If you’ve ever asked yourself why email marketing is important, the answer is simple – email marketing is one of the most effective ways for small businesses to grow their customer base and revenue.
What’s even better is that it’s cost-effective, somewhat easy to set up, and allows you to send emails to the masses.
So, whether you need help getting your first 100 subscribers or want tips on how to engage your current email list, this post will get you started with everything you need for successful email marketing!
In this article
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What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing can be a powerful tool to sell to your audience, provide value, and connect with them. It is also an effective way to educate potential or current clients about the benefits of working with your band – while keeping them engaged between purchases.
Email is the most effective marketing channel on the planet because you get to talk directly to the people who want to hear from you. This opens up amazing opportunities to build relationships and sell your products and services. – MailerLite
When suggesting and promoting content, products, and/or services, essentially you’re marketing directly to your ideal target audience and building rapport.
Side Note: Whether you have been blogging for years or just starting, your email list is one of the most essential parts of success for your business.
Who Should Have an Email List?
Building your list is such a critical part of running a successful business (ie. blogs, e-commerce, service-based businesses, etc) when it comes to monetizing.
- anyone that has a website/blog and looking to grow a successful brand and improve your online presence should be building an email list [with your ideal target audience in mind].
Is Email Marketing Even Worth Doing?
Well, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say . . . it certainly is.
In fact, as many as 3.9 billion people use email on a daily basis to HubSpot.
Email marketing is one of the cheapest and most efficient ways to market a business when we think about the ROI, and the ROI keeps increasing the more we learn about utilizing the powers of email marketing for our own good. In 2013, the DMA marketing report claimed that email marketing had an ROI of $38 for every $1, which only increased to $41 per $1.
With stats like this, it’s nearly impossible to deny that email marketing works, and it would be a loss to not use them to grow your business in today’s highly competitive market.
Why Email Marketing is Important for Small Businesses?
Why building your email list is so important:
- Your email list belongs to you! Your email list and your website are the only things you actually own.
- It’s one of the easiest ways to connect with your audience and build trust
- Utilizing your email list is one of the most affordable ways to sell to your audience.
- There is a saying . . . “The money is in the list.” Email is the best way to promote your own products and services. Because let’s be honest, whom would you rather buy a product or service from . . . a stranger or somebody you know and trust?
So we just went over the incredibly encouraging email marketing stats driving tons of traffic and sales to small businesses, but how do small businesses feel about online marketing? While you’re sitting there contemplating whether this marketing strategy is good for you or not, this survey tells it all.
According to this survey, 66% of the small businesses surveyed said they used email marketing to promote their business. Out of that 66%, 79% said that email marketing was a very important part of their marketing strategy and 60% think the strategy was very effective in growing their business.
HubSpot, in their summary of the 2019 report by DMA, says that over 73% of the millennial correspondents prefer to receive business-related correspondence via email, while 59% of the respondents in the survey said that email marketing influences their marketing decisions.
Like I said before, email marketing is important for any small business – including yours – because it works.
How to Start Building Your Email List
- Determine who your ideal audience is
- Determine which lead magnet to use – based on the needs and wants of your audience – NOT your own! Then create it using Canva or PicMonkey. I prefer using this over anything else.
- Create a landing page and/or an opt-in form
- Choose an email service provider (a.k.a. email marketing provider (EMP)/email service provider (ESP)/an autoresponder). This should be a PRIORITY to you!
- Most of the really good EMPs that are free (up until a certain number of subscribers) and/or come with a FREE trial period. I currently use ConvertKit and LOVE it!
- The 2 main email service providers that you will want to consider is ConvertKit or MailerLite – depending on your budget and your preference.
- Decide how you want to promote it – Are you gonna send leads directly to the page that features it? Do you want to offer it as a content upgrade?
- Create an email marketing strategy that will build and nurture your audience.
Where do you initially find people for your list?
This is extremely important . . .
You ONLY want to add individuals on your email list that are your ideal targeted customer/client/audience.
