Email marketing should be an essential part of any small business’s online marketing strategy. Not only does it allow you to market to a wide audience, but it also offers several benefits over other digital marketing channels such as Facebook and Google AdWords that are well worth the effort involved in setting up email marketing campaigns and sending out regular emails to your subscribers.
Not sure where to start with your email marketing? Here are 5 tips that can help you create an effective email marketing strategy for your small business.
1) Personalize Your Emails
When you’re emailing subscribers, take a few minutes to look up their name. Include it in subject lines and body copy, but be careful not to go overboard—you don’t want them to feel like you’re spamming them.
You should also consider using an email marketing service, such as MailChimp or HubSpot. These will help you set up templates, track open rates and other important metrics, and much more.
The latter even includes social media integration so you can automatically send your subscribers new posts from your company’s Facebook page.
Both services are free for basic accounts, so there’s no reason not to use them!
The Power of Follow-Up: If someone doesn’t respond to your first email blast, send another one two weeks later. This is especially useful if you are trying to connect with influencers who might get hundreds of emails per day.
2) Be Wary of Clickbait Headlines
While it may be tempting to use clickbait headlines to entice people into reading your emails, keep in mind that they’re a sign of desperation.
Do you really want to send desperate-sounding emails? This doesn’t mean you can’t write compelling headlines—just that you should focus on crafting titles that capture your target audience’s attention without relying on cheap tricks.
Also, HubSpot has put together some tips on how to create great email subject lines. Be sure to check them out!
3) Include a Benefit Statement in the Subject Line
Your subject line is critical to getting your email opened and read.
The reason?
Your subscribers are often flooded with dozens of messages every day, so they need a compelling reason to open your message over everything else that’s vying for their attention. Make it easy on them by including a benefit statement in your subject line.
4) Use Data to Personalize Content Based on Behavior
Most email marketing tools allow you to track whether or not users are opening your emails, as well as other actions they take.
Take advantage of these capabilities to ensure that your messages resonate with each segment of your audience. If someone hasn’t opened an email in a while, try sending another one with a new offer.
If he regularly clicks on a certain link in an email, find ways to encourage him to click it again. (For more inspiration, check out what HubSpot, Neil Patel customers are doing on their blogs.)
5) Use Embedded Links in Emails
If you use email marketing to promote your business, you probably know that a major component of most campaigns is sending traffic to a landing page or squeeze page.
If your contact form uses embedded links in emails, you don’t have to remember to add these links to each email individually when it’s time to send out your campaign—you can just send an email with a clickable link straight from MailChimp which I personally use.
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