Deciding where to invest your marketing budget isn’t a decision you take lightly as a small business owner.
You know you need to attract new customers and keep your existing clients coming back, but you can’t afford to invest time or resources into something that isn’t going to deliver the results you expect. That’s why email marketing is important when it comes to small business marketing.
In order to make a decision on whether or not it’s right for your business, it’s important to know the benefits of email marketing.
Before we get into the many benefits of email marketing. one of the top benefits can affect your bottom line and therefore needs to be mentioned right away.
Email marketing has the highest ROI (return on investment) of all forms of marketing, averaging about Rs 36 in return for every Rs 1 spent.
But ROI isn’t the only reason why email marketing is worth your time and investment. The importance of email marketing comes down to it being an effective solution that gives you the power to reach customers in a place most people visit every day — their inbox.
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Why email marketing is important
Email marketing is important for small businesses because it’s a marketing workhorse.
Not only does it help you to keep in touch with those that want to hear from you — keeping you top of mind — but it also allows you to educate your readers, drive traffic, conduct surveys, share updates, make announcements, etc.
What I’m trying to say is that email marketing allows small businesses to do lots of different things, all within one channel. And, it still has the highest ROI of any marketing strategy or channel.
Honestly, the importance of small business email marketing really can’t be overstated. If you’re not yet convinced, just take a look at the following benefits of email marketing.
Our top 10 benefits of small business email marketing
Before we jump into what real small business owners said their top benefits of email marketing were, let’s take a look at our top 10.
1. Create personalized content
Personalization is the number one benefit of email marketing because no one wants to read an email that sounds like it was just blasted out to a bunch of people.
Email marketing allows you to segment your customers into different lists based on their preferences to send highly personalized content. From crafting the perfect subject lines to images that resonate with your customer, and valuable content that helps your audience, email is the perfect channel to deliver those personal-feeling messages.
2. Build credibility
Emails from an unknown sender or with a shady subject line can feel like spam. It just feels off, and customers often just delete these emails.
For some customers, an emoji will make them click and be happy. For others, the same subject line might make them go hunting for the unsubscribe link. You need to tailor your content according to what your readers want. Knowing your readers’ interests and needs gets your email read, instead of the spam folder.
Creating a permission-based email list that includes a checkbox for users to opt-in to your mailing list ensures that a customer knows which emails they’re signing up for, and how often they’ll be receiving emails from you.
3. Increase brand recognition
Do people recognize your brand?
With email marketing, you can easily brand your emails. But brand recognition goes beyond design. By consistently providing valuable content to your audience, they will begin to recognize, and even anticipate your emails.
Are customers happy with the content you’re providing? Would they like to learn something different?
You can even create a brand identity survey to get useful feedback on your brand.
Use a survey or start a discussion on social media. Once you get them involved in the process, you’ll know exactly how to provide valuable content in your emails.
4. Improve sales
60 percent of consumers say they’ve made a purchase as the result of a marketing email they received.
Promoting your business through email marketing gives your audience the chance to make a purchase right from their phone or laptop.
Small business email marketing can be used to sell to prospects, boost referrals, upsell to current customers, and even re-engage customers that have not purchased from you in a while. The more relevant and targeted your email content is, the more likely the reader will take an action.
5. Build stronger customer relationships
Email marketing can help to build customer relationships by providing them with information they want — directly into their inbox on a consistent basis. When you help make your audience’s lives better, whether that be with your product or service, helpful tips, or even just a “happy birthday” gift coupon, they will learn to appreciate and trust you.
Eventually, they will begin to look to your business for the information and value you have been providing them, thinking of you first when they need your services.
6. Optimize your time and budget
With any business, but especially within a small business, there are always time and budget constraints. While big businesses can afford to go all out and buy advertising space during the Super Bowl, small businesses don’t have that luxury.
Luckily, the costs associated with email marketing generally start out very low, with most providers offering affordable marketing plans that scale as your email list and your company grows.
In terms of time commitment, email marketing can be put on autopilot with email marketing automation, yet stay personalized and targeted towards your subscribers on an individual level.
7. Increase traffic to your website
Emails are a great way to get customers to visit your website. You can include relevant links to your site within your email content. You can also use your email campaigns to get customers to engage with other great pieces of content available on your website or blog.
For example, a local design school could send out emails to let them know about their new design class that has a limited number of seats. Many of their customers and potential leads may have missed out on this opportunity to attend the class had they not revisited the website in time.
The design school then can fill all the seats more quickly by promoting the class via email, instead of waiting for reservations to trickle in.
8. Establish authority
When you run your own business, one of your goals may be to be seen as an expert in your industry.
Your customers have signed up for your marketing newsletters because they want to hear from you. They appreciate the content you send and keeping them engaged is one of the biggest wins for any email marketer. Your content is one of your most valuable marketing tools and you can use it to build other areas of your marketing strategy. If people love what you do, then they will sign up to see more great content.
9. Build excitement
Everyone likes to belong to a special group, especially when they can receive exclusive perks.
Your customers aren’t all the same, and the one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. Use your email campaigns to drive home the message that your customers are unique and important to your business.
Whether you’re giving a section of customers a sneak peek into an upcoming product launch, or simply rewarding them for being loyal customers, they all love a sweet deal. Volkswagen offers email subscribers free movie tickets several times a year. Starbucks gives their gold members free drinks around the holidays.
As a small business, you might not be able to go around giving free stuff to your customers, but a little something extra can go a long way. Rewarding your customers is a nice gesture, and from your side, it’s a great way to accelerate your marketing goals. Everybody wins.
10. Email is an asset you own
Although this benefit is listed as number 10, it doesn’t mean it’s the least important benefit. On the contrary, as a business owner or marketer, this is probably the most important benefit of email marketing to know.
Think about it. With social media, the platform owns everything you do on it. Every post. Every connection. Everything.
But with email marketing, your email list and all your campaigns (sent or not) are assets that you own. This means that no one can take them from you — or keep you from reaching out to your customers. No matter what provider you use or when.
The only caveat is, of course, that your email content is legal and abides by the terms and conditions of that provider.
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