Top 5 Email Marketing Challenges Small Business Owners Can Face & How to Combat Them

With all the thrill surrounding social media, SEO (search engine optimization), and focused adverts, it’s simple to neglect about one of the dependable types of digital advertising and marketing — e mail. With a mean return on funding between $36 and $45 per $1 spent, e mail advertising and marketing remains to be a extremely efficient technique to achieve your audience.

Nonetheless, constructing a high-quality record, sending common communications, making certain marketing campaign success, and following up on leads could be burdensome for small companies with restricted time and assets. This text goals to deliver readability to the 5 most typical e mail advertising and marketing challenges small-business house owners face and the best way to handle them. Let’s dive into the small print!

Why Is E mail Advertising and marketing Essential?

Email marketing is a tried-and-true tactic in digital advertising and marketing for a number of causes. One vital profit is that subscribers willingly choose in to obtain your messages, establishing a direct line of communication between you and your prospects.

In distinction, different advertising and marketing strategies like SEO and social adverts — whereas nonetheless necessary to your total digital advertising and marketing technique — don’t essentially have a captive viewers and depend on algorithms to serve up your content material on the proper time to the correct folks. As such, many companies use a number of advertising and marketing channels to unfold the phrase, with e mail being one essential part of a well-rounded technique.

Moreover, e mail advertising and marketing provides versatility, permitting you to ship quite a lot of communications, from promotional provides to informational bulletins and newsletters. You may phase your e mail record based mostly on viewers behaviors, preferences, demographics, and different elements, permitting for focused messaging that resonates together with your prospects, growing click-throughs and conversions.

Furthermore, e mail advertising and marketing allows ongoing relationship-building, engagement, and repeat purchases. Over time, as you ship excessive worth to your record, you’ll be able to foster model loyalty amongst your viewers and place your self because the go-to supplier of services or products in your business.

High 5 Challenges in E mail Advertising and marketing

Problem 1: Constructing a Checklist of High quality Subscribers

Beginning and rising a listing of high-quality subscribers is often the primary hurdle small companies face when tackling e mail advertising and marketing. You want this record of engaged subscribers to run efficient e mail advertising and marketing campaigns — so how are you going to construct it?

• Create lead magnets: Decide-in incentives related to your viewers, like reductions, unique downloads, free trainings, or different beneficial assets, may also help encourage sign-ups. Half of marketers report larger conversion charges when utilizing lead magnets to develop their lists.
• Use cross-channel advertising and marketing: Leverage your web site and social media channels to ask e mail sign-ups. Add subscription types and call-to-action (CTA) buttons throughout platforms along with your lead magnets to draw curiosity and convert guests into subscribers.
• Run advert campaigns: Throw some advert {dollars} at your lead-magnet touchdown web page and social media channels to seize curiosity from new subscribers. From targeted display to social ads, these hyper-focused adverts can seize consideration and encourage new sign-ups.

Problem 2: Low Open Charges

So, you will have a listing of high quality subscribers, however they’re not opening your emails? Right here’s what to do:

• Craft compelling topic strains: Intention for not more than 9 phrases, and preserve your topic strains partaking and related to your subscribers.
• Phase your record: Personalize content material based mostly on distinctive elements equivalent to pursuits, behaviors, and viewers demographics — segmenting smaller teams of subscribers inside your total record. Add names to additional tailor content material.
• Take a look at and optimize: Experiment with sending emails on totally different days of the week and at totally different instances. Combine up your frequency to gauge engagement with extra or fewer emails. The objective is to check numerous methods in correlation with open charges, click-throughs, conversions, unsubscribes, and different metrics.
• Permit subscribers to replace their preferences: Some customers merely need extra management over their inboxes. Give them the choice to pare down emails — as soon as every week, for instance — or enable solely sure campaigns, like promotions and information.

Problem 3: Poor E mail Design and Content material

In case your emails lack visible attraction and interesting content material, they could get trashed or ignored. Enhance your design and content material with the following tips:

• Use professionally designed templates: Leverage predesigned templates for a refined feel and appear aligned together with your model identification.
• Incorporate pictures and movies: Add visible curiosity with graphics, pictures, or movies, however don’t go overboard — you don’t need to overburden your subscribers’ bandwidth or overwhelm them with visuals.
• Take a look at some extra: Conduct A/B testing of various layouts, design components, and content material sorts to uncover your viewers’s preferences.

Problem 4: Deliverability Points

Nothing kills a marketing campaign like having your emails get flagged as spam and fail to hit recipients’ inboxes. Observe just a few finest practices to enhance e mail deliverability:

• Keep compliant: Adhere to e mail advertising and marketing rules and tips, such because the Basic Information Safety Regulation (GDPR) and CAN-SPAM, to make sure your emails don’t get flagged as spam.
• Clear up your e mail lists: Take away unqualified subscribers, equivalent to these signed up by means of bots, to make sure record high quality and enhance deliverability.
• Use double opt-ins: Incorporate double opt-ins to confirm e mail sign-ups from certified subscribers who genuinely need your emails. With double opt-in, subscribers should affirm their subscriptions through a separate hyperlink you e mail to them.

Problem 5: Restricted Time and Sources

E mail advertising and marketing takes effort and time, and lots of small companies battle to remain per it. Right here’s what we suggest:

• Automate campaigns: Use instruments like Townsquare Interactive’s business management platform to handle e mail advertising and marketing from top-of-funnel to backside. With an built-in inbox, calendar options, buyer relationship administration instruments, and automatic e mail and SMS messaging, you’ll have all the things you’ll want to develop your subscriber base.
• Outsource e mail administration duties: Take into account outsourcing e mail advertising and marketing and e mail management to professionals who can elevate your campaigns, permitting you to deal with different core features of your enterprise.
• Prioritize high-impact actions: Give attention to high-impact e mail advertising and marketing methods that align with your enterprise objectives and ship probably the most vital ROI. All the time embody sturdy CTAs tied to conversion actions like reserving a demo or buying a services or products.

Resolve Your E mail Advertising and marketing Issues with Townsquare Interactive

From constructing a listing to making sure deliverability and opens, small-business house owners face quite a few e mail advertising and marketing challenges. Nonetheless, e mail advertising and marketing stays a robust instrument for small companies to attach with their audiences, drive gross sales, and nurture long-term relationships — making it essential for house owners to acknowledge and handle widespread points.

One common answer to e mail advertising and marketing issues is Townsquare Interactive’s enterprise administration platform, which provides automated e mail marketing campaign templates and knowledgeable help. With our mixture of know-how and assist, companies can uplevel their digital advertising and marketing sport and faucet into e mail advertising and marketing’s full potential.

To get began, contact our team and start driving e mail advertising and marketing outcomes!