There’s so much happening in marketing; search is upside down with generative AI, and social media platforms have algorithms that want to retain users.
With all this, email marketing remains one of the most effective and trusted marketing channels because it builds a direct relationship between you and your customer.
But are email marketers always happy with their open, click, and conversion rates?
If not, it might be due to mistakes that are hindering the success of your email marketing.
While working with many B2B, SaaS, tech, and ecommerce companies, we have identified a few things that could be improved with their email marketing.
So, I thought I’d list them here to help email marketers identify if they’re making any of these mistakes and preventing themselves from driving better open, clicking, and conversion rates.
Disclaimer: These mistakes are purely based on my experiences, and examples are just for inspiration and learning purposes.
19 Email Marketing Mistakes That Cost You Big Time Today
1. Missing Out On The Email Purpose
One of the biggest email marketing mistakes is not defining the “why” of the email.
If you don’t know what you want to achieve with your email, you’re efforts are likely in vain.
You need to answer this: Why are you looking to send this email? Some examples might be:
- Attract the right audience.
- Get leads.
- More sign-ups.
- Drive audience interaction.
Once you have this answer, every other aspect of the email can fall into place – such as how the email copy should be, what the CTA would be, and more!
Copy this email marketing calendar template with reporting by Missive Digital. (Disclaimer: I’m the founder of Missive Digital.)
2. Failing To Define The Success Metrics
I’ve purposefully mentioned this email marketing mistake early on. Just like the purpose of your email, you cannot skip defining success metrics.
What do I mean by the success metrics of email marketing? They are:
- Conversions.
- Traffic.
- Open rate.
- Unique opens.
- Click-through rate.
- Unique clicks.
- Conversion rate.
- Unsubscribes.
- Number of soft and hard bounces.
- Spam rate.
And more, depending on the industry you’re in.
But why is not defining these email marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) a mistake? Because every email is not for traffic and conversions.
Sometimes it might be for:
- Increase the open rate by 30%.
- Add more unique opens by 33%.
- Reduce the unsubscribes by 10%.
- Increase unique clicks by 80%.
- Etc.
For example, the first KPI metric you measure might be ensuring that people open your welcome email.
You might make variations in subject lines and test among different new subscribers.
With that new welcome email, the agenda is not getting conversions, as the challenge you’re trying to solve is the open rates.
So, as mentioned above, any email you send has a different purpose, and every goal has different KPIs to measure.
Until and unless you define such success metrics beforehand, you won’t craft the email copy accordingly and hence, you won’t see results.
3. Not Upgrading The Subscribers’ Tags/Segments
Is it a new subscriber you’re speaking to? Or have they become a subscriber after unsubscribing?
Did a subscriber attend your webinar? If yes, how many times?
Does a customer make a repeat purchase every season?
In email marketing, keeping track of and updating the subscribers’ tags becomes mandatory. When you track a subscriber’s engagement, you can send them more relevant messages.
For example, you can send a special discount to a loyal audience member. Retail brands still do it during festive seasons for their customers.
You can email them with an exclusive offer and make sure they visit the store to avail of the discounts. That’s how you can make your customers feel special.
The same can also happen in the B2B or SaaS industry. You can upgrade the subscribers’ tags every time a person progresses in the customer journey – like attending webinars, downloading whitepapers/ebooks, etc.
For example, AllEvents.in is an event publishing and discovery platform which used to send me one email every week based on the event interactions that I had with its platform or emails.
I was following Serpzilla’s Ahmedabad event on the platform as I was a speaker.
Screenshot from Serpzilla, July 2023So, this event platform also emailed me about another event by the same organizer, but in Bangalore.
Screenshot from author, July 2023Most email automation tools have this functionality to add tags in email workflows. We must identify when a subscriber is moving forward or backward in the customer journey.
As this is a tedious and time-consuming task, and sometimes the database is quite large in which to identify their journey and update the tags, some email marketers skip this.
Doing this would negatively impact your ROI, so you shouldn’t make this mistake.
Instead, gradually refine your customer journey stages within your email workflows.
4. Failing To Plan In Advance
With this email marketing mistake, I’m not just talking about planning the drip campaigns but even the customer journey before setting up the email automation.
Setting up workflows on email marketing platforms becomes highly challenging when you don’t have a documented customer journey.
At what stage will you consider a subscriber coming closer to the sales cycle, or will it be too early to pitch sales? If these things are not decided, you may lose the opportunity to convert a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) into a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL).
