4 Email Marketing Tips for Your Small Business
How to make email marketing work for your business
Email marketing is a great way to build relationships with your fans and get new customers engaged with your brand and your business. By keeping in touch, you’re keeping your business top-of-mind for them when your customers are ready to make a purchasing decision.
In fact, 80% of marketers say that email marketing drives customer acquisition and retention.
At Main Street Hub, we know that email marketing campaigns can impact your bottom line and turn first-time customers into loyal fans. Here are 4 tips from our email specialists to keep your business top-of-mind to bring your customers in the door:
1. Write an attention-grabbing subject line
Grab your subscribers’ attention quickly to make sure they open your email and click through to what you’re offering. Your subject line should be accurate, specific, and engaging — and most importantly, brief and to-the-point. It’s also important to avoid sales tactics that head straight for the spam folder, like overusing the word “free,” too many capital letters, and excessive exclamation points. Try using conversational language and hook them the first moment they see your email in their inbox.
Tip: Take a look at the promotional emails you get from different companies and see what gets you to open.
It’s also important that the content of your email matches what you’re talking about in your subject line. You’ll want to create a great customer experience with every email, rather than click-bait, to ensure your subscribers don’t want to hit the “unsubscribe” button.
2. Send promotions, coupons, and specials
When you’re sending an email to your customers, keep in mind that discounts are often the main reason why people decide to subscribe to newsletters. You’ll want to send them engaging content and links back to your social media channels and website, but be sure to work in incentives for your readers to make a purchase or stop by for a visit.
The good news is that people like receiving sales and specials in their inboxes: Over 60% of consumers say they enjoy receiving promotional emails every week. Just make sure that you’re not inundating your audience with too much sales-y content by monitoring your subscribers and checking on who is opting out per week.
3. Don’t forget to incorporate photos and graphics
Consumers are much more likely to read your email or click on a link within the email when there’s a photo or graphic accompanying your text.
If you’re promoting a new product or service, insert an image of that product or service to keep your readers’ attention. This provides for a better customer service experience if they know what to look for when they end up on your website or in your store. You can even link to images on your social media pages which might lead them to explore more about your business. Customers are 6x more likely to purchase a product if the page includes pictures from social media.
4. Integrate your email and social media marketing strategies
This leads us to our final point. To continue building a consistent brand presence online, make sure that you’re using both your email campaigns and social media channels together to promote your events and specials and bring in new business. Making them work together can get new eyes on your business: email subscribers are 3x more likely to share your content via social media than visitors from other sources, according to QuickSprout.
In your email campaigns, incorporate your social posts and use links that direct your readers to your social media pages, and on social media, create posts with links to subscribe to your email list — you can even pin them to the top of your feed to make sure it’s easy for new customers to subscribe.
