Email marketing is arguably one of the most important digital marketing strategies and has been for years. There’s been a rumor that email is dead, but it’s not true! Email is thriving and proving that businesses of all sizes can utilize its power. For small businesses, in particular, it can be a powerful tool but can be difficult to manage without knowing how to do it properly. We’ve collected four ways to manage email marketing for your small business.
1. Pick The Right Platform
There are many options for small business email marketing platforms, including free options. Our advice is to pick the platform that works best for you. They all do the same thing, but their pricing tiers vary. If you’re just starting, your needs may be different from someone who has thousands of subscribers. Here are a few suggestions for email marketing platforms that work great for small businesses. Remember to research to find the best one for your business.
2. Build Your List
This is the most important step! You must have a way for people to subscribe to your emails. The easiest way is to create a subscription form for people to fill out. You can embed it on your website and post it on social media. Make sure you receive only necessary information relative to your business. You want the form to be super simple and easy to fill out. Additionally, explain the value they will receive by signing up for your emails so you set their expectations.
You can also build your list by offering a freebie. Freebies are pieces of content that are free to someone in exchange for their email address. By them opting in through the freebie submission form, they are permitting you to email them. You can add these folks to your regular email list.
3. Set Up Nurture Campaigns
Nurture campaigns are highly effective for small businesses. Nurture campaigns nurture a prospect through the buyer’s journey. Typically, they have indicated an interest in a product or service and are automatically entered into a nurture campaign. The campaign consists of a series of emails that are sent at a predetermined frequency.
We’ll give you an example. At AIM Social, we offer social media marketing services to small businesses. Let’s say we create a freebie titled How To Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy. When someone downloads our freebie, we know they are interested in growing their social media. We would then put them in a nurture campaign that provides them with more valuable resources and helpful information around growing their social media. The goal is to have them book a discovery call with us. When they first downloaded the freebie, they may not have been ready to speak with someone. After going through our nurture campaign and learning about what we have to offer and how using an agency can elevate their business, they’re interested in learning more.
The goal of nurture campaigns is to get them to eventually take an action. That could be booking a discovery call with you, enrolling in your course, purchasing a product, or anything else your business offers. These are highly effective, and the best part about them is each email in the series is automated!
4. Provide Value
People subscribed to your list because they expect you to deliver valuable content. First, give them what you promised they would receive upon signing up for your emails. Then, continue providing resources, advice, opinions, services, or products that help them. While email marketing is used to grow your business, don’t focus solely on selling them. Think of your subscribers as your people. You want to only give them things they need, not constantly sell them on the same product or service over and over. That will only lead to unsubscribes. Provide value, and your audience will eventually buy from you organically.
Once you have the management of your email marketing down, you can focus on continuing to improve your processes. Constantly provide your subscribers with value to continue building your email list. A strong email marketing list can increase revenue, website traffic, brand awareness, and SEO. Email isn’t dead, you just have to know how to use it to its fullest potential. By using the tips in this blog, we’re confident that you can grow your business through email marketing.
About AIM Social Media Marketing
Here at AIM, we create a plan with innovative marketing strategies to resonate with today’s consumers. Your experience with the world of social media marketing should not be a one size fits all experience! We make sure to brand your company with a fresh perspective while communicating in a professional, yet unique social media voice. We believe that it is important to build a reputable online presence to be successful. We focus on gaining awareness and exposure while encouraging engagement to foster a larger online clientele.