With a large array of email marketing software tools available today, it should not be difficult to find one that is budget friendly. Besides providing the right infrastructure to send mass emails, email service providers also offer additional services like responsive templates, analytics, and automation which make it easy to create and send emails. Having features such as analytics, allows easy access to obtain data regarding open rates. Click through and conversions enabling businesses to see what is working or to make adjustments very quickly.

It’s amazing how many small businesses want ‘to do email’ but don’t think beyond that. It’s important to understand your customer’s journey and relationship with your brand because that will help determine the top priorities for email marketing. Your email marketing focus will depend on your business, brand and the customers’ buying habits. So figure out what makes the most sense for you before sending out emails, be it promotional or newsletters.

A good strategy is to regularly test various options and analyze the data (open rate, clicks, and conversions) to find out what works optimally.

Find the Right Frequency

How frequently you send emails is a balancing act. The good news is that consumers like getting emails, just as long as they aren’t redundant. As a general rule of thumb, most businesses find it helpful to email their entire list on a monthly basis and send segmented communications on a weekly basis. According to Marketing Sherpa’s survey, 60% of the customers surveyed prefer a weekly frequency. A higher than a weekly frequency could get a higher number of unsubscribes. While with a less frequency, a business runs the risk of becoming irrelevant.

Once you have a strategy figured out based on your business, brand, and customer habits, think about what gets the best engagement. The frequency of the emails can be determined thereafter.

Keep your current customers close to you

Most businesses undervalue the use of email to keep the connection with their existing customers. They focus on sending primarily promotional type emails centered around making a sale or they will send holiday wishes a few times in the year.

Use your email marketing to connect smartly and frequently with your customers and stay top mind. Regardless of the buying cycle of your business, it’s important to stay connected with your current customers to encourage repeat sales, loyalty or word of mouth marketing. The key is to ensure the content is useful to your customers. Examples of such content might be tips, guides, or how-tos. Let’s say, you have a local boutique selling women’s clothes.

Segmentation is Key

With today’s technology, creating segments of your email lists is easy and a must! Your customers are not all same; they have different needs at different times. Hence, one message should not fit all. There is enough data that shows when you group your email list into segments and send customized emails that are relevant to the group. Those emails are more likely to be opened, clicked and acted upon, thereby increasing the conversions manifold. Segmentation is key to increasing revenue from email marketing.

Choosing the Right Email Service Provider

Last but not least, a critical step, is choosing the right email service provider for your business. You, as the owner, will send out your emails through their servers that are specifically set up for these services. If you tried to send mass emails through your regular Internet Service Provider (ISP), your campaign could be blocked. Because regular ISPs not developed for mass mailings.

Therefore make sure you do your research really well when shopping for an ESP. Evaluate at least 3 services and consider their value, features, customer service, infrastructure, speed to send, ease of use, analytics and overall reputation of the service.