In today’s digital landscape, small businesses have multiple means for promoting their companies and growing their client base, regardless of the industry. Eventually, you should strive to combine as many marketing channels as possible to slowly expand your reach and spread the message across larger audiences. Still, in the early days of a business, it also makes sense to focus on just one or two channels and slowly build your way up because such an approach saves human and financial resources while helping you better understand your business audience.
For most companies, promoting a business via social media seems like an obvious start. But there is another channel you should never ignore — email. Email marketing, when done right, is one of the most profitable channels, generating about $36 of revenue per each dollar invested in running email campaigns. This figure varies somewhat from industry to industry, but the hard fact remains — email generates more revenue than any other promotional means existing today. But how do you get it right? Below are the most effective email marketing strategies that can drive your brand to success.
Offer good incentives for sign-up
In most countries today, data privacy regulation laws require a user’s explicit consent to receive business promotional materials over email. But even if they didn’t, businesses still want willing recipients who won’t move their marketing materials straight into the spam folder. So, how do you get those? If you’re in the e-commerce niche, you can get a person’s email when they make their first order (which is, by the way, already quite far down the marketing funnel). But what about other industries?
A good start is including sign-up buttons on the social media profiles you probably manage already. Here, it’s very important to offer a good incentive for the people to sign up — a discount for the first order, access to some exclusive information you will not be sharing on social channels, or any other free perk your target audience will find useful. And, obviously, you must always deliver on that promise.
Besides, you should never ignore people who have already engaged with your social posts through comments and shares, even if they have not yet shared their contact information with you. Contact databases like SignalHire can help you get access to their data — often, without even closing your social tab, but keep data protection laws in mind. You can send such a prospect an email after you look up their contact details in a database, but this email must be personally written and should clearly explain your purpose for writing. Good incentives for sign-up will once again come in handy here. That may sound like a lot of work, but such an approach can actually prove fruitful when building your email database from scratch. The trick is to choose warm leads and offer them something they cannot resist.
If you’re already running a website or a blog, include sign-up buttons on every page — somewhere where users cannot miss them, i.e., in the header or sidebar. And make the sign-up process as easy as it gets, with as few steps as possible.
Now, that pretty much covers the basics of growing your email database, so let’s get to the actual marketing tips!
Divide your list into narrow segments
Here, the trick is the narrower the better. Consumers are bombarded with offers from all over these days, so for a small business to compete, the offers coming from you must hit close to the mark. Instead of focusing on classic demographical parameters, like gender and age, analyze each user’s factual behavior, especially their browsing and purchase history if already available. The idea is to understand which products and services the lead is actually interested in to offer relevant discounts, promotions, and similar goods/services to entice prospects and convert them into customers, preferably regular ones. This also includes analyzing previous email communication history, social media interactions, or any other interactions with the lead.
At this point, you may feel compelled to find a marketing specialist straightaway but bear with us for another second. Modern marketing automation software implies advanced AI algorithms for such analysis, so you won’t have to do that all manually. Here are some good examples to get started:
- Plug-ins for tracking website visitor behavior: besides must-have Google analytics that analyzes overall website traffic performance, several plugins, including Hotjar, Crazy Egg, and Matomo, can record individual sessions, analyze visitor behavior, and the chances of quick conversion.
- Smart CRMs that analyze past lead interaction: HubSpot, SalesForce, Zoho, and Pipedrive are undeniable market leaders, offering the most detailed analysis of previous interactions with potential clients. Usually, they have several paid plans that get more expensive depending on the complexity level you’re looking for, so it makes sense to start with a basic version to get the knack of using such systems.
Of course, you can still hire a marketing specialist if you wish — eventually, it should come to that, anyway. But in the early stages of growing your business, you can have a go yourself to form an idea of how it works and what resonates with your audience.
Don’t overlook essential automated emails
One more reason to invest in quality CRM before you expand your marketing staff is that email automation software saves a lot of time and effort – so you can always start small. Typically, clients go through standard stages of their customer journey, and you can set up automated email flows for such standard scenarios. The must-have email templates in your arsenal should include:
- Welcome email greeting new subscribers, introducing the brand, and inviting a prospect to explore your products and services.
- Thank-you email, expressing gratitude after a purchase, sign-up, or any other action showing interest in your business.
- Follow-up email for businesses that reach out to clients with offers, i.e., to place an order, sign up for a webinar, etc. If the prospect did not make any action after the first invitation, it makes perfect sense to send a reminder a few days later.
- Promotional email that does not follow the same template all the time but rather includes several subtypes, such as info updates on sales, discounts, limited-time offers, etc.
- Abandoned cart email (for e-commerce businesses), reminding clients about goods in their carts and inviting them to finalize the order. Since many clients shop on the go, they may abandon a cart without checking out because of a minor distraction.
- Asking for feedback: after the clients pay for goods or services, businesses should always ask for their feedback. First, it sends a very clear message — the brand cares and wants to continuously improve its services. Second — encouraging clients to leave reviews boosts brand reputation and search engine rankings. But even if the feedback you collect remains private, you still get a chance to analyze your audience’s needs by collecting this info.
- Re-engagement email: if some prospects haven’t engaged with your brand for a while, a re-engagement email can remind them of your products and, possibly, even re-ignite their interest.
Other standard emails include an apology letter for a delay or mistake (but we hope it won’t come to that), invitations to online or on-site events, or an encouragement to refer friends in exchange for a bonus. Depending on your business specifics, there could be even more ideas you can use, but these suggestions are already a great start that can help a small business considerably increase its revenue and client database.
Also Read: Email Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
