Email marketing is a highly valuable digital marketing tool for small business owners. It enables building stronger customer relationships, promoting new products or services, boosting sales, and enhancing brand awareness.
Small business owners have caught on to the fact that an effective email marketing campaign is a great way to maximize their marketing budget. In fact, 64% of small businesses use email marketing to reach their customers. In this blog post, we will outline the key advantages of email marketing and explain why it is an essential component of digital marketing for small businesses.
What is email marketing
Email marketing is a method of marketing that enables businesses to engage with customers through email. It proves to be an affordable option for small businesses to connect with their desired audience, disseminate information, boost website visits, and enhance customer presence.
Email marketing is an essential component of every company’s digital marketing strategy due to the fact that 3.9 billion individuals presently utilize email.
Many individuals associate email marketing with a flooded inbox containing numerous emails that advertise a time-limited opportunity. Despite promotional content being a valuable method for enhancing sales, it is only one of several tools available in the realm of email marketing.
Now that you are aware of its purpose, let’s explore the possibilities of email marketing campaigns, such as sharing captivating articles, useful tips, educational content, or links to blog posts, with your customers.
1. Build credibility and brand awareness
Small businesses can establish credibility and expertise in their field by utilizing email marketing to consistently deliver high-quality content. This enables people to become more familiar with your business’s name and consequently develop trust and brand recognition.
According to research, it has been proven that individuals require 5-7 exposures in order to identify a company logo, and a substantial majority of males (80%) and females (76%) prefer purchasing from familiar brands. To cultivate familiarity and transform occasional customers into repeat ones, small businesses can employ email marketing campaigns.
2. Build and maintain relationships with loyal customers
Using email marketing is an effective method to remind customers that you are considering them and to ensure that they continue to have you in mind. Even if customers are not actively seeking to buy something, you can employ email marketing to maintain their engagement with your website and business.
If your business focuses on promoting local events, shopping, and dining options like Love Burlington, it is highly probable that tourists form a portion of your target audience.
Tourists may not currently be shopping, dining, or attending events in your area, but they may do so in the future. The best way to remain memorable to these individuals is by sending them a monthly newsletter that notifies them about upcoming events.
If you are the owner of a flour company or a specialty food store, think about sending monthly recipes to your customers that showcase your products. Since everyone eats and a lot of people cook, you can strengthen your bond with your customers by assisting them in exploring unique dishes.
To establish yourself as an expert in your field for a business targeting other businesses as customers, it is recommended to send industry-specific tips and news, as this can effectively strengthen relationships by providing valuable information to busy small business owners.
3. The opportunity for personalization
One advantage of email marketing is the ability to customize email content according to the preferences of your target audience.
By categorizing your customers according to their interests, you can ensure that you are targeting the appropriate audience and delivering meaningful, customized content that is specifically designed for them. This increases the likelihood of customers opening an email as they perceive it as genuinely intended for them.
Email marketing offers small businesses the advantage of creative freedom. Unlike other marketing channels, there are no restrictions on the space or characters used, giving you the opportunity to utilize as much space as desired (though it is worth noting that easily scannable emails generally yield better performance).
As the owner of the business, you possess knowledge about your current customers as well as a solid understanding of your potential clients. This knowledge can be utilized to create valuable content that is tailored to their specific pain points, interests, and needs. By designing your emails with a focus on your target market, you can effectively address their unique concerns.
4. Develop your own unique brand
Consider some of the most identifiable brands worldwide. Certain brand names have become so widely recognized that they are now associated with their respective industries. Kleenex serves as a prime illustration of this phenomenon. Imagine if your small business could also establish a distinctive and easily recognizable brand akin to that.
Email marketing provides a direct access to your customers or potential customers’ email inboxes, making it an excellent method for building your brand. By consistently providing updates, you have a wonderful chance to establish a distinctive voice, style, and image for your subscribers.
What is your desired brand identity? Develop a brand guide and adhere to it when sending any email. Every email serves as a chance to engage with your subscribers and reinforce your distinct brand image in their memories.
5. Become an expert with expert content
If you are a small business owner, you are probably considered a knowledgeable figure within your local or regional community in relation to your specific industry. One method to solidify this perception among consumers is to consistently establish yourself as an expert by creating valuable content.
You can use email marketing for more than just sending coupons and sale information. Along with emails aimed at increasing traffic to your business, you can also provide your subscribers with interesting content to read or watch.
By incorporating blogs or videos into your email campaign, you enhance the value of each email you send.
By delivering quality content regularly, you not only enhance your reputation as an expert, but also enhance the reputation of your business communications. People will eagerly anticipate receiving your emails due to this.
If you already have expert content available on a blog or YouTube channel, you might consider providing exclusive content via email to encourage people to subscribe to your email list.
Your content is a valuable asset for your marketing efforts, as it can be leveraged to strengthen different aspects of your marketing strategy. When people appreciate your work, they will subscribe to receive more exceptional content. Moreover, this content is conveniently delivered directly to them.
6. Email marketing is efficient with your time and budget
In the realm of small businesses, time and budget limitations are inevitable, and there is typically no alternative to this. Although purchasing a commercial to be aired during the Super Bowl would be desirable, it is not feasible for the majority of marketing budgets within small businesses.
Even if you focus on sending flyers to nearby mailboxes, targeted direct mail campaigns can still be expensive. The expenses can quickly add up with designing, printing, and mailing costs, reaching several dollars per flyer. If you decide to distribute flyers to a thousand individuals, the campaign becomes quite costly and there is no guarantee of achieving desired outcomes.
When shooting television commercials or recording radio ads, the time spent can also reduce your profits. Not concentrating on your business means losing income, or at least missing chances to engage with individuals at a personal level.
When it comes to small businesses, one of the major advantages of email marketing is its ability to effectively utilize time and budget resources.
Designing a professional email marketing campaign is not a complex or time-consuming task. Additionally, sending emails to numerous subscribers is highly cost-effective as it allows you to have direct access to potential customers’ email inboxes, eliminating the need to cover expenses associated with direct mail.
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing available to your business, considering every dollar spent.
7. Reach a wider audience – wherever they are
During these digital times, there is a high probability of connecting with existing or potential customers through numerous social media platforms. While many individuals possess Twitter or Instagram accounts, the major advantage of email campaigns is that virtually EVERYONE possesses an email.
Not only do individuals possess email accounts, but they also have access to them on their mobile devices. This implies that they receive notifications whenever a fresh email arrives in their inbox, even when they are away from a computer. It is customary for individuals to check their email at least once daily, and often even more frequently. Furthermore, they express a desire to receive communications from businesses via email, as indicated by a preference rate of 72% among adults in the US.
8. Increased sales and ROI
Small businesses benefit greatly from email marketing due to its high return on investment (ROI).
The average return on investment (ROI) for an email campaign is 3600%, with an even higher number for certain industries. This means that spending $1 will typically result in a profit of $36. Given these impressive returns, it comes as no surprise that 37% of companies are increasing their email marketing budget. By investing a minimal amount of money, they can achieve substantial gains.
A successful email campaign will have a positive impact on sales, either through direct or indirect means. Sending promotional emails is likely to instantly enhance website traffic and result in sales, either by directly generating purchases or by creating leads for future transactions. It is worth noting that 60% of consumers have acknowledged making a purchase as a result of receiving a marketing email.
