How to Reach Your Customers with an Email Marketing Strategy

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing tools for small businesses, especially because of its customer engagement, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency. However, to gain all its incredible benefits, it’s important to have an email marketing strategy that guides your small business growth and makes the most of your time and resources.

In this overview, you’ll learn why email remains one of the best ways to reach your customers and how to create and implement an effective email marketing strategy that builds loyalty and boosts your business’s bottom line.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is a leading customer engagement and sales tool that you don’t want to miss out on. In fact, Forbes states that:

• There are 4.48 billion email users worldwide. This is expected to grow to 4.59 billion in 2025 and 4.73 billion by 2026. That’s an enormous potential reach for your goods and services.
  
• 88% of people check their emails every day. In addition, 40% of respondents look for brand discounts and promotions in their emails. This means your customers are open to and excited about finding special promotions and news about your business in their inboxes.
  
• People are three times more likely to purchase from email marketing than social media. This demonstrates the important role a well-crafted email marketing strategy plays in converting interest into sales. Unlike social media posts that might disappear in a crowded feed, emails land directly in your customers’ inboxes, where they’re more likely to see, open, and read them.

In a Litmus report shared by Constant Contact, for every dollar your small business spends on email marketing, you could earn up to $36 back – that’s a significant return on your investment! As the data shows, email marketing is still one of the most accessible, affordable, and effective marketing strategies for small businesses.

How to create an effective email marketing strategy

There are many benefits to email marketing, but to be truly effective, you need to create an email marketing strategy that delivers value to your customers.

This doesn’t mean that every email should offer big discounts. Instead, you should use it to communicate new products or services, promotions, special events, or your business’s participation in things that matter to your clients, such as support for charitable organizations in your community.

Here are the key steps to creating an effective email marketing strategy to reach your customer engagement and sales goals:

1. Use a business email address, not a personal one: If you don’t already have an email address specific to your business, create one through your website host or by using Google for a free Gmail account. If your business’s name is already taken, see if you can create a variation that still makes sense. For example, if you have a New York City-based bakery called Ella’s Bakery, but [email protected] isn’t available, you can try using [email protected].
   
2. Build a timeline for goals and messaging: To start, consider your business over a year – when are your busy seasons, when does business slow down, and when are you releasing new products? Plotting out these key dates allows you to form a timely marketing plan for how you’ll send related emails. Aim to create a basic timeline or plan for about 65-70% of your emails.
   
   For example, if you plan to email your list every five days (or about six times per month), plan the business goal and content for four of those several weeks in advance.
   
3. Plan for flexibility: Allow for about 30-35% of your email content to address opportunities that arise during the day or week you’re sending them. For example, if you own a candy shop, as you prepare for Valentine’s Day, you should plan for most emails to engage around the goal of increased sales. However, if you discover a great new candy combination as you prepare, you’ll also want the flexibility to announce that. Email marketing lets you do that.
   
4. Create emails tailored to today’s audiences: People are busy, and the amount of time they’ll spend reading your email will be brief. Keep in mind that the goal should be to engage them just enough to get them to go to your website or store. Concise emails with visual impact are often the most engaging.
   
5. Drive action: Within your concise email, don’t forget to include a clear call to action – what needs to be done next, such as clicking a link to your e-commerce store or calling to place a special order. This gives your customers what they want and need while helping you reach your business goals.
   
6. Choose quality over quantity: Even though they’re brief, your emails can build relationships through the content you present. Rather than using a rambling blog post within your email, share snippets of key insights and info that inspires customers to engage with your business. For example, if you have common customer questions about your products or services, include one of those as the lead, then encourage readers to visit your website to learn more.
   
   Don’t be afraid to leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) content-generation programs, such as ChatGPT and Claude, especially if you don’t consider writing your favorite or best skill. With some practice, these tools can help you write engaging subject lines and create content that speaks to your target customers.
   
7. Use images linked to your website: One of the most effective ways to get customers to take action is to make it easy. When you link products to your website, each time someone clicks that link, you’ve got the potential to make a sale or build loyalty.
   
8. Create segmented email lists: Nothing will cause you to lose subscribers faster than annoying emails that are irrelevant to your customers. That’s where segmenting your email list by customer preferences and buying history is key.
   
   You can break down your email list into smaller groups based on common interests, purchase histories, buying habits, or geographic locations so that you can send messages that are the most relevant to them. Most email platforms, like Constant Contact, Mailchimp, and HubSpot, let you sort customers based on their preferences and histories.
   
9. Personalize your emails: Besides segmenting by preferences or locations, research shows that people love personalization when they receive emails. Using your customers’ names makes them feel special and more likely to buy from you. Easy-to-use software programs can determine the best time to send emails and personalize content for customers.
   
10. Ensure your email design is consistent with your brand: Use your brand colors, logo, and similar images to the ones you use on your website and social media. For example, if your coffee shop uses warm browns and forest greens on your storefront sign and menus, use those same colors in your email headlines and buttons. Keep your writing style consistent, too – if your brand is friendly and casual in person, your emails should have that same welcoming tone.
    
    This consistency builds trust with your customers: When they see a familiar-looking email from you, they’re more likely to open and read it.

An effective email marketing strategy requires relatively little time or financial resources to set up, has low maintenance costs, and provides tremendous engagement opportunities, so if you don’t already have one, make it a goal to start creating yours today.

How to put your email marketing strategy into action

Now that you’ve created your email marketing strategy, you have to implement it. The great news is that getting started with email marketing is simple:

• Choose an email service: Those mentioned earlier – Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and HubSpot – are popular choices for small businesses, as they’re easy to use and low-cost. Others may have special features for specific types of businesses, so explore your options online, and you’ll find one or more you like.
  
• Create a welcome email: As people sign up for your list, sending a welcome email helps to confirm that they’re legitimate subscribers. It’s also a great opportunity to showcase your brand and tell subscribers what they can look for from your business and emails.
  
• Keep a consistent schedule: Consistency is essential for email marketing success, so create a plan for your email campaign and then automate it. This ‘set it and forget it’ aspect of email marketing is especially beneficial for busy small business owners and team members.
  
• Measure impact: Another great feature of today’s email marketing platforms is that they make it easy to track who opens your emails and clicks your links. As a result, you’ll understand the kinds of content that resonates the most with your target audience. Compare the information and data to your email marketing strategy for open rates, click-throughs, and responses.
  
  Another great thing about email marketing is that if one approach isn’t achieving the results you want, you can easily adjust your messaging, images, subject lines, design, and other content.
  
• Build your email list: Start by creating opportunities to collect emails everywhere your customers interact with you. This could include adding a simple sign-up form to your website with an incentive to join, sharing sign-up links through your social media channels, and inviting customers from your store to sign up when they visit.
  
  Buying email lists is also an option, but it’s not necessary. These lists are expensive, they don’t always bring customers who will care about your specific business, and there are some compliance considerations. For these reasons, the best email lists are built organically, one interested customer at a time.

If you need financing to achieve your goals, Pursuit can help

Now that you know why an email marketing strategy is essential for your business, take some time to create yours. If insufficient funds are holding you back from implementing your marketing plans or taking other steps to move your business forward, we can help.

We’re a leading small business lender in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Illinois, Nevada, and Washington. We have a line of credit and loan options that can help you finance your plans and thrive.

In addition to resources like this guide, we offer business advisory services for continued guidance on your marketing efforts, financial management, and more!

Contact us to learn more.