5 Simple Email Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

Email marketing is one of the most powerful ways you can engage your customers and build your business. But more often than not it’s easy to get distracted by shiny new marketing tactics or devote 10x more time on your social channels than on email.

But with a sky-high ROI that’s 4x more than that of any marketing channel, email marketing remains King (or Queen) and deserves our full attention.

So, what actually makes a great email? Here are our 5 ways to supercharge your email.

1.      Make it about your subscribers

What do your subscribers want to hear about? Listen to what they are asking of you, whether that’s face to face, in your socials, from the results of a survey or poll (don’t be afraid to ask them!) Then think about how your email can serve them.

• Is your content going to inspire/excite/educate them?

• Are you focussing on the benefits of a new product or service (rather than just ‘selling’ it)?

• Can you leave them wanting more?

• Would YOU be happy to receive this email?

In our previous blog we talked about thinking about your customers as ‘real’ people and not just the next potential sale, which makes writing your content a whole lot easier and more effective.

2.      Keep your emails concise

You have between 8 and 12 seconds to get your messages across (yep, we’ve got the attention span of a goldfish!) so if you want your emails to convert keep them short, to the point and with a clear call to action (remember that bit about leaving them wanting more?)  

For example, share an enticing snippet of your blog before sending them to your website, a landing page or article to read more. If you’ve got a lot to say, then break it up over a few emails, this is especially true if most of your content is read on mobile.

Apply the same rule to your Subject Lines. These are what will help your email stand out in your customers’ inbox so short, catchy lines are the way to go:

• Create a sense of urgency – ‘only 24 hours to go’

• Foster curiosity – ‘are you making these 3 mistakes?’

• Hit them between the eyes with a killer offer – ‘50% discount for the next 5 purchases’

• Make sure your subject line delivers in the email – do not write something purely to get an open as they won’t fall for that trick again!

3.      Make it visually appealing

There are lots of different types of email design. Some are primarily text based, others are full of photos and videos. You may have a mix of both. Whatever approach you’ve chosen, make sure they are all on brand and have a sense of cohesiveness so that every time your customer opens the email they are left in no doubt that it’s from you!

Chunk it up! Readers of emails appreciate content that is broken up into chunks. It helps avoid walls of text, which can appear intimidating or time-consuming and makes skim reading much easier (8-12 seconds people!) Try using:

• Titles and sub-heads

• Images and graphics

• Page breaks/lines

• Call to action buttons

• Bullet points!

Top tip: Email marketing platforms like Flodesk, Mailchimp, Mailerlite all have great templates which help you design beautiful emails.

4.      Keep it personal

When someone subscribes welcome them with an initial ‘Welcome’ email that gives them a chance to really immerse themselves in your brand and tells them (succinctly) what they’ll get from your emails. You might even want to throw in a little surprise offer or gift. To really elevate this welcome email include their name in the subject line – ‘Welcome to XYZ Sammie!’ You can then go on to use their name in the content of your email, making it feel more tailor-made for them.

People are also more likely to trust and relate to an email that comes from another person, as opposed to a business. Using a person’s name in the “from” field is a good place to start.

5.      Test, track and learn

The benefits of using an email marketing platform is that you get some great insights on the emails you send. At a very basic level this includes how many people have opened your emails and what have they clicked on. Even data like this will help you understand your customers more as you can see what’s captured their attention, what products or services they are most interested in – and then you give them more of what they want!

You can even test emails, designing two similar emails but perhaps with different subject lines or one using images vs text. Nothing stays the same so it’s good practise to check in at the end of each month to see what’s working, what isn’t, before you plough your energy into future emails.

Finally, before you SEND an email, make sure you send yourself a test email so you can check everything is working and it looks just as good on mobile as desktop.

BONUS! Here at the Queen Bee hive we LOVE email marketing platform Flodesk. Find out all the reason it could work for you too here. And grab yourself our exclusive discount code to get 50% off your paid subscription in the first year!