Marketing & Media Opinion South Africa

5 email marketing tactics for small businesses

Email marketing... The tactic or online strategy that so many deemed dead a few years ago. The good news is that email marketing is nowhere near dead and the famous stat that for every dollar spent on email marketing you could expect 4-10x more in return is still true.

There is a simple reason for the above and that it's much easier to sell to your existing customer base than it is to sell to new people.

The trust factor is there!

They gave you permission to email them and believe it or not, they are looking forward to your amazing content/promotions or anything else you got to offer.

With the above said, I want to outline five simple email marketing tactics your small business can use right away for increased brand awareness and hopefully if done right, more money in your pocket.

1. The lead magnet email marketing tactic approach to capture emails

This first email marketing tactic for small businesses isn’t even an email marketing tactic but it lays the foundation for the next four tactics.

You see, the first step in using these email marketing tactics for your small business is actually getting your customer’s email address. This is a strategic approach, but it all boils down to one very important question every business needs to ask themselves: What could be something (so valuable and free) that I can give my potential customer in exchange for their email address?

Some marketers call this an ethical bribe, either way if they really want that piece of value you’re providing, they will have no problem giving their email address to access it.

2. The email sequence email marketing tactic for small businesses

Next is the sequence email marketing tactic email for your small business. This is the very first tactic and can vary from business to business but in a nutshell, it’s a type of email sequence sent to your potential customer with the intention of “warming” them up before you initiate your sale.

For example, if the email sequence has five emails, then email number one will be an introduction or a welcome. Email two is aimed at further providing valuable information. Email three can be a tip or testimonial for example. Email four to five is now finally aimed at making the sale or selling your service.

The absolute great thing about these emails is that they are all automated.

In other words, you spend some time crafting these emails and they get sent automatically to each subscriber from the time they subscribe.

3. The welcome email marketing tactic for small businesses

This is your first impression and you want to make sure this one is a good great one. Include some sort of welcome message and briefly talk about who you are and what your audience can expect in the next few emails.

A friendly link to unsubscribe should be included in all emails but it's good practice to make this as clear as possible. The benefits of joining your list can also be mentioned.

Eg. You’ll receive exclusive content straight to your inbox that no one else will.

Make them feel special and personal as well.

4. The promotion email marketing tactic for small businesses

Are you launching a new product or service? Or maybe you have a promotion running for a limited time?

Sending a promotional type email is a brilliant strategy for your small business and as we touched on in the beginning, remember that you not just sending it out to random people, rather they are highly interested in these promotions and so the chances of them taking action is much more likely.

Use these sparingly though as some of your customers may not like receiving promotions that often and either way if you have nurtured them correctly in the past, they won't really mind in the end.

5. Analytics email marketing tactic

Numbers don’t lie and they say you can’t improve on anything that you cant measure.

There are two main metrics or key areas to keep an eye on for this email marketing tactic for small businesses. They are Open Rate and Click Through Rate.

Open Rate is basically the number of people that actually opened up your email. Ensuring that the email heading is creative and unique as well as inserting your customers' name will ensure a higher open rate and is vital.

Next is Click Through Rate (CTR) and this is usually the final destination you want your customer to go to. Ensure that you make the link extremely easy and visible and also ensure the link goes to one place only. There is no problem having multiple links, but they need to all go to the same destination.

Conclusion

Always remember that no matter what email you send out, ensure that it takes your customer to the next stage of their journey. A bonus tip is that you have to ensure your copy (i.e the words of the email) are written in a friendly and natural way.

About Muhammad Jada

Muhammad Jada is digital marketer and online advertiser at DigitalConnexion
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