Why Email Marketing is Important for Small Businesses? Many small business owners are missing out on one of the most effective marketing channels: email. Email marketing provides so many benefits and it is a great way to build relationships with your customers and drive sales. With the right approach, email marketing is something that can continue to work effectively for years to come.
AOL may be old, but email certainly isn’t!
But you may be wondering, can email marketing really make a difference to your business?
Well, to answer that question, we’ve compiled a list of a few reasons why email marketing is one of the best digital marketing tactics a small business can invest in.
The number one reason email marketing is effortless for companies is that consumers prefer email. Most small businesses work with limited marketing budgets, which means they can’t waste time on marketing tactics that don’t resonate well with their target market. While social media has become a popular way for small businesses to engage with their audience, brands sometimes don’t get the organic reach they seek through these channels. But social media isn’t the only answer. Email also provides a professional and direct environment that allows businesses to reach leads and customers.
Moreover, most consumers actually prefer to contact brands via email. The most likely reason for this is that it is permission-based. People on your list actually signed up because they wanted to receive updates from you. They want to know more about your brand, including your promotions and discounts. And that alone makes email marketing such an effective strategy for reaching your consumers. In fact, a study from Marketing Sherpa reported that 72% of consumers prefer to receive promotional messages via email.
When it comes to business promotional content, consumers prefer to be contacted by email.
Why Email Marketing is Important for Small Businesses
You may be wondering why consumers prefer to receive updates from brands via email. Here are a few reasons why we think email marketing works so well with the modern consumer:
- This is useful. With access to email directly from their smartphones, most consumers find this type of communication very convenient. Consumers can not only stay connected with their favorite brands wherever they are but also easily redeem coupon codes or other special offers right from their phones.
- Personal. Today’s consumer is bombarded with marketing messages and they tend to respond best to those that are personalized and relevant. With this marketing strategy, you can personalize your messages and content according to subscribers’ preferences and purchasing patterns. Email segmentation makes it easy to deliver the most relevant offers and content to the consumer.
- Instantly. Consumers love the opportunity to receive information about special offers and last-minute deals. Sending email campaigns allows your small business to be notified of these sales and promotions instantly and directly, so your consumers can take advantage of the opportunity to save.
Now that you know why email marketing is so popular with consumers, it’s important to understand how often they choose to receive email communications and what type of email communications you should offer. Many studies have shown that email users prefer to receive marketing emails only once a week. This frequency allows you to communicate consistently without overwhelming your subscribers.
When it comes to the types of email messages consumers enjoy receiving, there are several different reasons why consumers typically sign up for email communications from brands:
- Coupons and Sales Promotions
- Loyalty or Rewards Programs
- Company News and Updates
- Contests and Sweepstakes
- Free Content such as eBooks
- Products or Service Information
- Special Overviews of New Products
The only way to be sure what type of content resonates with your unique audience is to track the success of your email campaigns over time. Track metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to see what content types your subscribers are best at responding to. Unsubscribe rate patterns can also help you better understand what types of content your audience isn’t particularly interested in.
Email Helps You Reach More Consumers Via Their Mobile
It’s no secret that today’s consumer is getting more and more mobile, which proves yet another reason why email marketing is ideal for reaching your customer. While not all consumers will shop from their smartphones, many will check their email from these devices. In fact, reading and sending emails is one of the most popular activities for smartphone users, outpacing web browsing, the Facebook app, and even apps for maps or directions.
most popular activities on mobile
Mobile device users tend to use their devices frequently to check their email, including marketing messages from brands like yours!
The popularity of email on mobile devices makes email marketing an ideal tactic for small businesses looking to reach their mobile consumers. Unlike building an app or SMS marketing, this type of online marketing does not require small businesses to invest significant amounts in new technology or different types of software. Additionally, it allows your business to go beyond smartphones and connect with consumers with other types of mobile devices such as tablets.
Now that you know why email marketing is essential to reaching mobile customers, let’s talk about optimizing your emails for these devices. As you can see from the infographic below, 48% of emails are open on mobile devices, and 69% of mobile users will delete emails that are not optimized for their devices. This means that unless you’re trying to optimize your marketing emails for mobile devices, you may be missing out on reaching these mobile consumers.
Optimizing your email content for mobile is essential if you want to get the most out of your marketing emails and learn why email marketing works.
There are a few things to keep in mind when Building mobile-friendly emails:
- Keep it simple. Use a clean and simple email design that translates better to a smaller screen. Start with a responsive template that you know subscribers can read on their mobile devices.
- Limit your images. Images are a great way to engage your audience. However, you should limit the number of images in your email messages. Too many images can take a long time to load and larger images may not be displayed on a smaller screen without excessive scrolling.
- Optimize your text. Not only will you need to be mindful of the images you use in your email messages, but you will also need to be conscious of your text. You want it to be easy to read and scroll on a smaller device screen. Make sure the message is straight to the point and avoid using long paragraphs.