Note: This mistake is not for community-serving newsletters.
As shown in the above point, you can set up a calendar for the newsletter series and create workflows for customer journey emails.
We create an entire email workflow on the Lucid app and then take it to any email automation tool. Then, based on the user interactions, we enhance the audience’s email journey with us.
Here is how we did for one of our IT clients for an ebook download:
Screenshot from author, July 20235. Planning Only Sales-focused Emails
Planning only sales-focused emails is considered a huge mistake for email marketers, especially when you’ve just started.
When a subscriber joins you, you must welcome them. Try grabbing their attention by educating them slowly and gradually, and then when they show some interest or become an MQL for you, that’s where pitching the sales would make more sense.
With the Tragofone VoIP softphone brand, we planned the newsletters with details about our conferences, features, blogs, industry-specific announcements, and more.
Screenshot from author, July 20232After every two to three feature update emails, we tried broaching different topics, such as:
- Become a Tragofone partner.
- Who uses a softphone?
- Free Trial.
- Build Your Own Softphone.
If you start by sharing your offers with people before winning their trust (especially for non-ecommerce), this mistake might result in lost subscribers or low engagement.
6. Skipping The “Who” While Writing Emails
The person writing the email needs to know who they are writing for and the psychology of their audience.
We all have multiple personas whom we target as our potential customers and their influencers.
In my BrightonSEO talk on Remarketing SEO, I mentioned that we have two different types of audiences: prospects or key decision-makers and the people who influence their buying decision.
Image from author, July 2023If you don’t consider which persona you’re targeting for an email, you may provide the information they least care about, or your marketing message might go wrong.
In any of these cases, you’re losing the results you might have expected.
I would call this an email marketing blunder instead of a mistake here.
For example, an SEO tool like SE Ranking may target three audiences: agencies, in-house SEO pros (freelancers/consultants), and business owners.
Here the messaging would differ, even if the company wants to promote the same product features to all three.
- Agencies – It would discuss efficiency, scalability, performance optimization, collaboration, white-label reporting, and more.
- SEO – It would talk about how its automation saves time for tech, on-page, link-building, local SEO, performance tracking, customer support, and more.
- Business Owners – It would discuss enhanced online visibility, comprehensive competitive analysis, user-friendly interface, conversion optimization, and more.
How can you write a targeted marketing message if you don’t know who you’re speaking to? Ensure you avoid this mistake by putting your audience on your calendar.
7. Not Playing Smart With Subject Lines
If your subject lines don’t work, forget about the marketing message and the result.
This graph by HubSpot showcases how the number of monthly email campaigns can impact the open rates.
Yes, sometimes, the number of emails does impact the open rates, but it also depends on their subject lines.
A lot of articles have been written on email subject line hacks. Many marketing professionals share their experiences with subject lines and suggest invoking scarcity, using FOMO, personalization, etc.
But you need to be extra careful while using those hacks. They can backfire and affect your email marketing return on investment (ROI).
For example, if you use the FOMO-styled subject line, but the copy doesn’t resonate with your audience, the next FOMO-based email you send might have a lesser impact.
A/B testing can be a quick solution for seeing which email subject line works for your audience.
After all, marketing is all about experimenting and then developing conclusions.
8. Having Emails “Entirely” Written By Outsiders
By outsiders, I mean freelancers or writers from agencies.
There’s no harm in hiring them. The mistake is only providing them with an email title and the number of words to be written.
When I wrote the 21 content writing mistakes, I mentioned that not giving enough information about your business to the writers can cost you big time, as they’re not the subject-matter experts for your business.
You know your business more than others.
That’s why, even if you hire email writers, you need to provide them with the following information:
- For whom they need to write – business owners, marketers, CTOs, etc.
- What you expect to achieve with this email – sign-ups, replies, etc.
- What you want them to include in the email copy – features, case studies, etc?
- What the audience should get from this email – education, lead magnet, etc.
- The links you want in your email – should include sign-up, Calendly, etc.
- And any other information that they would need to write the email better.
Then you can do the final editing and publish it.
After all, marketing needs a collaborative approach, including SEO.
9. Writing Ultra-Formal, Sales-Heavy Language
When I see emails not in the first or second-person language, they feel ultra-formal.
You can use “we” or “you” in your email copy even if you represent an organization or brand. It doesn’t need to be bland.
Your current audience might not care, but the new reading generation would.
