The Power of Email Marketing: effective strategies for leveraging email to skyrocket business growth
Today’s blog post on the power of email marketing has been contributed by Maya Vertigans from Planner Bee VA Services. I first met Maya through a UK-wide networking group for business women and, as we both operate in the B2B space and are both running businesses based in Scotland, we had plenty in common. Maya runs an eco Virtual Assistant Service, specialising in supporting sustainable businesses with their digital marketing, including email marketing. This article draws on Maya’s wealth of email marketing knowledge and experience, to compile the most effective strategies for leveraging email marketing to skyrocket your business growth.
With the rise of popular social media platforms, many small businesses have turned their attention (and limited time/ resources) to marketing their business through social media, instead of email marketing. Small businesses are often run by solopreneurs or a small team, and it just isn’t possible to be everywhere and do everything. But, with an average return on investment of 122% (higher than other marketing channels, including social media), email marketing remains relevant as a marketing channel for small businesses in 2023. Plus, 66% of customers have made a purchase as a result of receiving email marketing communications meaning email can be a powerful tool for business growth. If you haven’t got an active email marketing strategy as part of your business marketing activities, you could be missing out…
Whether you have already grown your email list or you are starting from scratch, this article details the effective strategies you need to be using in your business, to leverage email marketing and skyrocket business growth.
Setting Goals to Grow Your Business with Email Marketing
Before diving into the strategies for leveraging email marketing to skyrocket your business growth, it is important to get clear on the goals for your email marketing. What do you want to achieve through email marketing and how does this fit into your wider business strategy? Being clear on your objectives and how email marketing will help you to achieve your wider business goals will guide your strategy and how you measure the success of your campaigns. Your goals will also help you to decide how frequently you will contact your email subscribers - will you be sending weekly, biweekly, monthly or quarterly emails?
The below article focuses on strategies for utilising email marketing within your business, rather than email marketing tools. If you haven’t got an email marketing software set up, I recommend Mailerlite. It is the email marketing platform we use at Planner Bee VA Services and has a great free plan - sign up via my affiliate link here.
Growing Your Email List to Skyrocket Business Growth
An engaged email list is at the core of a successful email marketing strategy, after all, there isn’t much point in spending hours working on email content if you don’t have anybody to send your emails to!
When it comes to growing your email list, lead magnets continue to be a popular option. There are various forms that your lead magnet could take, for example a discount or offer can work well for product-based businesses. For service-based businesses, a workshop recording, PDF downloadable guide or checklist can all be effective lead magnets. Alternatively, get creative and come up with something a little different for your lead magnet. For example, I run a Sustainable Small Business Directory whereby ethical businesses can be listed on the directory for free, in return for providing their email address. The key when creating an effective lead magnet to grow your email list is to be clear on what your audience wants/ needs and to create your lead magnet to address that pain point or desire.
Another effective option for growing your email list is to utilise your existing marketing channels. For example, add a pop-up form to your website or add a sign-up form to your homepage. Additionally, as you build up your community on social media, use these platforms to promote and grow your email list.
Creating Compelling Content to Connect with your Community through Email
As your email list starts to grow, it is time to start creating email content to connect with your community.
Writing Attention-Grabbing Subject Lines
The subject line and pre-header text will dictate whether or not your community open the emails you send them. Similar to the hook on social media, your subject line needs to grab attention and compel your reader to open the email.
5 top tips for creating compelling subject lines:
- Don’t waffle. Short, concise, to the point subject lines perform best. Aim for your email subject line to be no longer than 9 words or 60 characters.
- Use action-oriented language to create a sense of urgency.
- Include numbers or ask questions to create curiosity and encourage the reader to open the email to find out more.
- Using personalisation to add the recipient's name to the subject line can increase open rate and also help you to build a connection with the reader.
- Test different subject lines, analyse which subjects increase your email open rate then look to repeat this.
Engaging Emails to Increase Conversions and Skyrocket your Business
Once you have grabbed the attention of the reader with your subject line, the next step is to create engaging emails that will build a connection with your audience and increase conversions. The secret to creating engaging emails is to know your audience, because if you know who you are talking to, you will find it much easier to write content that will resonate, be valuable and address a pain point. Try different styles of emails such as more personal newsletters, promotional offers, product features and educational content (e.g. sharing a blog post or resource), to see which performs best for your audience. When you consistently deliver value into the inbox of your reader, you will build up relationships over time and this should result in conversions.
TOP TIP: nobody likes being sold to all of the time, so ensure your emails are providing value, as well as selling. Adding a “PS” to a value-led email, with a call-to-action at the end is a great way of delivering value, whilst also letting people know how they can benefit from your products or services.
The Power of Email Marketing for Small Businesses
Email marketing remains a powerful tool to build relationships with your customers and with an effective strategy, email marketing can skyrocket your business. As with many things, you get out what you put in with email marketing, but if you spend the time establishing an effective strategy, you will reap the benefits.
If this article has made you realise that you just don’t have time for email marketing (and we haven’t even discussed setting up automations and sequences…), you can find out more about how we can support you with your email marketing here.
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