Email marketing checklist for small businesses

Red paper plane launching from laptop screen on grey background

Email marketing checklist for small businesses

Email marketing is a handy way to keep in touch with your customers and encourage repeat sales. It’s particularly popular among small businesses, with 64 percent using it as part of their marketing strategy. But it’s no mean feat getting email campaigns right.

There’s an important balance to be struck between sending messages people want to open and that convert to sales for you. That’s not to mention getting the timing and frequency of your emails right so people don’t get fed up with hearing from you and hit ‘unsubscribe’.

With this in mind, here’s our email marketing checklist to help you nail your next campaign:

Welcome new sign-ups

When someone joins your mailing list make the most of your new lead by sending them an automated welcome email. This might include an offer, discount code or a free resource.

Make it personal

Send your email from a team member’s email address rather than an ‘info@‘ account. People like dealing with people rather than a faceless organisation.

Also plan your email content in such a way that it is timely and relevant for your customers, not just your latest product release.

Write a clickable subject line

The chances of your email being opened are significantly increased with an enticing subject line.

Make it clear and timely, highlight an offer or personalise it for a particular segment of your customer base. Importantly, keep it under 50 characters long so nothing gets cut off in people’s inboxes.

Customise the preview text

As well as writing a succinct and catchy email subject line, customise the preview text. If you don’t, this will be pulled from the first text box in your email.

Keep it short

Get to the point quickly. People won’t scroll through lengthy emails in the same way they might read a newspaper.

Have a clear call to action

Use brightly coloured buttons to highlight the action you want people to take and put this high up your email.

Highlight your links

If you include website links in your emails make sure these are easy to spot – underlined or in a different colour – so readers know where they can click for more information.

Add alt tags to images

A lot of email providers block images, so it’s important that you fill out the alt tag for the pictures embedded in your emails, letting people know what they are. Your alt tags should describe the image like you would to assist people using a screen reader.

Make your images clickable

People love to click images, particularly when they include a product. Make sure your images have a hyperlink and take your customers somewhere they can find out more or make a purchase.

Test it

Before you send your email marketing campaign, test it. Check all your links work, proofread the content and send it to yourself to check the format works across different inboxes.

View the email on a smartphone as well as a desktop computer.

If you need help setting up and sending email marketing campaigns Amplify PR can help. Find out more about our full range of content marketing services.



MENU