Screenshot from Inc.com, July 2023I understand that with a large audience, it is challenging to add personalization, but you can at least curate two lines for each of these topics for your audience to drive more CTRs.
Even the prime purpose of reading AppSumo emails is to find new tools, it would explain what each tool is all about; this makes it easier to drive more clicks.
Screenshot from AppSumo, July 2023On top of this, marketers try to make sales through email (as I mentioned above). That comes out as a weird combination; most of the time, it frustrates subscribers.
So, use creativity to make the most out of your emails.
10. Not Invoking Subscribers To Interact
I don’t mean chatting is interaction.
Interactions in email marketing mean opening emails, clicking links or buttons, replying or forwarding, unsubscribing, downloading the lead magnet, signing up for the webinar, and more.
This doesn’t happen overnight; optimizing using the data is a long process.
The following things can boost your subscriber interactions apart from the subject lines and segmentation:
- Add personalization to tailor your emails based on subscriber data such as their name, purchase history, or preferences.
- Include a clear and prominent CTA in your emails to make them visually appealing, use action-oriented language, and provide a compelling reason for subscribers to click.
Screenshot from author, July 2023I personalized the subject line by Taylor Holiday from Common Thread Collective, which talks to you like your colleague or peer.
When you’re talking about learning, the BlueArray SEO team knows what CTA to put:
Screenshot from Blue Array Academy, July 2023- Incorporate interactive elements within your emails to increase engagement, such as embedded videos, quizzes, surveys, polls, or interactive images.
This below survey by Growth Hackers is a great example of using a survey to increase interactiveness. If you can’t do a survey or quiz, there are other methods to choose from.
Image from Growth Hackers, July 2023- Encourage subscribers to interact by asking questions, seeking feedback, or prompting replies.
A brilliant feedback-seeking element that I found in an email by Search Engine Journal:
In short, every element of your email should work to invoke interactions; otherwise, your email would just be another email in a list of unread emails.
11. Failing To Put Curated Opt-in Offers
We all have opt-in offers for our audience.
We use the ebook we have created, the webinar we have, the conference we are sponsoring, and so much more as lead magnets to promote to our email subscribers.
But how much effort do you put into creating a lead magnet specifically based on audience interactions?
For example, those who signed up for an ebook on conducting a content audit might also need a content audit checklist to use internally across their content team.
Such curated opt-in offers can take your email subscribers closer to the conversion stage.
12. Stacking Too Many CTAs In Every Email
I recommended adding calls-to-action (CTAs) to invoke interactions, but that doesn’t mean we should go wild with them.
How many is too many?
I saw this survey by Databox, where 43% of the interviewed marketers said they use only one CTA per email, while 30% use two CTAs.
Image from Databox, July 2023The number of CTAs in an email depends on various factors, including the purpose of the email, the content being promoted, the length of the email, the email type, and the preferences of your target audience.
Conduct A/B testing to assess the impact of different CTA strategies on your specific audience and email goals.
Test emails with different numbers and placements of CTAs to determine what resonates best with your subscribers and drives higher interaction rates.
Not all your emails should have a bunch of CTAs, and not all should have only one CTA. Balance it out.
13. Not Having Conversational CTAs
Despite so many expert marketers explaining how to create a compelling CTA on your landing page or email, we still see those cliche CTA button texts in the email:
- Buy Now.
- Order Now.
- Call Now.
- Free Trial.
- Request a free demo.
- And so on.
CTAs not only invoke interactions, but it is the relationship bridge between you and your audience.
How you craft your CTA will define whether you’ve built trust via this email. Conversational CTAs help foster a sense of trust, authenticity, and rapport with your audience.
They create a conversational tone that encourages recipients to engage with your brand on a deeper level.
A study by HubSpot says personalized CTAs convert 202% better than basic CTAs.
Image from HubSpot, July 2023So think of a personalized or eye-catchy CTA before you press that send button.
14. Sending A Typical, Cliche Welcome Email
Another mistake with email marketing beginners is when every form filled generates a standard welcome email with minor text and design modifications.
Whether it’s your drip campaign for a lead magnet or the thank you email for contacting you, you need to make sure your email builds a solid first impression and is unique enough that will someone remember you.
Welcome emails have an average open rate of 63.91%, making them a crucial part of your email marketing efforts.
So don’t underestimate the power of sending one welcome email instead of three random marketing emails.
