As we approach the end of the first quarter of 2025 and the end of the tax year, it is a perfect time to reflect on how things are going so far this year, are you on track with your goals? Or do you need to do something different with your marketing?
At RIMU Marketing when we start working with a new client, the first step is to sit down with them to review their marketing approach, we consider how each of their marketing pillars are performing and if they are working well together. One of those key pillars is email marketing. During some recent conversations with small business owners and feedback from our recent survey, there were a couple of common email marketing FAQs that were being asked. So, with this in mind, I thought I would share them in the wider space, they include:
1. Is email marketing still relevant for small businesses?
Yes! If you have followed me for a while you will know I am a huge fan of email marketing. This remains a highly effective strategy to directly connect with your target audience. Working alongside other media it is the perfect compliment to enable businesses to directly reach their customers, keeping them forefront of mind and building a relationship with them. Cited to achieve a 40:1 ROI when done well, it is a really cost-effective channel and a key part of the marketing mix. In one of our other articles “The Benefits of Email Marketing for Small Businesses”, we explain this further.
2. How can I grow my email base?
This can be a tricky one to answer and should be a focus of your ongoing marketing activity planning. Providing value to your customers through sharing relevant content is at the heart of how to grow your list. Using sign-up forms on your website, setting up competitions, creating lead magnets and running webinars can all act as great tools to start the conversation with potential clients. We wrote a blog about this last year, click HERE to read a little more around this.
3. What types of emails should I send to my subscribers?
Common types of email include: newsletters, promotional offers, product updates, seasonal offers and business news. Planning and tailoring your email content to ensure it adds value is really important and should form part of your marketing planning process.
4. How often should I send an email?
Some small business owners shy away from sending an email as they are concerned they will be spammy or come across as too salesy. Email marketing is a really useful tool to keep your business at the forefront of your consumers’ minds so start with a monthly newsletter. Create a content plan where you are providing useful content and answering their questions. You can build on this frequency when you have a campaign running or a special offer to share. More importantly, the unsubscribe rate will give you a good warning sign if you are sending too many emails. Always start with a frequency that you can maintain, especially during peak, busy times in the business.
5. How can I improve my email open and click-through rates?
Your open and click-through rates are two key metrics that will indicate how your audience value your content. By focusing on improving the rates we first need to start by creating compelling and attention grabbing subject lines. Providing valuable content in the email, personalisation and ensuring mobile-friendly design will also help. By using the A/B split testing function, available in most email deployment tools, will provide further guidance on what works for your audience.
6. What metrics should I track to assess email marketing success?
The key metrics to be aware of for your email marketing are open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, sales and unsubscribe rates. By monitoring and responding to the insights these metrics provide will help you to take steps to improve performance.
7 How can I avoid spam folders?
Spam folders are getting more and more sophisticated. Things to consider to help your emails ending up here include:
- Using reputable email marketing services eg: Mailchimp and MailerLite.
- Avoid certain language triggers eg: use the word “Free” with caution.
- Ensure your recipients have opted in.
- Include a clear unsubscribe option, most tools not have this built in as a compulsory function.
- Send your emails from a personal email address if you can.
8. What are the legal considerations?
With GDPR coming into force back in May 2018 it is important to treat you audience’s data with respect. I always think a good guide is to consider how you would like your data to be treated. By ensuring you have clear unsubscribe options in place and that you have your audience’s consent to contact them, as far as possible. There is a little bit of a grey area with “legitimate interest”, so be careful to ensure that this audience may have a genuine reason to hear from you.
Above we have shared some of our recent email marketing FAQs, please let us know if you have other questions that you would like us to answer. For our complete guide to email marketing for small business owners, click HERE. If you would like some help kick starting your email marketing strategy for Q2, please get in touch to see how we can help.
