Cutting Through the Noise: Email Marketing for Businesses

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in February 2021 and was updated with additional content in June 2022.

Why is email marketing for businesses important? Whether you’re just starting up or you plan to celebrate your thirtieth year in business, there’s always room to grow your customer base. But how do you grow your business when you devote all your time to running it?

It would help to have something fast and easy that won’t detract from daily operations. Email marketing remains the most effective marketing tool at your disposal, but only if it’s done correctly. 

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a powerful type of digital marketing that involves sending emails to a list of customers and prospective clients. Using an email service provider, your business can reach an entire list of customers and potential clients with the click of a button. 

Since customers need to opt in to join your email marketing list, they already like what you offer. Email marketing is an opportunity to convert their “like” into loyalty, which keeps those customers returning for more!

What Are the Benefits of Email Marketing?

Email marketing may be one of the most powerful digital marketing tools available. More than 4.59 billion people around the world use email to communicate. Since a valid email remains necessary to use many alternative platforms, including social media, it’s not going away anytime soon.

Cost-Effective

When it comes to ROI (return on investment), it’s almost impossible to beat email marketing. One email service provider notes an ROI of $36 for every dollar spent on email marketing. Other sources figure it’s slightly higher or lower, but that’s still a notable return for any business.

Grow Your Business

It may seem strange that an existing email list could grow your business, but it’s an effective method for gathering more leads and increasing your sales. 

Say you offer a lead magnet that requires the prospect to provide their email. Follow up that lead magnet with a series of emails leading to a purchase. You just turned a prospect into a client!

Build Relationships

On average, people check their email 20 times per day. That's 20 opportunities to make a connection with a customer directly instead of hoping they come across your ad on social media. Remember, the people on your mailing list opted in, which means they want to hear from you!

Email marketing also serves as a direct line from your business to your customers. It doesn’t matter whether you're a B2C or B2B company; building loyalty is crucial. Email marketing is a fast and effective way to reach your customers and start that conversation. 

Personalized emails in your customers inboxes also reinforce your presence and remind them how you can meet their needs. It’s also an effective option for communicating sales or special events. 

Foster Brand Awareness

Sure, you can customize your email to match your brand’s colors and include your logo and your taglines, but that’s not all. Emails can reinforce your brand’s voice and message. If you’re light and friendly, an informal copy can reinforce that fun spirit. Email marketing is also an efficient way to share your goals, mission, and future endeavors.

Drive Traffic to Other Platforms

Emails can support your other marketing efforts as well. Highlight new blog posts, direct customers to engage in social media campaigns, and include links to alternate content whenever you can. Email should be one component of a comprehensive strategy that includes multiple platforms.

Test the Market

Feedback is a crucial component of any business, and you can gather plenty of it through emails. Your business can stay in touch with your customers’ needs through surveys as part of a scheduled email campaign.

Has your marketing team ever struggled with two ideas for one campaign? Email can help you stop the struggle because you can create A/B tests for almost anything, from the subject line to the call of action and everything in between. 

Instead of debating a particular campaign's wording, try using both by sending one option to half your list and the other to the remaining customers. See which performs better and adopt that one!

Conversions and increased sales

Emails give recipients an easy way to follow your call-to-action since the promotional link is present in the email. Additionally, emails can be used for the multiple stages of the buying process. For example, you can send new product release emails, nurture existing customer relationships, send post-transaction emails, and encourage future purchases.

Measurable

There are many web analytics software out there that you can use to monitor the success of your email marketing campaign. By using these tools, you can test subject lines, content, designs, and more to see which strategy works best for your business.

Less intrusive

Email marketing is a less intrusive marketing tactic since recipients can open and read the email whenever they want. Moreover, recipients have the choice to unsubscribe from your email list if they feel that your product or service isn’t what they’re looking for anymore. Other marketing and sales strategies, like cold calling, might make potential customers feel uncomfortable or pressured to answer the call.

Quick and real-time marketing

Marketers can use automation to send emails to customers when the customer performs a certain action on their site. For example, you can send an automated welcome email when someone signs up for your newsletter, a thank you email once someone makes a purchase, or offer a discount when someone leaves items in their shopping cart. These types of emails can help you reach the right customers at the right time – with the right offer.

Disadvantages of Email Marketing

Although the benefits of email marketing are almost endless, there are also a few drawbacks to relying on this form of marketing.