Instead of just thanking your audience, give them a reason to open your next email by crafting a compelling welcome email.
15. Sending Too Many Emails Daily/Weekly
This reminds me of a thought leader who used to write a lot of high-valuable content on large publishing sites.
I wanted to save time opening different websites to view their content, so I subscribed to their email lists – and I started getting one to two emails almost daily.
It frustrated me so much that not only did I unsubscribe, but I stopped reading their content.
This is my personal experience, and that’s why we have ensured that all our clients do not share more than one email weekly.
After all, we are not just one in their inbox; there are many. So we need to value their time (and space).
Again, this depends on your business type, industry, target audience, and expectations from you.
If it’s a free trial sign-up, you can send them one email every day to remind them about using your product or send them guide-like emails the way Jasper (and many other tools) does.
Screenshot from author, July 2023But you need to ensure that when someone is on a free trial, you need to send only those emails and no other promotional emails, as that will distract or frustrate them.
16. Neglecting A Layered Proofreading
One of the biggest email marketing mistakes is focusing only on strict proofreading, not layered.
Let me explain to you what is strict proofreading vs. a layered one.
Strict Proofreading
In strict proofreading for emails, the main focus is ensuring the email is free from grammatical, spelling, punctuation, and formatting inconsistencies.
You carefully review the email line by line, paying attention to each word, sentence, and paragraph. You verify that the language and mechanics are accurate and error-free.
This includes checking for proper capitalization, punctuation, and correct spelling.
Strict proofreading is essential for professional emails where accuracy and attention to detail are crucial.
Layered Proofreading
Layered proofreading for emails involves a more comprehensive review beyond just language accuracy. In addition to checking for grammar and spelling errors, you analyze the overall effectiveness and impact of the email.
You improve clarity, coherence, and tone to ensure the email achieves its intended purpose.
You consider the organization of information, logical progression of ideas, and appropriateness of language for the recipient.
Layered proofreading may also involve refining the subject line, adjusting the tone to match the recipient’s expectations, and ensuring the email’s structure and formatting are visually appealing and easy to read.
So, most email marketers have strict proofreading where they check everything – text, graphics, and links.
With layered proofreading, you can validate if it’s created as per the purpose and expectations.
17. Not Being Ready In Advance
I’m talking about the weekly or monthly promotional emails you send when you want to promote new content, announce an event, or promote product features.
When you know you send your emails either every Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday (these are our preferred days as per our clients’ target audience), you need to schedule your email two days in advance.
Before even doing that, you should do all of these things:
- Plan the email concept for the next week – its purpose and expectations.
- Create the email copy.
- Get it designed.
- Layered proofread it.
- Do the test mails.
- Schedule the mail.
But most of the time, the testing is done on the day the email has to be sent. So let me tell you what will happen if you’re not ready in advance:
- If there are any last-minute adjustments or changes, you might have to delay or postpone it. Due to this, your email didn’t reach your intended recipients at the desired time.
- If you send out emails in a rush, you might make embarrassing mistakes, miss important details, or share broken links that negatively impact the promotion’s success.
18. Ignoring A/B Testing For Everything
Most email marketers are too busy cleaning up the database, updating it, setting up their segmentations, coming up with email context ideas, writing the email, monitoring their performances, and restrategizing to ensure every email they send performs.
Technically, the email marketing team should include the strategist, copywriter, designer, optimizer (done mainly by the strategist), and developer/QA, depending on the need.
But, most organizations have only one person who does everything – strategizing, writing, set-up, QA, and scheduling. The designer is involved but not any other team members.
Many email marketers don’t have time to develop email variants to see what works best for the audience.
Now that you have the above chart, get team members to allocate the respective tasks, and continue with setting up A/B testing for:
- Subject lines.
- Email length.
- Email flow.
- Content.
- Personalization.
- Media.
- Templates.
- Buttons or text links.
- CTAs.
Start with one and see how it goes. Repeat until you start seeing ROI.
19. Ignoring Email Audience Behavior On The Website
The worst and most prominent of all email marketing mistakes is not understanding the audience’s behavior on the website.
Email marketers need to know whether your audience gets what they expected when requested to click.
So, for example, if the audience is interacting with infographics, next time, you can share such infographics in the email to invoke more click rates.
By paying attention to email audience behavior on the website, email marketers can personalize content, segment audiences, leverage retargeting opportunities, optimize campaigns through A/B testing, and track the customer journey.
