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In 2018, email marketing is still the most valuable piece of your small business marketing toolkit.
According to an emarketer.com survey, 81% of respondents said email marketing drives customer acquisition with email’s effectiveness for acquisition outperforming organic search at 62% and social media at 44%.
We want you to start getting value out of email marketing, so we’ve made a list of 7 things that you can action right away and by this time next week, you’ll be sending great emails without a fuss!
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Sign people up to your database
Just because someone has come into your store once, doesn’t mean they’ll be back. You can ask them to follow you on social channels, but it would be more valuable would to get them into your email database- a communication channel that you own and control.
We’ve created the perfect sign up form here. Print out some copies and put them onto a clipboard on your counter (with a pen!).
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Start sending emails
Whether you have 10 people or 10,000 people on your mailing list, you need to start sending emails by this time next week. If you choose the right tool, emails don’t need to take hours to build.
It’s important to make the emails look great and get it delivered to your customers inbox.
Open rate and click through rate will tell you how many people viewed your email and clicked through to your website. This is important information to take note of, as you can gauge what content is working and what isn’t with your audiences.
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Boost your list by getting your social followers to sign up
Want to boost your list a little before you start sending? The best way to do this is by following these 3 simple steps:
- create your email;
- talk about it on Instagram; and
- put a link in your bio where your followers can sign up to your list.
Mailchimp and Postie both give their customers forms they can use and easily edit to do this.
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Customers on your email list need some love too
Many people make the mistake of only using email to talk about sales and a s a result get frustrated if their customers start to open their emails less and less.
Lots of people on your email list don’t see your social content and have never been greeted with your smile! If you’re only asking for their money in emails, they’re going to stop listening to you.
That’s why it is important to Inject your personality into your emails. Talk with your customers, share great pictures, show them nice things they can buy, and ask yourself the question, would I genuinely like to get this email?
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Send emails at good times
The technicalities around emails can get confusing, that why it is vital to take the time and reflect on the email being send out and ask the questions like:
- Am I sending something that is going to get stuck in spam filters?
- Is my subject line too long?
- How do I include personalised greetings so my recipients get their name in their emails?
The quick answer to this, is that you need to choose a tool that handles this for you and you’ll never have to worry about it again.
One decision that needs your input is the best time to send your emails. While there are some common rules –
- Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to send emails;
- Saturdays are terrible; etc.
We have identified some of the common trends as;
- Sundays at 8pm is the best time if your audience are young parents; and
- 11:55 am on a weekday is perfect for professionals (whether they open emails at their desk or on their lunch break, your email is right at the top of your inbox).
The truth is that you probably already know the perfect time to talk to your customers and can identify some of their habits by looking at things like:
- What times of the week do your online sales spike?
- Are your customers working in offices or wrangling young children or working from home?
- Would your emails prompt calls, and so should you send emails at a time when someone will be available to pick up the call?
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Send emails more often
If you’re getting a 33% open rate congrats! That’s a nice open rate.
However if you’re sending emails monthly, then we take that back, it means that people on your database are, on-average, seeing just 4 emails from you a year.
If you’re sending emails that your customers will love, and can do so without spending hours building them, then don’t shy away from emailing your customers every week or fortnight.
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Make a plan
It’s time to build your email marketing plan and commit to it.
The good news is that this doesn’t have to be hard, you can build emails in less than ten minutes. If you have more spare time, and want something that gives you more scope to build an email template from scratch, then Mailchimp or Campaign Monitor are excellent alternatives.
Your job now is to commit to start sending emails, however many or few people you have on your email database. They’re still among your best customers, and are well worth your time.
The time is not to start driving sales for your small business. Below are some questions and a bit of an action plan that you can start using to grow you business today!
Answer the questions:
I think the best time of the week that I could send emails is _____________
I will send my first email on ____________
I’m going to send emails every week/fortnight
The first thing I’m going to do to grow my email list is __________________ (hint, don’t forget points 1, 2 and 4 above)
Email is the best thing for you to spend your time on next. You’ll drive traffic to your website and if you do it with love you’ll build stronger relationships with your customers.
We can’t wait to see your first campaign. Chuck me on your mailing list, I’d love to see it! [email protected]