Here are five disadvantages of email marketing:

• Spam: A successful email marketing strategy relies on emails being sent to the right target audience. This is crucial since spam or commercial emails can annoy consumers and lead them to delete your email or even unsubscribe from your email list. Additionally, you need to ensure your email marketing strategy complies with privacy and data protection regulations in your country or state. The click-through rate of random, untargeted emails is incredibly low and won’t amount to anything for your business.
• Undelivered emails: If your emails have poorly thought-out subject lines and body text, they’ll likely be filtered out by internet service providers and email software. Additionally, you should avoid mentioning spammy terms in the subject line and email content. This includes words like “free” and “click here”. Another reason why emails never get delivered to your prospects is that you have the wrong email address. Consequently, you need to work hard to keep your list up to date.
• Mobile usability: Whether you're planning on targeting millennials or corporate clients, or if you’ve got a list of recipients who prefer text emails only, you need to ensure your email is designed for mobile devices. Recipients will most likely click out of an email if they’re unable to view it.
• File sizes: If you’re planning on including images and videos in your emails, you still need to ensure that the email loads quickly, or else your audience will lose interest and ignore the email completely.
• Lack of resources and skills: Email marketing campaigns are only successful if you have the right team, resources, and skills to execute the project. As a result, you should consider outsourcing copywriting, design, and marketing list creation if your in-house team lacks the appropriate skills.

Types of Emails for Business

One massive perk of leveraging email marketing is versatility. You can shift gears to meet your customers’ needs and determine which email types work best for your business. 

Transactional Emails

These are the behind-the-scenes workhorses. They’re triggered by an action—like a purchase or password reset—and provide critical info right when your customer expects it.

Think:

• Order confirmations
• Shipping updates
• Password resets
• Account activations

Pro Tip: Branded, well-designed transactional emails build trust and reinforce your professionalism—even if they’re automated.

Marketing Emails

Now we’re talking promotion. These emails are all about sharing offers, updates, and exciting news with your audience.

Think:

• Promotions and discounts
• New product or service launches
• Event invitations
• Monthly newsletters

Pro Tip: Segment your list! The more relevant your message is, the more likely it is to get opened—and clicked.

Lead Nurturing Emails

Your prospects are curious but not ready to buy? No problem. Use this type of email to warm them up and guide them down the funnel.

Think:

• Welcome sequences
• Educational content
• Customer case studies
• “How it works” videos

Pro Tip: Align content with where the lead is in their journey. A helpful guide or webinar at the right moment can turn interest into action.

Internal Business Emails

Let’s not forget about your team. Internal emails keep your people informed, aligned, and moving in the same direction.

Think:

• Company updates
• Meeting recaps
• New hire announcements
• Policy changes

Pro Tip: Keep these short and focused. If there’s too much fluff, they’ll get ignored.

Customer Service Emails

These are your chance to shine when customers reach out with questions or concerns. A thoughtful reply goes a long way.

Think:

• Support responses
• Refund confirmations
• Follow-up after an issue
• “How did we do?” surveys

Pro Tip: Empathy + clarity = magic. Always aim to make the customer feel heard and supported.

Cold Outreach Emails

Whether you’re looking for leads, partnerships, or new business, a well-crafted cold email can open doors.

Think:

• Introductory sales messages
• Networking or collaboration requests
• Guest posting inquiries

Personalization is key. Ditch the templates and speak directly to the recipient’s needs.

Onboarding Emails

Someone just signed up or became a customer? Perfect time to welcome them and show them the ropes.

Think:

• Welcome emails
• First steps/setup guides
• Best practices or tips
• Product tutorials

Pro Tip: A great onboarding sequence reduces churn and keeps users engaged from Day One.

Re-Engagement Emails

Not everyone stays active forever. That’s where these emails come in—designed to win back attention.

Think:

• “We miss you!” messages
• Special offers for lapsed users
• Re-subscription nudges

Pro Tip: Try A/B testing different incentives to see what brings people back

Survey & Feedback Emails

Want to know what your customers really think? Just ask.

Think:

• Customer satisfaction surveys
• NPS (Net Promoter Score)
• Post-purchase feedback

Pro Tip: Keep it short and sweet. And always follow up with what you learned and how you’ll improve.

Legal & Compliance Emails

These might not be flashy, but they’re non-negotiable—especially with privacy laws getting stricter.