This data-driven approach enhances the effectiveness and relevance of email marketing efforts, leading to better engagement, conversions, and overall campaign success.
Turn Email Marketing Mistakes Into Opportunities For Better Results
I’ve purposefully left the following mistakes out of this article, as we have seen that people eventually improve upon them:
- Poor designs.
- Mobile optimization.
- Monitoring the performance.
- Violating terms & conditions of email marketing platforms.
While you’re likely not making all of the mistakes I listed above, it’s helpful to be aware of what could hinder your email marketing success so you can cross-check in case any of these are affecting you and your team.
Work on them to continuously improve your email marketing efforts and enhance your results.
More resources:
Featured Image: fizkes/Shutterstock
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One powerful tool that has revolutionized the way affiliate marketers engage with their audience is ChatGPT, an AI-powered language model. ChatGPT allows marketers to create dynamic and interactive chat experiences that address user queries, provide personalized recommendations, and guide potential customers along their buyer’s journey. By integrating ChatGPT into affiliate marketing strategies, marketers can optimize conversions and unlock new possibilities. So, let’s dive in and discover how ChatGPT can empower your affiliate marketing journey and help you achieve remarkable results.
Personalized Recommendations
Personalized product recommendations are one way in which incorporating ChatGPT into your affiliate marketing approach may benefit you and your audience. Using ChatGPT’s AI features, you may examine a user’s data, preferences, interests, and browsing history to produce recommendations that meet their unique requirements.
According to Jitendra Vaswani, you may leverage information from user registration forms, surveys, and other channels to provide personalized recommendations using ChatGPT. This can include your age, gender, location, interests, income, and online shopping behaviors. ChatGPT can then generate customized product recommendations based on the information provided.
Create Conversational Experiences
Conventional advertising methods typically include broadcasting information to consumers without soliciting their feedback. But with ChatGPT’s help, you can have lively chats that feel genuine to your users. By integrating ChatGPT into your affiliate marketing plan, you can give your customers a more personal and engaging experience.
There are many benefits to affiliate marketing conversations that can help increase conversions. Users are encouraged to join the conversation rather than receive information, making for a more exciting and involved experience. When users are actively involved in the process, retention rates, user satisfaction, and conversion rates all rise. When designing conversational experiences with ChatGPT, consider the following techniques:
- Prompt Engagement: Use open-ended questions, quizzes, or prompts to encourage users to participate in the conversation actively. You create a sense of involvement and investment by asking for their opinions, preferences, or experiences.
- Address User Queries: Incorporate ChatGPT to address user queries in real-time. According to Rand Fishkin, Co-founder of Moz: “ChatGPT empowers you to provide immediate answers to user questions, overcome objections, and guide potential customers towards making a purchase. You establish trust and demonstrate your commitment to excellent customer service by providing immediate responses to their questions or concerns. This level of responsiveness and support can significantly improve conversion rates in affiliate marketing.”
- Guide Through Decision-Making: Use conversational experiences to guide users through decision-making. Ask probing questions, offer comparisons, and provide helpful insights that help them make informed choices.
- Personalize Interactions: Tailor the conversational experiences to the individual user by using their name or referencing their past interactions. Personalization creates a sense of connection and familiarity, leading to higher engagement and conversions.
- Use Multimedia Elements: Enhance conversational experiences by incorporating multimedia elements such as images, videos, or GIFs. Visual and auditory stimuli can capture attention, convey information more effectively, and evoke emotional responses.
- Storytelling Approach: Frame the conversation as a narrative or story that unfolds gradually. This approach captivates users’ attention, keeps them engaged, and creates a compelling journey toward conversion.
- Call-to-Action Prompts: Strategically place call-to-action prompts within the conversation to guide users toward the desired action. Well-timed prompts can nudge users to purchase, subscribe to a service, or explore further.
Creating conversational experiences with ChatGPT transforms the traditional marketing approach into an interactive dialogue. Users feel more connected to your brand as they actively participate and engage with your content. This heightened engagement increases their likelihood of taking the desired action and ultimately boosts conversion rates. Experiment with different conversational styles, analyze user responses, and iterate to optimize conversational experiences over time.
Guide Users Through the Buyer’s Journey
To maximize conversions in affiliate marketing, it’s crucial to guide users effectively throughout their buyer’s journey. By implementing ChatGPT at various touch points along this journey, you can provide valuable assistance, address concerns, and ultimately nurture users toward making a purchasing decision.
