8 Email Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

8 Email Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

Maintaining top-of-mind positioning with clients and prospects with email marketing is an essential part of today’s business environment. Here are a few tips to help you optimize your email marketing.

1. Practice Good Database Hygiene

Your database is the key. It is crucial that you keep it clean, stripping out non-working and (more importantly) unsubscribed addresses. If you can, segment the database by buyer persona — this will allow you to create much more effective, targeted email campaigns. And if you need to build a bigger database, do it the right way: utilize landing pages that clearly offer prospects something high-quality and relevant to their needs.

Have you considered buying a list? Don’t.

2. Invest in Quality Delivery and Tracking

If you have to send your  newsletter from your work computer, be wary of CAN-SPAM laws (and don’t forget to bcc the recipients). But you shouldn’t have to. A surplus of email marketing services are available, no matter your budget. They range from free (MailChimp), to advanced (CampaignMonitor), to automation-friendly (HubSpot).

Tracking and analyzing each email marketing campaign will prove to be your most rewarding habit. Knowing what emails get opened and what links get clicked on will allow you to adjust your copy and offers accordingly, leading to an overall more effective campaign.

3. Be Mobile

Mobile is a force to be reckoned with, and not only is it not going away anytime soon, its numbers are growing exponentially. Whether it’s a smartphone or tablet, a large percentage of your email recipients will be reading your email on these devices, so plan accordingly.

4. Subject Line 101

With some users receiving 100’s of emails each day, the subject line can often make or break an email marketing campaign. Keeping your subject line clear, concise, and avoiding words (“Free!”) that trigger spam filters will help you to get a better response. Entire books have been written on this subject.

5. Lose The Whale

You’re not sending a novel that rivals Moby Dick. An email that runs too long will be bogged down and the main message can easily be missed.  Use hyperlinks to expand any topics that run on longer than your email can easily accommodate.

6.  “Do Not Send” Means “Do Not Send”

Make it easy to opt-out of your email list. But since you’re using an email marketing service (see above), they do all the heavy lifting and make unsubscribing easy. And once somebody unsubscribes, respect his or her decision and move on with your life.

7. Testing 1-2-3

“Measure twice, cut once” is an age-old carpenter’s maxim, a rule that handymen still live by today. So adopt a similar philosophy, a “test twice, send once” approach. A test email will confirm that there are no typos, all images are visible, and that hyperlinks are live. A few extra minutes of proofing and testing your email marketing campaign is time well spent.

8. Include Calls-To-Action

No matter what the message of your email marketing campaign is, make sure that the ability to contact you or take the next action is clear and available. You don’t have to go overboard with the sales-y, marketing speak, but a subtle call-to-action is never inappropriate. Let your recipients know that they can contact you, not just to spend money, but because you are a trusted source in your industry.

I highly recommend that you read “12 Ingredients of a Remarkable Email,” our free eBook. There, we dissect and explain the perfect marketing email.