Your Small Business Guide to Email Marketing in 2022 and 2023!
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. This is considered to be the original form of digital marketing.
Although there are newer ways of digital marketing when it comes to social media marketing, SEO, PPC, etc, 89% of marketers say that email is their primary channel for lead generation.
Why is email marketing still so effective? In our opinion, it’s the simple fact that email is still being used every single day by almost everyone in order to communicate with each other, and it is more one-to-one than social media and other forms of digital marketing. The next greatest tool would probably SMS texting which we’ll get to at another time.
Below is your Small Business Guide to Email Marketing
Build an Audience
It starts with your contacts. Make sure to gather your contacts from your email provider and create a list exporting it to a .CSV file. Make sure to keep the list clean but just having fields for First Name, Last Name, Email, and Phone Number if you’d like.
Email Service Provider
After you’ve consolidated and downloaded your list, it’s time to connect with an email service provider. There are many great email service providers out there like MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, SendGrid, and so many more! Search through and chose the one that best fits your needs and your budget.
Create Your Campaign
Once you’ve selected your email provider, it’s time to create your first campaign. This could be anything from a simple hello to showcasing your services. After you’ve created your first campaign you’ll want to start strategizing to see how often you’d like to send out a new campaign. We recommend at least once a month if not every week, but the frequency after that depends on your audience response/need for your campaign. Have fun with it!
Define Your Goals
Once you’ve sent out your first campaign, it’s time to start defining your goals for your email campaigns. Are you sending a newsletter to keep customers updated? Introducing a new product? Drive sales for a season? Increase customer loyalty? Whatever your goal might be, we recommend defining them and creating a content marketing plan for your email campaigns.
Keep It Personal
In this world of competitive and mass emails, it’s good to stand out and be personal with your audience. Make sure to use the person’s first name when starting the email. Most email marketing softwares allow you to autofill the first name with a short snippet. Saying, “Hi, Mark!” will always be better than just, “Hello,” or “Dear, Potential Client.”
In Conclusion…
Don’t let anyone convince you that email marketing no longer works. Depending on the goal of your campaign, it could be very effective with the right messaging, design, and audience. Good luck and if you ever need any help with email marketing then we’re here to help!