Email marketing is one of those things that, on the surface, seems pretty simple. But once you start peeling back the layers, it can become a lot more complex.

A small business’s guide to email marketing

Who are you going to send the email to?

Oftentimes, when we think about email marketing, the first thing we think of is the message we want to push out into the world. But when we flip that, and we start focusing first and foremost on who’s going to receive this message, it ultimately leads to more success.

Whether you’re sending an email to 5,000 recipients or 50, you want them to feel like they’re the only person you’re emailing today.

When you start with a focus on who you are going to send the email to, it really helps achieve the personal touch that creates results.

How do you find people for your mailing list?

The days of purchasing or scraping lists are far behind us. Consumers are savvy, and they’ll remember whether or not they gave you their email address.

You wouldn’t just show up unexpectedly at a friend’s house without a text or a phone call, and you shouldn’t show up in someone’s inbox without first being invited, either.

Besides, when your recipients actually want your emails, every aspect of your campaign will be more successful, from your open rate to your conversion rate. Let people give you their information.

Consider different ways to get people to give you their email address, like in order to take advantage of a special offer or gain access to exclusive content. Some people are eager to read your content and stay up to date with what’s going on with your business, and they’ll willingly sign up for your email newsletter.

Capturing an email address is almost like making a mini sale, and there’s a lot of value and potential there.

A lot of small businesses skip right to the sale, but step one to building long-lasting customer relationships is often just capturing their email address. Now you have that email address, you’ve opened a direct communication channel that you can use again and again.

From there, make sure you’re providing them with value.

How do you keep your contacts organized?

Having small business CRM software where you can capture all the information and easily access it is critical to success in email marketing.

An email is only as valuable as it is relevant to the person receiving it. You can have a beautiful email, but if you send it to the wrong people, you’re really not going to see any value from it.

The more information you can capture, the better you’ll be able to personalize your emails and get the right message to the right person at the right time.

Noting things like, what type of services they always schedule, when their birthday is and which products they buy the most, can be effective fields for personalization.

By using CRM software to keep track of all of this data, it unlocks automation you can take advantage of. When people fall into a certain bucket, they get an email, or a certain automated cadence of emails.

This is so super powerful, and it doesn’t take a lot of time to manage. All you have to do is set it up properly and keep your contacts updated appropriately.

What are you going to send?

Even if you’re new to using email marketing for your business, you’re probably already a lot more familiar with it than you might think.

Every day, we receive hundreds of emails. For your own email marketing efforts, it pays off to think about how you interact with the email marketing directed at you.

Think about which emails you open and which emails you don’t. And, of the emails you open, did you find that the content was interesting enough to hold your attention, or did you immediately delete it?

Take what you learn from your own experience and apply it to your email marketing strategy.

Above all else, provide value

Every email you send should have some sort of value, whether it be coupons and promotions or information your customers need.

For example, if you’re a plumber, you could send out tips for preparing the plumbing in your home for winter.

Of course, we all know that you have a purpose for sending the email. The goal is not just to inform your customers, but to remind them that you’re there and encourage them to call you to schedule an appointment or take advantage of an offer.

Marry the message. Provide value first, and then ask them for something in return.

Your average recipient is going to be receiving a lot of emails from many different companies. What’s going to make your emails stand out is the value you provide.

Keep your content current

Figuring out what to write about is half the battle with email marketing. But, there’s always something going on — a fun holiday to celebrate, something seasonal happening or something in the news.

The best emails are going to be relevant and timely, and they’re going to touch on what’s going on right now.

Take a few minutes to peruse your favorite news websites, and learn about what’s going on in the world. This can really help to get the creativity going and the wheels turning in your brain.

Take advantage of automation

Automating email campaigns whenever you can will help you save time and ensure that the right communications get to the right people, regardless of how busy your schedule gets.

If you have a CRM that’s built into your email automation tool, you can set up a journey so that, when someone completes an action (like clicking a link or making a purchase), you’ll send them an email, and after a certain amount of time, you’ll send them another one. And, if they take an action on that, send them another email.