- Use the CTA buttons. When it comes to your email call to action, use a button instead of a link. Clicking buttons is easier than links on a touchscreen device. Make the button big enough for those with larger fingers to click easily and move on to the next step in the buyer’s journey.
More and more consumers are moving to mobile every day. If you want to attract the attention of this growing audience, your small business should invest in mobile-optimized email marketing.
Email Marketing Has More Features
Social media marketing may be a hit right now but we can’t deny the fact that it has its limitations. For example, social media posts and ads have limited character and space. In order not to violate the necessity of social media advertising, you need to convey your message in a concise manner.
On the other hand, emails are more interactive. You can use all the features of HTML. You can also customize the content. Also, the media you can add is unlimited.
Email Marketing Is Affordable
Most small businesses work on a limited budget, which means they need to find the most affordable ways to reach and engage their target audience. Email marketing is a cost-effective digital marketing tactic that requires little investment to get started. Additionally, it is relatively inexpensive to maintain over time, allowing small businesses to get more for their marketing spend.
It’s no wonder why so many small business owners are willing to develop email marketing campaigns.
While traditional marketing tactics such as print and TV ads or direct mail can cost thousands of dollars over the course of a year, email marketing allows small businesses to reach a large audience with just penny per recipient. Such a significant return on investment allows you to do more with less, so email marketing is perfect for small businesses operating on smaller budgets.
The costs associated with this marketing strategy are relatively small. However, the exact costs of your campaigns will depend on a few different factors, including what resources you have in-house. In addition to creating an email strategy and identifying campaign opportunities, you will also need to decide who will create the marketing content and who will implement your campaigns.
If you don’t have the in-house resources to develop and implement your small business email marketing campaigns, you may want to consider getting outside help. Although working with an email marketing agency requires an upfront investment, it can actually help you save more in the long run. Working with an agency allows you to free up your team to focus on other core business tasks. The agency can also help you see better results faster given their experience with this tactic. If you’re considering this option, contact our team to discuss which of our email marketing plans would be best for your business.
Businesses Achieve High Email Marketing ROI
Now that you know how good email marketing is for your organization, let’s talk about return on investment. One of the top reasons email marketing is so effective for small businesses is that it provides a strong return on investment. No matter how tight your small business marketing budget is, you can still reap the enormous benefits of email marketing.
Consumers who receive marketing emails tend to spend more, providing an attractive return on investment for small businesses.
While the actual percentage of email marketing ROI differs from business to business, there are several ways email marketing can provide value for small business owners:
- Email marketing increases company revenue. The most obvious way email marketing can help deliver a positive ROI for small businesses is to help increase revenue. Email allows you to reach a large and willing audience while keeping costs relatively low and generating positive revenue.
- Email drives more traffic to your company website. Another way email provides a return on investment is to help drive more traffic to your company’s website. Email subscribers are more likely to be qualified leads, which means that traffic is relevant and increases the chances of conversion.
- Email marketing can increase sales conversions. Marketing emails work well as part of your lead nurturing campaigns as they can help move leads through the marketing funnel quickly and effectively. This means that email marketing is an effective way to improve sales conversions.
- Email helps you increase brand awareness. Increasing visibility and building relationships with your target consumers is an important part of not only generating new sales but maintaining repeat sales over time. Email campaigns like email marketing newsletters help you build brand awareness that contributes to sustainable growth over time.
When working with a limited marketing budget, it’s important to get the most out of your marketing spend. Email marketing helps small businesses get a substantial return on their marketing investment, no matter how limited their budget.
Email Integrates Well with Other Tactics
One of the key advantages of email marketing for small businesses is that it integrates well with other marketing tactics. Email doesn’t need to be used in space. Small businesses can create marketing emails to meet a variety of marketing goals and use email to support a range of other campaigns. This allows them to get the most out of their marketing spend.
For example, email marketing integrates well with social media marketing. If you are holding a social media contest or giveaway, you can increase the excitement of the campaign via email. Additionally, you can use email marketing to grow your social media audience by adding social sharing buttons and CTAs to your email content.
Email marketing is versatile and allows small business owners to integrate this tactic into other digital marketing campaigns like social media.
Another way email marketing can be integrated with other tactics is to offer your business a platform to promote new content. Content marketing is a vital part of any digital marketing strategy as it allows your business to educate, entertain and connect with your prospects and customers. However, your content marketing is only effective if you have a way of getting your content assets in front of your potential customers. Email is an effective way to promote this content in your target market, allowing you to browse your content more and drive more traffic to your site.
Don’t let the complexities of email marketing stop you from using this tactic to grow your business.
Confused by email marketing? It may be time to call the experts! LYFE Marketing specializes in targeted email marketing services that help you accelerate your sales cycle. Check out our email marketing services page to learn more about how we can help you develop and implement an effective email marketing strategy. Still have a question? Leave it in the comments below and one of our experts will be happy to answer you.
