It has been around for a long time now, over 45 years in fact! The first email was sent in 1978, can you believe that?! So, we thought it would be wise to re-emphasis the many benefits of email marketing for small businesses. In fact, not just for small businesses but for businesses of all sizes who want to build customer relationships in a time-efficient and cost-effective way. This has never been truer than in current times where we are all learning to live and adapt to Covid-19. Businesses are having to quickly adapt their operations and services in response to the pandemic.
What better way to inform your customers about changes to your business and keep your products and services at the forefront of their minds than with email marketing.
According to OptinMonster the average ROI for email marketing is 4400%. With that in mind let us get started with what we feel are 8 top benefits of email marketing:
1. Email Marketing builds strong customer relationships
Customers like to feel special! They really do like to know what is going on within your business, so why shouldn’t you keep them informed. If you don’t your competitors are likely to be doing so. Over time you are then likely to miss out on repeat purchases.
It’s very difficult to reach out to all of your customers on a 1-to-1 level either over the telephone or by meeting each of them in person. But email marketing campaigns certainly bridge that gap. It’s certainly a time saving and cost-effective way of keeping your customers informed, and keeping your business in their minds.
Ideal content for your customers in the form of a regular e-newsletter could include:
- News and updates of what is going on in the business
- Details of any special offers
- Information on new product or services being launched
- Details on upcoming events
As long as your customer has opted in to allow you to send them emails, then you should ensure that you do so. Think about it this way; who is guilty of checking email updates on their phone before they get out of bed in the mornings? Your email could be the first thing someone sees before they get up!
2. It improves your brand recognition
When you think of brands that you recognise instantly, the world leaders in their industries, all their email campaigns are eye-catching, relevant and creatively written. If your email marketing is designed and executed effectively then you can level the playing field between your small business and the big brands out there.
Why? Because email marketing gives you the ability to develop your brand identity by putting you directly in front of your customers and prospects. The trick is to create quality content and be consistent with your emails. Over time your business will begin to be recognised and remembered.
3. Email marketing demonstrates your expertise with quality content
Whether you’re a SME or larger business, you should aim to be seen as an expert within your industry or niche. By creating high quality content on a consistent basis is an effective way of working to achieve this.
It’s not always about sending out emails on your latest promotions or offers that drive traffic to your website. Email marketing can also be used to deliver your expert content that subscribers will appreciate. By reading your content they will overtime enhance their view on your business. They will begin to see you as being experts within your industry.
Ideal content types include blogs, case studies, thought-leadership features, whitepapers, infographics, and videos. These are all successful ways of enhancing your brand reputation as thought leaders within your industry. They also enhance the reputation of your business communications, and people look forward to receiving your emails. They will start to associate your emails with quality content that they wish to read.
Content marketing is one of the most important marketing tools and should play an important part in any worthwhile marketing strategy.
4. It is time and budget efficient
It doesn’t matter the size; every business has time and budget constraints enforced upon them. Spending thousands of pounds per month on television or radio adverts isn’t a workable solution for most small business marketing budgets. That is where email marketing steps in! The benefits of email marketing include how time-efficient and budget efficient it is in comparison to other types of marketing.
As an example, designing an email marketing campaign isn’t as complicated or time consuming as creating a TV or Radio ad. And, sending emails to a large number of customers is extremely cost effective. Not only that, but you get direct access to the inboxes of prospects. As a result, email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways of marketing your business.
5. Email marketing helps to build your credibility as a business
How do you build credibility as a business? People are less likely to give their business to you if they don’t know who you are or recognise your business name.
The answer lies with marketing. It’s as simple as this; if you recognise a brand name and are familiar with it, then you are likely to give it more trust. Email marketing allows your brand to be seen and recognised. It allows you to stay in contact with your target audience and keep them updated on your business. It allows you to build up trust by providing them with quality content regularly.
The bottom line; the more exposure your customers or prospects get to your business, the more they will understand and the more credibility you’ll receive.
6. It facilitates targeted and personal content
Email marketing allows you to profile customers based upon their preferences. These segmented lists can then be targeted with personalised and valuable content that will engage your customer. For example, you can tailor your subject lines, blogs and email images depending on the target group. Therefore, email marketing is the perfect channel for driving engagement.
7. Email marketing boosts sales
According to HubSpot, there are 3.8 billion email users worldwide. And two-thirds of customers have made a purchase as a direct result of an email marketing message. These stats highlight the ever-relevant importance of email marketing and demonstrate that it creates a great environment for impulse buying.
It is possible to enhance the impulse environment by listing similar items in email messages that have previously been purchased. Another option is to create special offers and discount codes for future purchases. These tactics tend to get customers to act on impulse.
8. It provides data and analytics
Every business wants to know the success of their marketing efforts. With email marketing, you can easily see several factors. One of the factors is the open rate of the email, a good open rate means that your customers and prospects know your brand and want to hear from you.
Another factor is the click-through-rate (CTR), which identifies the number of people who have read through your email and clicked on links within the email. According to Smart Insights the average click-through-rate for all industries is 7.17% as of May 2020.
The reason for sending emails to customers or prospects is to get them to convert. Examples include following the desired actions your email has requested them to take. This is an crucial metric to track as it provides valuable data on how well the email has actually performed.
Final thoughts…
Email marketing for small businesses is just one piece in the marketing strategy puzzle. But if done effectively and consistently it’s an effective one. Social media marketing plays an important role in building organic traffic with organic posts. It is also important to focus on producing and distributing quality content to attract relevant leads. Find out more about the benefits of social media marketing for your business in our recent feature. Also, check out how we can help with content marketing here.
There are many benefits of email marketing for small businesses. The main take away is that it is cost effective and delivers incredible results. It also allows you to grow your business, build credibility, and present your business as an expert.
Ready to get started with your email strategy and campaign? Contact us today…