- Initial Research: At the beginning of the buyer’s journey, users are typically in the research phase, seeking information and exploring their options. Implement ChatGPT-powered chatbots on your website or landing pages to engage with users, answer their queries, and provide relevant information about the products or services you’re promoting. By assisting users during this crucial stage, you establish credibility, build trust, and position yourself as a helpful resource.
- Comparison and Consideration: As users progress along the buyer’s journey, they begin comparing and considering different options. According to Jitendra Vaswani, a renowned affiliate and SEO expert,” ChatGPT can assist by offering side-by-side comparisons, highlighting the products’ or services’ unique selling points, and addressing specific concerns or questions. This personalized guidance helps users make informed decisions and increases the likelihood of conversion.”
- Decision-Making: When users are on the verge of making a purchase, they often have final questions or may need reassurance. ChatGPT-powered chatbots can provide that extra level of support and encouragement. They can highlight customer testimonials, offer limited-time promotions, or address last-minute hesitations. By providing this personalized support, you instill confidence in users and help them finalize their decision.
- Post-Purchase Support: ChatGPT can continue to play a role even after the purchase is made. Use chatbots to offer post-purchase support, such as order tracking, product usage tips, or troubleshooting assistance. Providing a seamless post-purchase experience enhances customer satisfaction, encourages repeat purchases, and potentially generates positive word-of-mouth referrals.
Remember, the goal is to make the buyer’s journey as smooth and seamless as possible, providing users with the necessary information and support at each stage. By guiding users effectively with the help of ChatGPT, you can create a positive user experience that leads to higher conversion rates and long-term success in affiliate marketing.
Measure and Analyze Performance
To maximize conversions in affiliate marketing, measuring and analyzing the performance of your ChatGPT-powered strategies is essential. Set clear objectives, track engagement metrics, monitor conversion and click-through rates, and utilize A/B testing to identify practical elements. Analyze user feedback, integrate with analytics tools, and continuously refine and optimize your approach based on the insights gained. You can optimize your affiliate marketing efforts by leveraging data-driven decision-making and driving better results.
Wrapping Up
To sum up, maximizing conversions with ChatGPT and affiliate marketing can be a game-changer for your business. To achieve this, you should choose the right platform, create an engaging chatbot, use targeted messaging, optimize your affiliate marketing strategy, and leverage customer feedback. Remember to test and tweak your approach for maximum results continually. Overall, it’s important to remember that maximizing conversions takes time and effort, but the results are well worth it. Using these tips and taking action will make you one step closer to achieving your business goals. Best of luck!
Disclaimer: This article is a paid publication and does not have journalistic/editorial involvement of Hindustan Times. Hindustan Times does not endorse/subscribe to the content(s) of the article/advertisement and/or view(s) expressed herein. Hindustan Times shall not in any manner, be responsible and/or liable in any manner whatsoever for all that is stated in the article and/or also with regard to the view(s), opinion(s), announcement(s), declaration(s), affirmation(s) etc., stated/featured in the same.
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Updated: 19 Jun 2023, 06:12 PM IST
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- Small-business owners say email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach an audience.
- Newsletters are a more direct channel to customers and can sometimes get better engagement than social media marketing.
- These growing companies share how they saved money and were able to make more personal connections through email marketing.
- This article is part of “Marketing for Small Business,” a series exploring the basics of marketing strategy for SBOs to earn new customers and grow their business.
Brandy Thomason McNair started sending out an email newsletter soon after launching her business, Bella Vita Jewelry, in 2008.
“It just seemed like the thing to do,” she told Insider. “I was so green and didn’t have a business school background or anything. I just thought I needed to keep up with people somehow.”
To encourage newsletter signups early on, she placed a signup sheet on the table she set up at her local farmers market every week, and anyone who joined the email list was entered to win a pair of earrings. Since then, McNair has set up other paths to get the newsletter in front of customers, including a website pop-up notification and mentioning it as customers check out at her brick-and-mortar shop in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Each Bella Vita newsletter, sent out weekly, highlights one piece of jewelry and features other products and event announcements, new items, or sales, McNair said. It has about 6,800 subscribers, and the newsletters have about an open rate of more than 50%, which is higher than the industry average of just over 20% according to a 2019 Mailchimp study.
“I see the value in people opting in to let me send them a message in their inbox,” McNair said. “I think that’s special and important because it means they like what I’m doing.”