Let me say that again (for anyone in the back – ha! ) . . . Don’t just add anyone to your email list! ONLY add those that fit within your customer avatar. This means you’re not gonna add your friends, family, or random individuals.
Think about it, do you like to be sent emails about brands, products, and/or services that you have no interest in? Do you open those emails or do you ignore them? Well, you want an audience that is engaged, so make sure that you only always keep your ideal targeted audience in mind – which is key!
One great way to build your email list is to determine what you can give your audience of value [this can be free or have a cost] in exchange for obtaining their email addresses.
This item is referred to as a freebie, an opt-in, lead magnet, or a content upgrade.
Here are some examples:
- Quizzes
- Checklists
- Tips & Tricks Sheet
- Printables
- How-To Tutorials/Premium Video
- Exclusive Group Access
- Free Trials, Discount Codes, Giveaways, Weekly Coupons, Product Samples, etc)
- Email Course
- E-Books
- Free consultations with you directly
- Cheat Sheets
Side Note: You’ll want to familiarize yourself with sales funnels so that you will be able to convert leads into sales.
Which email marketing provider should you use?
Most Popular Email Providers for Small Business Owners
ConvertKit – Is what I currently like to use. They now have a free plan that gives you some options. This is great for their free and paid plans.
MailerLite – is a great alternative if you are looking for an EMP that provides you with good options and paying little to nothing.
ActiveCampaign – is a little more expensive however they have a great platform once you’ve scaled your business to a certain point.
Klaviyo – is a great choice if you have an e-commerce store. It’s a platform that will allow for customization, analytics, order tracking, etc. They also offer monthly subscriptions so it’s perfect for dropshipping!
Flodesk – while this option is affordable it’s said to slow down your website.
MailChimp – is not as user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing as some other mailing list services.
ConstantContant – Some people love ConstantContant however I felt it was limiting and not user friendly (compared to other EMPs).
ConvertKit
After using different EMPs, I definitely feel that ConvertKit is by far the best EMP!! ConvertKit is user-friendly, they have great customer service/technical support and a variety of options.
I personally use ConvertKit. It allows me to easily add email opt-in forms & landing pages to my blog, landing pages, and manage my mailing list.
ConvertKit is specifically created for bloggers. If you decide to go with ConvertKit, I highly suggest watching the “New to ConvertKit” videos to give you an overview of how to use the different features. Feel free to reach out to me directly should you have any questions. FYI – ConvertKit is FREE for 15 days.
ConvertKit Pricing
ConvertKit now offers a free plan. This great because it allows new bloggers to get familiar with everything and start building an email list without paying a monthly fee in the beginning.
While the free plan is limited, it is more than enough to get started! After you create a few quality lead magnets and start really building your list you will want to consider upgrading to the paid plan. The paid plan is based on how many email subscribers you have.
MailerLite
MailerLite is really the best alternative if you are not ready for ConvertKit. Most of the features are already included in the forever free plan. They offer a drag-and-drop interface which makes it really user-friendly. You also get access to analytical reports and 24/7 customer support.
MailerLite Pricing
You can get started with MailerLite for FREE until 1,000 subscribers. Just like with ConvertKit, you don’t have to enter your credit card information until after you have more than 1,000 email subscribers.
4 Reasons Why Email Marketing is Important
Using email marketing providers help with:
- Capture new email subscribers
- Write, create and send amazing email campaigns and newsletters (ex. send personalized welcome messages to new subscribers, offer freebies, send broadcast msgs, etc). Once you set these up, everything will be automated – which will make your life so much easier!
- Organize your subscribers (by using tags) – this is powerful if you ever want to target certain subscribers and/or sell something.
- Analytical insight – This allows you to know what works and doesn’t work. It shows you all the numbers associated with each form and landing page (how many people received it, how many people opened it, and how many people clicked through with the links sent). I currently use and recommend this one and this one. You could always start with one EMP and then switch to a different one later on (if you can’t decide right away).
ActiveCampaign
This email service provider is very popular and still affordable. If you already have an engaged list, ActiveCampaign is absolutely a great alternative.