It’s up to you to decide which actions trigger which emails.

For example, if you’re a landscaper who recently put in some new sod, you know that two weeks later, it’s going to need to be mowed and maintained, so you could send them an email offering to take care of it for them.

Think about the initial service provided and how you can build off of it in the future. Build automated campaigns around that timeline to stay top of mind and help your customers get the most out of their initial investment.

When are you going to send it?

After making a purchase or scheduling a service on a website, people expect to get an email. The first email you send after any sort of transaction should go out quickly.

This email kicks off the relationship, and you want to send it when your brand is still top of mind, so when they see it, they’ll recognize it instead of immediately deleting it.

If you’re really lucky, they may even add you to their contact list or star your emails, which tells the system that they want to make sure they always receive your emails.

There are also certain days of the week and certain times that people are more likely to open their emails.

According to industry standards, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days for emails, but it’s important to focus on what works for your business.

Think about your recipients. If you’re trying to reach out to parents, for example, when do they have that 30 minutes where they’re scrolling their phone waiting for their kids to get out of soccer practice?

If you’re targeting executives, when do they have that moment to shift out of business mode and into checking their personal email? That might be 10 pm for them.

Instead of focusing on what all the statistics say, focus on your customers and your business.

Do some A/B testing. Take the exact same email, and send one at 6 am on a Tuesday and another one at lunchtime on a Wednesday. Then, look at your results and see what works and what doesn’t.

Use automation to get your timing right

If someone fills out a form on your website, wait 48 hours, and then send them an email at around the same time of day they filled out the form.

If they fill out the form at 9 pm, that’s probably when they have their little bit of computer time every night before they go to bed. Set up your automations to be time-based, and you’re more likely to email them at a time that’s right for them.

Email marketing automation is great because the more you do up front, the more the system runs it for you. With automation, you can work smarter instead of harder.

Don’t be too hasty after an abandoned cart

If someone puts a product in their shopping cart and then closes your site, sending them an email to remind them that they have items in their cart can help to encourage them to come back.

However, you don’t want to be too hasty when sending an email after a cart has been abandoned.

Give them a chance to come back and make a purchase before you send an email. Sending an email right away can come across as overly aggressive or eager.

Make it a point to follow up after someone has abandoned a cart, but play with how much time you wait to send it and test your results.

What are the results, and how can you learn from them?

As I already mentioned, testing your campaigns is important. It can help you get the timing right, find the most effective message and drive better results.

After you send an email, take a beat to dive in and find out how it performed and what you can do better next time.

Email marketing metrics to monitor

Open rate

If you sent your email to 100 people, how many of those people actually opened that email? This is the open rate.

Right now, the national average is anywhere between 17% and 24%, depending upon which studies that you look at.

So, if you’re getting an open rate of over 25% for example, that is amazing. That means you’re sending the right message at the right time and to the right people.

If your open rate drops below 10%, it might be time to re-evaluate.

Click-through rate

Depending on what industry you’re in, your click-through rate may not be as relevant. For example, if your goal is to get people to call, you can’t track that with the click-through rate.

However, if the whole point of sending an email is for them to click through and watch a video, you’re going to really want to focus on that click-through rate.

Monitoring your click-through rate (when it’s applicable) can help you gauge how convincing your content is.

Unsubscribe rate

What percentage of people are unsubscribing from your emails? Ideally, you want your unsubscribe rate to be under 2%.

If you start to get an unsubscribe rate over 5%, it might be time to stop and look at what you’re sending and make sure you’re focusing on providing value and getting your message to the right people.

It’s important to make sure that you’re using email marketing software that will ensure that you are compliant with current spam laws and that has an unsubscribe built right into it.

People need the right to be able to click on an email and unsubscribe from it. Best practice is to unsubscribe them right away, and use a software system that does that for you is really recommended.

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Email marketing can be a powerful addition to any small business marketing strategy. Learn about Marketing 360®’s easy-to-use email marketing software, as well as how our content managers can help you maximize your email marketing investment.

See our plans and pricing.