Despite repeated announcements of its death, email marketing remains one of the highest-ROI channels available to small businesses. The average email marketing program returns $36 for every $1 spent. The problem is not that email does not work—it is that most small business email programs are not well executed.
List Quality Over List Size
A list of 500 engaged subscribers who open and click regularly outperforms a list of 5,000 unengaged subscribers in every meaningful metric—deliverability, conversion rate, and revenue generated. Prune your list aggressively: remove subscribers who have not opened an email in 12 months, and never purchase email lists.
Value Before Ask
The businesses that build the strongest email audiences send content that is genuinely useful to subscribers before they ask subscribers to buy anything. A weekly email with one actionable insight, piece of news, or resource builds engagement and trust that translates into conversions when you do make an offer.
Key Takeaways
- A small, engaged list outperforms a large, unengaged one in every metric.
- Send value consistently before making offers—a 4:1 ratio of value emails to promotional emails is a reasonable guideline.
- Test subject lines obsessively—they are the single variable with the most impact on open rates.
