8 Ways for SMEs to improve email marketing

In a digital world that has become extremely competitive to get your customer’s attention, it’s quite common for your emails to get lost in their inbox. While over 306.4 billion emails were sent and received daily in 2020, the number is expected to increase to over 376.4 billion daily mails by 2025.  

Here are some tips and tricks that will give your business an edge when it comes to your email marketing strategy so you can boost your conversion rates.  

1. Build a heavy list of subscribers 

It doesn’t really matter how strong your email marketing strategy is, if you don’t have your list of subscribers, you won’t be able to reap the rewards. Below, we’ve provided 2 easy ways to start building your list.  

• Create a blog - Marketers who make use of blogs for lead generation and sign-ups see 97% more inbound leads on average than those who don’t make use of blogs. 
• Social media - Make the best use of social media by optimising and improving your bio by adding a link to your newsletter. 

2. Have the right automation platform 

Automating your mail lists is necessary for scaling your email strategy. A lot of marketers say that automation helps their organisational strategy. Mailchimp is great because it will automatically help you add personality to your messages. Its AI-powered Creative assistant will also help you with the creation of custom designs. Another two automation platforms are Constant Contact which can help you to create an email for each individual list, turning your messages into targeted messages and Marketo is another email automation platform which can help you boost your conversion rates. They all have a free tier to get started.  

3. Be short and sweet 

With the amount of emails that customers get on a daily basis, it's important to make sure you’re piquing your customer’s interest from the get go! 

Your email readers definitely don’t want to read a novel. They want you to get straight to the point, and tell them why they would benefit from your product or service.

PS. always remember to KISS! (Keep It Short & Sweet).

4. Craft your subject line 

47% of readers will think of whether to open an email based on the subject line alone. One way to make your readers open your messages is to offer an obvious benefit. 

So, always make sure that your hook is shortand personalised. 

5. Engage with your audience 

You need to give your readers a reason to interact with you in order to make sure that your readers pay attention to you. Try asking your readers questions. You could also create a link to relevant content. 

6. Include a call to action 

It’s very important to add a call to action (CTA) in your emails. Research shows that your click-through rates increase by 370%. So after you gain traction and your CTAs produce results, it will be time to think about how much you should interact with your subscribers. 

7. Don’t overwhelm your subscribers 

One of the most difficult things to figure out is how often you should contact your subscribers. If you contact them too much they’ll probably unsubscribe. Make contact too little and they’ll probably just lose interest. 

Most subscribers have said that they don’t mind receiving a monthly promotional email. 

One way to find out how often your audience wants to hear from you is to simply ask them. 

8. Avoid spamming 

Below are a few tips on how not to spam your subscribers. 

• Never type in all capital letters
• Avoid using an exclamation mark 3 times in a row
• Don’t include attachments in your marketing emails
• Avoid the words (Free or Guarantee)
• Don’t use a red font
• Don’t ever have spelling errors
• Don’t have too many keywords
• Always give your readers the option to unsubscribe 

Follow these steps to get the most out of your emails.You’ve put in all the effort to make the perfect product so make sure your customers know about it.