Think:

• Privacy policy updates
• Data breach notifications
• Terms and conditions changes

Pro Tip: Make it easy to understand. Legal doesn’t have to mean confusing.

Building an Email Marketing Strategy

To achieve positive results when making email marketing campaigns, you can’t just throw an email together and send it out. Like any other form of digital marketing, there’s a process that helps you focus on the approach and make the most of each email.

Establish Goals

It’s easy to jump in and start sending emails to your customers, but to what end? If you don’t set goals, how will you ever know if your email marketing works? There’s no limit to what goals you set, but it’s a good idea to focus on one idea to start.

• Websites earning money through ads might focus on driving more traffic to your site.
• If you aim to educate people on a cause to gain their support.
• Ecommerce stores can drive more sales through email campaigns.

Create goals to drive the copy and, ultimately, the action you want your audience to perform. Once you have a set goal, each step of your email marketing strategy should further that goal.

Find the Right Email Service Provider

You could feasibly send individual emails to a small list of subscribers, say five or ten people, but it’s unlikely you could manage fifteen, thirty, or more. That’s why you need an email service provider. 

With so many options available, it can be overwhelming to find the right email marketing platform for your business. It helps to narrow the list by considering a few parameters that vary slightly between services.

• Pricing is important, but not just the initial costs. Some services charge a flat fee based on your list’s size, others offer free trials, and many offer discount subscriptions if you pay for a year or more in advance.
• Look at the interface and how easy it is to navigate. Drag-and-drop features, templates, and other tools can simplify your process.
• Tracking and data metrics help you determine the success of a campaign. Some platforms offer more than others, so make sure you compare apples to apples.

When comparing email service providers, keep your goals at the front of your mind. You may love the shiny bells and whistles of one platform, but if it doesn’t fit your goals as well as a less flashy option, it may not be worth your time.

Segmentation Strategies for Better Targeting

Sending the same email to every contact on your list might save time, but it rarely gets the best results. Segmentation helps you send the right message to the right people, based on what you know about them.

Here are a few ways to segment your list:

• New vs. Returning Customers: First-time buyers may need more education or a welcome offer, while existing and loyal customers might respond better to rewards or referral programs.
• Location: If your business serves multiple regions, localizing your message can make it more relevant.
• Past Purchases or Interests: Tailor promotions based on what someone has bought or browsed.
• Email Engagement: Separate highly engaged contacts from those who haven’t opened an email in months. This allows you to focus on re-engaging the right group—or stop sending to inactive subscribers altogether.

Segmentation doesn’t need to be complicated. Even two or three basic groups can lead to stronger open and click rates.

Email Content Best Practices for Small Businesses

You don’t need a marketing team or a graphic designer to send effective emails. You just need content that’s clear, useful, and respectful of your reader’s time.

Here are a few best practices:

• Write Like a Human: Avoid sounding robotic or overly formal. Keep your tone friendly and conversational—just like you’d talk to a customer in person.
• Focus on One Clear Message: Each email should have a single main purpose, whether that’s promoting a sale, announcing a new service, or sharing a helpful tip.
• Use Short Paragraphs and Bullet Points: Make your emails easy to scan, especially on mobile devices.
• Include a Clear Call to Action (CTA): Whether it’s “Book Now,” “Learn More,” or “Shop the Sale,” your CTA should stand out and be easy to find.
• Use Personalization When Possible: Even just using someone’s first name in the greeting can make the email feel more relevant.

And always send yourself a test before launching—typos or broken links are easy to miss during editing.

Key Metrics for Small Business Email Marketing

Knowing what to measure helps you understand what’s working and what needs attention. Here are the most important email metrics for small business owners to track:

• Open Rate: Tells you how many people are opening your emails. A low open rate may mean your subject lines need work or your list needs cleaning.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measures how many people clicked on a link in your email. This shows how well your content or offers are resonating.
• Bounce Rate: If emails aren’t reaching inboxes, you might have outdated or invalid addresses. Keeping your list clean helps protect your deliverability.
• Unsubscribe Rate: A few unsubscribes are normal, but a spike may indicate your content isn’t matching expectations.
• Conversion Rate: Tracks the number of people who completed a desired action (like making a purchase or filling out a form). This is the most direct measure of email ROI.

You don’t need to obsess over every number—but keeping an eye on these basics can help you make smarter decisions over time.

