Getting your email marketing for your small business up and running is a huge accomplishment for your small business, but your email journey doesn’t stop there. You need to move beyond the basics if you want to see amazing results from your email campaigns.
What do you need to do in order to expand your small business’ email marketing strategy?
We’ve compiled the ultimate guide to email marketing for small businesses. This guide goes beyond the basics and shows you how other companies are successfully implementing next-level marketing concepts.
Email marketing for small businesses: Next-level concepts you need to know
If you want to take your email marketing strategy to the next level, you need next-level practices.
Start adding these tips to your campaigns, and you’ll start to notice massive improvements with each email you send.
Your subject lines are invaluable
The email subject line is the first impression you get to make with your audience. To avoid wasting your valuable time and effort, it’s vital to your marketing campaign that you spend time finding the best subject line so your emails actually get opened and read by your audience. There are a couple of ways you can go about doing this.
First, write multiple headline options for your email. As many content marketers will tell you, the first idea you come up with, whether it’s an email subject line or a blog post headline, is usually not the best. This exercise will help you weed through poor-quality subject lines so you can choose the very best one. Next, run your top option(s) through an email subject line analyzer, like the one from CoSchedule. The analyzer will tell you where your subject line needs work so you can tweak it to create one that’s truly outstanding. Finally, try some A/B testing through your email service provider like Campaign Monitor. A/B testing and segmentation are some of the benefits of email marketing services, so make sure you use them.
Testing out multiple headlines on your list will show you what types of subject lines work best for your audience, thereby improving your open rate.
Your preview text is almost as important as your subject line
You get a second chance to interest subscribers with the preview text—also known as preheader text—which can be just as important as your email subject line. Spend some time thinking through your preheader text to make sure it helps your email shine.
Like your subject line, your preview text should grab your readers’ attention. Therefore, it should be short and to the point. Preview text that conveys a sense of urgency can also increase the likelihood of getting your emails opened.
You can also do some A/B testing with your preview text. If some of your emails didn’t get the open rate you were expecting, try changing the preview text and re-sending the emails. In many cases, this small change can turn a campaign around.
Closely monitor email deliverability to avoid the spam folder
Email marketing for small businesses can be a rewarding endeavour. However, if your emails end up in your subscribers’ spam folders, you may feel that your efforts were wasted.
Email clients are doing all they can to protect their customers from getting junk email. We all appreciate these efforts when we open our email every day. It’s another story when you’ve worked hard crafting a phenomenal marketing email and certain email clients send it to the spam folder.
Thankfully, there are steps you can take to reduce the chances that email service providers tag your email as junk.
- Avoid purchasing email lists. These lists can ruin your reputation.
- If you add links to your emails, make sure they lead where they say they will.
- Make sure you send emails regularly. Infrequent emails look suspicious to spam filters.
- Protect yourself by utilizing the double opt-in
A lot of marketers prefer to use the single opt-in option when they’re growing their email lists. Perhaps they’ve heard that the double opt-in option leads to fewer subscribers or maybe they feel annoyed every time they subscribe to an email only to receive a notification that they have to complete one more step to confirm their subscription.
Whatever the case may be, the fact is that avoiding the double opt-in can actually put you at risk of fake subscribers, which can come from competitors or hackers. Your email list will fill up, and that looks great on paper, but the reality is that your emails may not be going anywhere.
The average open rate of commercial emails is anywhere from 18-25%, and unsubscribe rates are typically around .25-.50%, according to MarketingProfs. While no one likes to be ignored or to see subscribers go, it happens.
Why sending a welcome email is so important
While you may be tempted to simply add new subscribers to your email list and not send them anything until your next email goes out, this can be a big mistake and a lost opportunity.
In fact, as soon as a new subscriber signs up, you should send them a welcome email thanking them for opting into your list. If you’re not convinced, consider these stats: Welcome emails get 320% more revenue than promotional emails, an 86% lift in the unique open rate, and a 196% lift in the unique click rate, according to Entrepreneur.
One reason these stats are so impressive is that when someone signs up for your list, your business is top of mind. When you send them a welcome email right away, you have the opportunity to engage them with compelling content and offers.
2 Tips for creating an effective welcome email
Now that you’ve seen an example of a great welcome email, use the following tips to create one.
- Highlight the value of subscribing in the signup form
While this step comes before you ever create and send your welcome email, it’s an important part of the process.
In order to solidify subscriptions, it’s vital to let subscribers know exactly what they’ll be getting when they sign up. Will they receive helpful content each week? What about promotions and coupons? Whatever you offer, make sure to let potential subscribers know in the opt-in form as keeping them engaged starts with setting the right expectations.
- Don’t stop after just one email
Once you’ve engaged your audience with the initial email, keep the momentum going with a drip series of helpful content. Don’t fall in a funk and not engage with your audience – get out this guide to help you stay on top of building your community. Your first sequence will not be your last. Keep the ball moving and develop more ways for client to join your journey. You can see more about welcome email sequences here.
Recap:
- Your subject lines are invaluable
- Your preview text is almost as important as your subject line
- Closely monitor email deliverability to avoid the spam folder
- Highlight the value of subscribing in the signup form
- Don’t stop after just one email
