In the world of online marketing, there are plenty of tactics that business owners can use to reach their target market. In addition to social media, display ads, and blogging, email marketing is an important strategy to use in your digital marketing efforts. Although some marketers may disagree, email marketing is not dead! In fact, 77% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement in the last 12 months.
In this article, we will discuss 5 reasons why email marketing is still an important tool for small business owners in 2022.
Reason #1: Emails Generate Better Results
Over the last 10 years, email marketing has consistently delivered the highest ROI out of any digital marketing strategy. In fact, email is 40x more effective than Facebook or Twitter at acquiring new customers.
In order to maximize your results, it’s important to A/B test your emails. A/B testing in email means sending one variation of your email to a subset of your list and another variation of the email to another subset of your list. This could mean testing different subject lines, email content, sender names, e-mail templates and calls-to-action. In order to understand your results, it’s critically important to only test one variable at a time.
For example, if you want to test the effectiveness of your subject lines, you can send out an email to half of your list with one subject line and the other half of your list with a different subject line. You can then go into your email’s performance metrics to determine which headline led to the most opens, clickthroughs, etc. If you were to test multiple variables at once, such as a different subject line and a different template, it would be impossible to attribute your results to one specific variable.
Some of the variables you can test with A/B testing include:
- Length
- Images vs. no images
- Personalization vs. generalized
- Word order
- Subject line
- Content
- Visuals
- Style
- Copy
- Calls to action
A/B testing has been proven to provide better results. In fact, it can even lead to a 28% higher return. Campaign Monitor performed split testing on their email templates and were able to increase their email clickthrough rate by 127%!
Reason #2: Email Allows for Personalization
Email allows for a level of personalization that is absent from other channels. Email personalization is when you utilize customer data to create unique experiences for your list based on their interests. When personalization is done right, the subscriber may feel as though the email was designed and intended specifically for them. This can lead to the subscriber better resonating with your content and greater clickthroughs, conversions and results.
You can segment your email list by any number of factors, including:
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Purchase history
- Interests/hobbies
Taking advantage of personalization for your small business can greatly improve your email marketing efforts. 71% of consumers state that they expect customization and 76% of consumers get frustrated when they receive emails that they feel are not personalized. Additionally, brands using personalization generate 40% more revenue than those who don’t.
Reason #3: Email is More Budget Friendly
Compared to other marketing channels, email can be much more affordable. There are many platforms available out there today that allow you to create customized emails at an affordable rate. By segmenting your email list, like discussed above, you can save even more money.
Sending emails out to your small business’s list from your personal email provider such as Gmail or Yahoo is generally not a good idea. Instead, you’ll want to look into an Email Service Provider (ESP). ESPs like MailChimp, HubSpot, Constant Contact, and more allow you to create emails to send out to your audience.
ESPs allow you to:
- Maintain and manage your email list
- Build email templates
- Track email and campaign performance
- Personalize your emails
Before you need an ESP, your small business needs an email list. Building your own list can be easy and even free. By creating eye-catching opt-ins or lead magnets, you can easily invite people to sign up for your email list.
If you’re interested in generating new leads, or email sign-ups, through social media, check out this article on 5 Ways to Generate Leads Through Social Media.
At Agency 8, we offer highly targeted email services that can help get your products, content, and promotions in front of the relevant audiences. If you’re interested in reaching over 32,000 qualified individuals, check out our email service here!
Reason #4: Email Works Well With Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing and email marketing work hand in hand for small businesses. Social media is a great place to connect with your customers, learn more about their likes and dislikes. Email marketing can be a great way to supplement your social media marketing strategy. By using email to reach out to your leads and customers, you can ensure that they’re getting the information they need from you. You can also use email to build relationships with your existing clients.
If you think about your own inbox, it’s probably filled with promotional messages from businesses. When a company continues to bombard your inbox with promotional offers, you’re likely to get annoyed and unsubscribe. If email marketing is your only marketing strategy for your small business, you’re likely to exhaust your list with emails and get more unsubscribes.
By maintaining a consistent presence on social media, you can nurture your leads and maintain a relationship with them outside of their inbox. With your ESP, you can also segment your email list to target those that signed up through social media. This can help you target that list with promotions that are relevant to the content you’re deploying on your social media channels. Branded emails perform really well when you’ve already nurtured your clients through social media.
Email can also serve as a channel through which to test promotions before they go live on social media. By A/B testing your email content, you can see what performs well before you commit to a larger-scale social media campaign. This can save you time and money by helping you hone in on the most effective content before taking it to a wider audience. Additionally, this can make your email list feel special if they receive first access to your exclusive offer.
Alo Yoga, for example, sends out information about new product launches to their email list before they publish it to social media. Personally, as a subscriber to this list, I get excited about their new products from these emails. I also feel like an insider because I get first access to new product launches and promotions before they launch on social media. Consider how you can do something like this for your small business!
You can also include social icons in your emails. These can help send your list to your other social channels such as LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram. You can also use these icons to share your email content on social. By doing this, you’re building a system where your email list and social media followers can interact with each other, which can help grow both lists organically.
When using multiple marketing channels such as email and social media, it’s important to keep your branding consistent across channels. Use similar colors, themes, and language in order to create a cohesive digital presence.
Reason #5: Emails Compel Your Audience to Take Action
Email is a great way to get your audience to take action. You can use email to send people to your website, encourage them to download a white paper or e-book, or sign up for a webinar. You can also use email to encourage people to follow you on social media or leave a review for your business.
Including a call-to-action (CTA) button in your email is a great way to encourage people to take the next step with your business. These buttons should stand out from the rest of your content and be brightly colored. CTAs should also be short and should send people to a landing page where they can act immediately rather than your homepage. Finally, be sure to A/B test your CTAs to find out which ones perform better with your audience.
Here are some CTAs you can use to encourage sales:
- Shop now
- Shop our fall collection
- Buy now
- Buy now, pay later
- Order now
- Claim your coupon
- Claim this offer
- Shop new releases
CTAs for content:
- Watch now
- Learn more
- Read more
- Read the full story
- Download now
- Download your free e-book!
CTAs for service based businesses:
- Book now!
- Get a free upgrade!
- Start your free trial
- Sign up and save
CTAs for Social Media:
- Follow us on ____ (Instagram, FB, Pinterest, etc.)
- Stay connected
- Like us on Facebook
- Shop our Instagram
Make sure that you don’t overwhelm your audience with CTAs. Including too many in your email can create confusion. Simply adding one meaningful CTA can be much more powerful!
Conclusion
Email marketing is still an effective tool that small business owners can use to reach their target audiences. By utilizing some of the tips and tricks mentioned in this article, you can create email campaigns that will help you achieve your business goals in 2022.
If you need help reaching more people through email, check out our done for you email service here!
What are your thoughts on email marketing? Let us know in the comments below!