Email Marketing Benchmarks By Industry

It helps to know how your email performance compares to others in your space. Here are average benchmarks by industry to give you a general idea:

These numbers are averages—not targets. What matters most is improving your own results over time. Focus on consistent growth rather than chasing someone else's benchmarks.

How Can AI Help Create an Email Marketing Strategy?

AI is crucial in crafting an effective email marketing strategy by leveraging data-driven insights and automation. Firstly, AI algorithms analyze vast customer data to identify patterns and preferences, enabling hyper-targeted segmentation. This ensures that each email is personalized to resonate with specific audience segments, increasing engagement and conversion rates. Additionally, AI automates routine tasks such as A/B testing and optimization of subject lines and email content, refining campaigns in real time for optimal performance. By continuously learning from interactions, AI enables marketers to iterate and improve their strategies for ongoing success in email marketing. If you need assistance with utilizing AI, consider our AI consulting services.

Choosing an Email Marketing Platform For Your Small Business

According to a recent survey, 60% of marketers state that email marketing is definitely worth the time and effort, and 32% state that it eventually will produce a significant return on investment. As a result, if you want to create successful email marketing strategies, you need to choose an email marketing tool that will help you get results faster.

Unfortunately, relying on things like Excel spreadsheets and Outlook to help manage your email campaigns is no longer an option since these tools lack automation and efficiency.

Here are four things to look out for in email marketing platforms:

• Integrations: The email marketing tool you choose should come with integration options. This way, you can connect the tool to your existing project management software or client management tool. Integrations give marketers an easy way to manage data and keep track of key metrics without switching between apps.
• User-friendly interface: A good email marketing tool should let you create an engaging email newsletter and have a friendly user interface, like a drag-and-drop editor.
• Automation: You should also be able to send personalized bulk emails without having to put in much manual work. Additionally, your email marketing tool should help you manage your email list, segment recipients, and track the performance of your email marketing campaigns. This is especially important for large businesses that can’t spend all their time manually managing email responses.
• Mobile-friendly: 43% of people check their emails on their phones daily. This means that whatever email marketing platform you select needs to be able to help you send out emails that can be displayed properly on a mobile screen. If someone receives an email that doesn’t load properly, they’ll definitely close the email immediately and forget about your brand’s efforts.

Top Email Marketing Channels

Mailchimp

Best for: All-in-one marketing and ease of use

• Drag-and-drop editor, automations, CRM features
• Built-in analytics, landing pages, and signup forms
• Free tier available for small lists
• Ideal if you're just getting started or want everything in one place

Constant Contact

Best for: Beginners and small local businesses

• Straightforward interface and great customer support
• Event marketing and social media tools included
• Excellent deliverability rates
• Slightly more limited automation, but very user-friendly

ActiveCampaign

Best for: Advanced automation and segmentation

• Powerful automation builder
• CRM and sales tools included
• Great for nurturing leads and long-term customer engagement
• Steeper learning curve, but very robust once set up

MailerLite

Best for: Budget-conscious businesses that need simplicity

• Clean design, intuitive interface
• Automation and landing pages are included in the free plan
• Very competitive pricing
• Lighter on features compared to others, but enough for many small businesses

Klaviyo

Best for: E-commerce businesses

• Deep integration with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce
• Tracks customer behavior and purchase data for smarter targeting
• Great for abandoned cart emails, product recommendations, etc.
• Pricing based on the number of contacts

Sendinblue (now Brevo)

Best for: All-in-one communication (email + SMS)

• Email campaigns, SMS marketing, and basic CRM
• Includes automation and transactional emails
• Good free plan with send limits instead of contact limits
• Strong GDPR compliance features for EU-based businesses

HubSpot Email Marketing (Free CRM)

• Best for: Businesses that want marketing and sales alignment
• Built on top of HubSpot’s free CRM
• Easy drag-and-drop builder, automation, and list management
• Scales well if you plan to add more marketing tools later
• It can get expensive as you move up tiers

Build Your Email List

Your email marketing strategy needs a list of subscribers. Start with what you already have. Pull contacts from existing lists, your email account, your company’s CRM, or your online store. No matter how small your list is in the beginning, it’s a foundation to build upon. 

Growing your list takes work, but it’s not impossible! Your business already has plenty of tools to draw a crowd, so put them to use.