Email marketing can be a cost-effective way for small businesses to promote themselves and share information with their target audiences. According to eMarketer, 67% of marketing professionals are investing in email marketing, and 48% of millennial consumers prefer to receive deals from brands via email.
Small business owners can launch an email newsletter without a large budget or marketing team. These growing companies break down several potential benefits of email marketing.
It gives businesses a direct pipeline to their audience
Collecting customer information is one of the most valuable aspects of email marketing, McNair said. “I feel like my email list is my most prized possession in a way. I own it. I have full control over it. I know the emails are going to hit someone’s inbox.”
She added that email has become more reliable than social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, which often require businesses to pay for ads. Recent updates to Apple’s iOS 14 have also enabled users to opt out of being tracked by advertisers through mobile apps and websites, which often hinders advertisers’ ability to target specific audiences.
Courtesy of Anna Gorovy
“The importance of the newsletter is you’re actually building your audience,” Anna Gorovoy, cofounder and chief brand officer of Shaker & Spoon, a cocktail subscription box, told Insider.
Owning customer first-party data, which is collected from people interacting with websites or apps, and zero-party data, or information that customers voluntarily share with companies, allows businesses to deliver content that’s more personalized to them, Gorovoy said.
Shaker & Spoon, which was founded in 2015, uses a website pop-up to collect email addresses and phone numbers from visitors. To entice people to sign up, Gorovoy said the company uses a “spin to win” game that people can play to receive a discount code.
Data helps businesses personalize content
About 90% of consumers said they enjoy receiving offers from brands that are based on their interests and purchasing or browsing history, and they’re willing to provide companies with more personal information after a positive experience with them, according to a 2022 Merkle study.
Email marketing platforms can help businesses track which content recipients interact with, the items they browse on an e-commerce site, and what they purchase as a result. These metrics help companies personalize content, such as product suggestions or deals, that’s most relevant to customers.
For instance, McNair has used data from email marketing to identify customers that haven’t returned to her website in the past few months and then send a discount code to encourage them to buy again.
Shaker & Spoon uses data to segment its newsletter subscribers and send different emails to different groups of people, Gorovoy said. Some emails go to cocktail box subscribers, while others go to newsletter subscribers, even if they haven’t purchased anything, she explained. Some newsletters are targeted to specific groups based on past purchases and preferences.
Gorovoy’s company sends newsletters twice a week and often includes details about what’s in the monthly subscription box, alcohol recommendations, or information about deals and events.
Businesses can engage customers and inspire purchases
Experts at Mailchimp say that regular emails can keep a brand’s products and services fresh in the minds of their audience and boost brand awareness.
Shaker & Spoon’s email open rates exceed 50%, which Gorovoy said is a result of directing most email campaigns to subscribers that have engaged with the emails over the past several weeks. The company also makes a point to send emails no more than twice a week to avoid bombarding customers’ inboxes. “Email marketing has always worked pretty well for us. There’s always the challenge of trying to improve engagement and get higher open rates.”
McNair acknowledged that, while she does enjoy the sales that are generated from their emails, she also appreciates the opportunity to consistently interact with customers and enjoys it when people reply to an email campaign with positive feedback.
“Not every single email that goes out is going to be a winner or get the sales, but I look at it as staying consistent,” she said. “People know you’re there even if they don’t buy anything. And then when somebody buys something from your email campaign, it’s really exciting.”
Newsletters generate return-on-investment
For every $1 spent on email newsletters, businesses can see $36 in return, according to Litmus survey of over 2,000 marketers, indicating a higher potential return on investment compared to other forms of digital marketing.
Govoroy handles Shaker & Spoon’s newsletters herself with input from the company’s small marketing team. “I’ve honed my email marketing skills over the past eight years,” she said, adding that she uses online resources like Really Good Emails and subscribes to other companies’ newsletters for ideas and tips.
McNair usually creates Bella Vita’s newsletter but sometimes hires a friend to help. She said she’s considered hiring a marketing firm to take over the newsletter, but feels that it’s most cost-effective to keep doing it in-house.
Both business owners say the time they spend on their newsletters is well worth it for the sales it generates. McNair said a recent email focusing on summer hats brought in $550 in sales.
Emails also build and sustain customer relationships. Govoroy urges small business owners to start a newsletter and experiment to see what type of content works best.
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, just try to get started and iterate as you go,” she said. “If you’re not doing email marketing, you’re leaving really important money on the table.”
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