t ended. Not only that, but the closing will allow you to reinstate your message of the email. This may also be a motivating factor into how fast your audience takes the next steps to respond or shop your small business.

Lastly,  we recommend including a few photos in your email. This will be more appealing for readers, especially if you are able to showcase your offerings or business location. For example, If your small business creates a new product and your email is announcing the release, making a graphic or adding a photo of your new product item will catch your reader’s attention.

The benefit received from email marketing comes down to time invested. Email marketing is a great way to build and grow strong relationships with customers, but it’ll take a bit of elbow grease. At the end of the day, it’s important to stay up to date and communicate with your audience as it will lead them to feeling connected to your brand.

To wrap things up, email marketing is here to stay and there are numerous benefits for small business owners. By following this blog and applying the five important components to your email campaign, it should be a relatively stress free job. Email marketing is a great base for starting small businesses as it allows you to effectively communicate your message, and find and create a personal connection with your audience.

For more information or assistance with Email Marketing, contact the Panther Biz Hub at UNI JPEC. The Panther Biz Hub is a student-led program that assists small businesses from across the state with their digital marketing needs, digital education, and overall web presence. To contact the Panther Biz Hub. email [email protected] or visit their webpage.