• Blog about industry-relevant topics and provide value that draws a crowd. When people like what you have to say, they tend to want more, like your emails!
• Offer a lead magnet (additional custom content) to subscribers in exchange for signing up for your email list.
• Use social media. Add a call-to-action on your Facebook page and tweet about the benefits of your newsletter.
• Keep your email list healthy. Marketers need to keep their email lists relevant and healthy in order to avoid email list decay. To do this, you’ll need to remove inactive email addresses – email addresses that bounce and email addresses that are never opened. It’s a good idea to send a re-engagement email to those email addresses before removing them from your list.
• Send out valuable content. Valuable content is crucial for a successful email campaign. If you’re not providing your recipients with content that entices them and answers their questions or needs, you’ll end up with high unsubscribe and low engagement rates.
• Encourage subscribers to share and forward your emails. Adding a share or forward to a friend button at the bottom of your emails can help you reach a larger audience and expand your contact list.

Don’t forget to assure subscribers that you won’t spam them or sell their information to spammers. It also helps if you make signing up easy with a clear call to action and a custom landing page.

Create a Campaign

With the right email marketing platform, this step is a snap! Generally, the platform guides you through the creation and automation process from beginning to end. You need to provide the content, and the service handles everything else.

Tips for Creating an Email Marketing Strategy That Is Successful

Best practices guide many marketing processes, including email campaigns. Though some standards change over time, there are a few consistent best practices in email marketing.

The Power of Personalization

How much does it mean to you when somebody you don’t see often remembers your name? Personalizing emails is the modern equivalent of greeting people by name, and it’s a powerful message to your customer. 

Disclaimer: The names, email addresses, domains, and businesses used in this content are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, companies, or email addresses is purely coincidental. These examples are intended for illustrative, educational, or demonstration purposes only and should not be used to contact real individuals or organizations.

Address Your Customer by Name

Make “name” a required field when somebody signs up for your mailing list. That way, you can address them personally with every email you send. It’s a simple but meaningful touch.

Segment Your List

Reach the right people by creating segments of your list to receive specific messages. People open emails if they think it’s relevant to them, so keep that in mind when creating segments. You don’t necessarily want to send information about an unforgettable Wednesday afternoon event to customers who live eight hours away.

Consult your available data to help segment your list. Some popular data points to consider include:

• Geographical location
• Basic demographics like age, gender, and language
• Purchase history, including the amount spent, last purchase, and types of purchases

Send Valuable Content

Do you waste time reading pointless or empty content? Neither do your customers. If you want to stand out against the noise, you need to give people a reason to open your emails every time. Providing valuable content hooks your readers and builds your reputation as a trusted business. 

Automate Your Campaigns

Nothing makes an email campaign easier than enabling autoresponders. These programs allow you to set certain emails to send when customers trigger a specific action. For example, if somebody signs up for your newsletter (yay!), you can create an automated welcome email to greet your new recruit and let them know what to expect from your newsletter.

Welcome emails are just one type of auto-response that you can leverage to grow your list, convert, and retain customers. Thank yous, confirmations, upsells, and even shopping cart abandonment emails can be critical parts of an email marketing campaign.

Don't Forget to Enable Tracking

Data is your friend, and it tells you what works versus what doesn’t. Enable tracking features from your email service provider and set up Google Analytics for the best results. 

Comprehensive tracking can help you fine-tune existing emails and optimize future campaigns. Popular statistics to track include:

• Open rate and unique open rate
• Click-through rate
• Bounce rate
• Unsubscribe rate

Know When to Get Help

There’s a lot of information and advice about creating and running email marketing campaigns, and not all of it helps. The digital marketing world is highly competitive and continually changing, so it may be in your best interest to seek assistance.

Craft Your Email Marketing Plan Today

If you’re not seeing the results you hoped for—or you’re simply too busy to manage it all—partnering with an experienced email marketing team can make a big difference.

Whether you're looking to build long-lasting relationships with your audience, send content your subscribers actually like to receive, or improve results through email automation, the right strategy starts with a clear plan and consistent execution.

At WSI, we help businesses create impactful, data-driven email campaigns that drive engagement, increase conversions, and support your broader marketing goals.

Ready to get started? We’ll help you build your list, define your strategy, and execute campaigns that truly connect with your audience.

Talk to us today to learn how our email marketing for businesses can support your growth in the future and beyond.