Anyone can argue that small businesses need email marketing more than anyone else. If you think about it, small businesses must be very cautious about the marketing channels they pick because they have limited resources and budgets. That forces them to adopt cost-effective marketing strategies that can generate significant returns. That’s why email marketing is a perfect fit for them.
Email marketing helps companies communicate their message effectively and build relationships with their customers. It can drive sales at a low cost as well. Email marketing costs 82% of businesses between 0% and 20% of company budgets.
In other words, with email marketing, small businesses can compete with larger companies.
Not convinced? Here are five key benefits of email marketing for small businesses.
1. Generates traffic to the site
Email marketing is a powerful tool for small businesses to promote their websites. With effective email marketing strategies, you can increase your email open rates and click-through rates, resulting in more traffic to your site. The more traffic to your site, the higher the chances for sales.
Just to prove my point, check out the stats below. Although they’re not from a small business site, they show that emails do really well to drive website traffic. As you can see, for the period covered, the number of website visitors thanks to email exceeded 19,000.
But, of course, for subscribers to get to your site, you need a compelling subject line that entices them to open your email in the first place. You also need to personalize your emails to ensure you send relevant content. You can do this by segmenting your email list based on your subscribers’ interests and preferences.
For example, this email from a local salon offers the female subscriber services specifically for women:
Also, include a clear call-to-action in your email that directs readers to your website.
Note, though, that you shouldn’t just stop at directing subscribers to your site. Ensure you have a great website as well. Why?
Assume you have a manufacturing company and you send prospective clients newsletters with valuable product information. So, subscribers do click through to your website. However, when they get there, they find visual clutter and confusing navigation. What do you think will happen? They’ll just up and leave without doing anything. In other words, only when you ensure a well-designed and structured website can you grow your manufacturing business online through sales. For businesses, website visitors become valuable when you can convert them into paying customers.
But don’t just focus on your website design and functionality. Look at your loading speed as well. Use the best web hosting for search engine optimization to ensure your page loads under two seconds, as Google recommends.
2. Increases brand awareness
Email marketing provides an opportunity to showcase your brand’s unique value proposition. It helps you highlight your key differentiators and build a distinct brand identity in the minds of consumers. Additionally, when you send regular emails to subscribers, you can keep your brand top of mind as customers are constantly reminded of your products or services. You can also create a stronger connection with the recipient, further enhancing their recognition and recall of your brand if you use personalized and targeted messaging.
However, for the best results, use branded visuals and consistent design elements throughout your email campaigns. Together with your company logo, the colors, and font styles you use should create a cohesive and recognizable brand identity.
For example, in these ice cream shop email templates, the fonts, tone and overall design are consistent throughout:
So, email subscribers who are bombarded with these emails will automatically associate the design with the brand.
Don’t forget to include your email signature as well.
Email signatures are great at raising brand recognition. Statistics show that 82% of email marketers leverage signatures to do just that.
3. Helps you find quality leads
Around 89% of marketers claim email is their primary lead-generating marketing channel. This shows how powerful email marketing is for generating leads.
How can email marketing help you generate quality leads, you ask? Well, in email marketing, you use lead-generation tactics such as opt-in forms. To ensure your website visitors sign up in the first place, you typically offer an incentive. The incentive can come in the form of guides, discounts, and other things your target audience finds valuable. If you further align this incentive with your product or service offerings, you can generate leads who are likely to pay for your products or services.
Let me explain. Assume you’re selling handcrafted jewelry and to get people to subscribe to your email list, you offer an $10 Amazon gift card. You’d probably get a lot of sign-ups since many people view the gift card as valuable. However, that doesn’t mean they’re also interested in handcrafted jewelry. So, you generated leads, yes, but they’re not qualified. The chances of them buying your product aren’t necessarily high.
Now assume a different scenario. Let’s say your incentive is now a $10 discount on any item in your store. That would ensure those who subscribe to your email list are people you can actually convert into customers. After all, the only people who sign up for a $10 discount on handcrafted jewelry are, well, people interested in those items.
Once you get your qualified leads, your only focus would be to turn them into paying customers. You can do this by, again, delivering personalized content. Provide catchy imagery and videos of your products that will leave a lasting impression on them.
Also, include user-generated content such as testimonials or customer reviews in your emails. UGC adds credibility to your brand and might just be the last nudge your quality leads need to make a purchase.
4. Builds strong relationships with customers
Establishing and maintaining strong customer relationships is one of the other top benefits of email marketing.
Again, email marketing helps you connect with your customers through personalized and targeted messaging. You can deliver added-value content, promotions, and updates your subscribers are interested in directly to their inboxes. That level of personalization helps foster a sense of connection and trust, leading to increased customer loyalty and repeat business.
The thing is, you don’t have to write fresh content every time to maintain a regular conversation with your subscribers. Your business probably already spends a lot of resources on content marketing for your blog and social media channels. You can just repurpose some of these content pieces your subscriber would be interested in based on your customer data, and share them via email.
Additionally, email marketing allows for direct and instant communication, so you can address any inquiries or concerns your customers may have promptly. This can greatly enhance the customer experience and strengthen relationships.
The operative word there, however, is “promptly.” In other words, you can only build strong relationships via email marketing with your customers if you immediately address their issues or questions. Customers expect businesses to reply to their email queries within the day.
5. Provides a higher ROI
Here’s another one of the main benefits of email marketing: It can provide a higher return on investment (ROI) than other marketing channels.
For every $1 invested in email marketing, firms get an average return of $40.
Email marketing can provide a higher ROI due to its cost-effectiveness and ability to personalize. Unlike other forms of marketing, such as print advertisements that are generic, email marketing allows small businesses to reach their target audience with relevant content and product recommendations. Plus, it allows you to build relationships through relevant drip campaigns that can be automated. The result of all these? Increased conversions at a low cost..
Furthermore, email marketing provides businesses with valuable data and insights that can be used to improve future marketing efforts.
By tracking and analyzing metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates at a relatively low cost, businesses can better understand their audience’s preferences and behavior. This data can then be used to refine and optimize future email campaigns, ultimately leading to more effective and successful marketing strategies.
Conclusion
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies for small companies. Without spending that much, small businesses can reap a wide array of benefits that can ensure their growth.
Email marketing can help generate traffic to their site and increase brand awareness. Small businesses can also find quality leads and build strong relationships with their customers via marketing emails. Email marketing, by and large, also offers a higher ROI.
So, as a small business, incorporate email marketing into your marketing mix if you haven’t done so already. You’ll see your business soar to greater heights!
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