ActiveCampaign Pricing
One of the reasons that I recommend this ESP just as a good alternative is that it’s a little more in cost than ConvertKit. Once you are able to build an engaged list, you could consider switching – if needed but until then I highly suggest starting out with MailerLite.
Side Note: Because you don’t want a lot of expenses in the beginning, I highly recommend that you choose a free plan. Stick to a free plan until you are able to build your list to the point where you are able to monetize your list. That way you are able to keep your expenses low.
Now that I know why email marketing is important, what do I actually need to send in the emails?
Great question! While it is important to implement a good email marketing strategy it is just as important what you send and that you nurture your ideal audience on your list.
You do this with email sequences. The first one you want to get to know and use is a welcome sequence. There are different ways to be efficient with email marketing sequences.
To make things easy for you, I’ve created a welcome email sequence template that will help you to get started. You will want to tweak them to fit you and your business however it will save you a lot of time and prevent you from being overwhelmed.
Emails You Should Send
Depending on the kind of business you run and your personality, your email sequences will vary however you should send different types of emails to your audience to build the like, trust, and know factor. You will need to create sequences to convert your subscribers into buyers.
To do this, here’s a variety of emails you can send to your email subscribers:
- Content emails
- Referral emails
- Free gift emails
- Feedback emails
- Survey emails
Emails You Shouldn’t Send
These could kill your email marketing strategy:
- Not sending emails – this will definitely hinder you from growing your list. Try to avoid not sending emails at all. This tends to be an issue for new entrepreneurs because email marketing can be overwhelming when you don’t know what to do.
- Cold Emails – if you’re sending emails to people who aren’t interested in them, your open rates will be low – which will affect your deliverability (this is when your emails land in people’s spam folder instead of their inbox).
- Hard Sells – no one is interested in opening emails that are only trying to sell them something. Those emails are boring and, once again, unwanted. What you need to do is provide value [along with selling with affiliate marketing and your own products & services]. Make sure people like to see and read your emails. Doing anything else would be a waste of time!
Tips to Keep Your Email List Engaged
- Provide valuable information that helps solve your audience’s problems, entertain, and/or inspire.
- Be genuine. Get in the habit of talking to your audience as if they’re a friend or family member. Be yourself!
Why Email Marketing is Important in Small Businesses
The Advantages of Email Marketing for Small Businesses
Why email marketing is important in small businesses? To put it bluntly, email marketing is a cost-effective marketing method that gives small businesses [like yours] a way to connect with your audience and sell to them. Email marketing is free or low-cost and produces great results.
That said, I feel like emails are the perfect way to add a personal touch to your business, and to let your customers know you care about them. Things like surveys, discussions, and even updates about your business might help develop a positive brand image among your consumers.
Additionally, it helps you stay connected to your audience.
Things to Keep in Mind
- Choose an email marketing provider. I recommend ConvertKit or MailerLite. The EMP you choose to use should be based on your preference, how large your list currently is and your budget. You can always start with one of the EMP and switch to a different one later on. It’s really easy to import and export your list from one EMP to another one.
- Determine what your audience would want and feel is extremely valuable. Remember, you’re gonna give this to them for FREE in exchange for obtaining their email addresses. Once you determine what you’re lead magnets will be, create 3-5 different lead magnets.
- Build and nurture your email list. Use your email marketing provider to promote your own products and services and affiliate products.
- As your email list grows, be sure to organize (aka segment) your subscribers. This allows you to target certain people, avoid sending repetitive emails, etc.
- Think about how you measure email marketing success. Is your goal for your email marketing campaign just to provide information to your customers? In that case, it might be a great idea for you to measure your marketing success by the open rate of your emails. But if you’re aiming to drive up sales, try measuring your success in the number of people who are clicking through and actually buying.
Final Thoughts on Why Email Marketing is Important for Small Businesses
Email marketing is an effective way to market your company, but can be daunting at first. Remember, the goal is to get your audience to know, like, and trust you. Once you achieve that you can make sales and scale your business.
I would love to hear from you . . . Leave a comment below and let me know if this article helped.