At £42:£1, email marketing has one of the highest returns of any digital channel. But nearly a third of small business owners don’t use it. Around one in four owners say they don’t have the time to commit, or don’t know how to do it. There’s so much potential going to waste here. More than
At £42:£1, email marketing has one of the highest returns of any digital channel.
But nearly a third of small business owners don’t use it.
Around one in four owners say they don’t have the time to commit, or don’t know how to do it.
There’s so much potential going to waste here. More than a quarter of small businesses don’t follow up with customers, even though 81% of customers say they’d welcome follow-up emails after an enquiry or purchase.
Email marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. And it isn’t the spammy marketing channel lots of people think it is – at least not when it’s done properly.
In this article, we’ll go through how to do email marketing for small businesses so you have a better idea where to start.
Email marketing is about sending targeted, permission-based messages to customers and potential customers. The goal is to build relationships, nurture trust, and drive sales.
For small businesses, email is a great way to connect directly with customers. You’ll know yourself, in a small business, budgets are often tight. Teams are lean. And every marketing pound has to work harder.
You can’t spread marketing spend across every channel to see what works like bigger brands. Email gives you a direct line to customers that other forms of marketing don’t.
What most people wrongly think about email is that it’s just spam, and customers ignore it. That may have been true in the past. Today, compliance laws and better tools mean effective email marketing is about relevance, not volume.
Email marketing is now a transaction.
People give you permission to be in their inbox. If you repay that by giving value, they’ll read your content, and act on it.
No other marketing channel delivers the kind of returns that targeted, effective email marketing does.
But it’s not just the immediate ROI you get:
Paid ads put you in an auction. Social media platforms and search engines change their algorithms without notice.
With email, once someone gives you their address, you don’t need to pay again to reach them. And you control how your email works.
Imagine spending years building a dedicated audience on social media, only for the platform to remove your profile (it happens) and then your audience is gone.
That doesn’t happen with email.
Personalised emails deliver 29% higher open rates and 41% higher click-throughs, according to Salesforce. By sending regular, value-driven emails (educational, promotional and incentive), it’s more likely customers will return.
The emails that don’t work are the generic “10% off everything” emails that treat everyone the same. Targeted messages around your customer’s milestones and life events are a lot more personal. And 80% of customers are more likely to buy when they feel experiences are personalised. For a small business, this personalisation can be a competitive difference.
Whether you have 50 or 50,000 customers, email marketing automation makes it possible to remain targeted and relevant without huge amounts of extra investment. All you need is an accurately segmented list, and emails can remain personalised no matter how big your list gets.
Email isn’t about sending more. It’s about sending better messages that build trust and keep your brand front of mind.
Starting with email doesn’t require a marketing degree. What matters is setting the right foundations.
Tools like Mailchimp, HubSpot, or ConvertKit are built for small businesses. They manage compliance, simplify design, and automate campaigns. Tools like HubSpot also act as your CRM, allowing you to segment lists for better personalisation.
Many also offer free starter accounts (or at least very low starting prices) that you can then scale over time as your list grows.
You can do a lot with emails. Drive more sales, nurture leads, reduce customer churn. But you’ll need to focus on the main goal.
Pick your goal before you start writing your emails.
3. Segment your audience
Not all customers are the same, or want the same things, or respond to the same messages.
Split your main list into smaller segments to make personalisation easier: new customers, regulars/ VIPS, inactive subscribers, etc.
This is important because segmented email campaigns generate 30% more opens and 50% more clicks, according to Mailchimp.
For example, a gym might segment its list into “prospects” for trial offer emails and “active members” for loyalty rewards.
Welcome emails have the highest open rates of any campaign, often above 50%.
Best practice here is to create a three-part automated email sequence:
Consistency matters more than frequency with email marketing.
Regular monthly newsletters, seasonal promotions, or practical tips all work better than on-again off-again campaigns that you launch at random.
Readers like knowing what to expect from your emails.
For example, a service business could send a monthly advice email with a subtle offer for their services. Customers will open because they’re getting value, not just being sold to.
Track open rates, clicks, and conversions. Test subject lines, design, and timing based on the data.
Look at trend data in your account, not just individual campaigns and see how send, open and click data tracks over time.
The success of any email marketing campaign comes down to the quality of your list. If your list isn’t engaged, no message will work on them.
And quality starts with consent. Buying lists may look like a shortcut, but it leads to low engagement, spam complaints, and legal risk under GDPR.
Instead, focus on building an engaged list with:
It’s better to create a smaller, organic list of people who want to hear from you. The first question most people are going to ask if you buy their email is “how did you get my email?”
Privacy has become a huge part of email marketing, particularly around how you collect and use data. For small businesses in the UK, this comes down to two sets of regulations:
GDPR requires explicit consent.
You must state clearly what people are signing up for, only collect what’s necessary, and include an easy-to-unsubscribe option in every email.
PECR says you can’t send marketing emails to personal addresses (including sole traders) without consent.
Not complying with these rules can have big financial consequences. Fines for GDPR breaches can be as high as £17.5m or 4% of annual global turnover, whichever is higher.
To stay safe:
If you’re unsure about the legal side of emails, it’s best to get professional advice or, if you’re in doubt, don’t send emails to anyone who hasn’t specifically signed up to receive them.
Choosing your email send provider is a big decision, and there are lots of options for small businesses that start at a reasonable price.
Email marketing can deliver short-term ROI while also building loyalty and lasting customer relationships.
It’s not about sending more emails and having the biggest list. Small businesses that succeed with email take time to build an engaged list organically and target it with specific messages based on behaviours and preferences.
To start getting better results from email, get in touch with our email marketing agency for a free strategy session.
We can give you free advice on starting with emails, or audit your existing email marketing account to see where you can make improvements to drive better results quickly.
Speak to a member of our team and start your project today!
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