Small business email marketing

Email marketing offers strong return on investment (ROI) and direct access to decision-makers, making it an ideal channel for small businesses. Plus, statistics show that 77% of B2B buyers prefer being communicated to via email over other methods. Email is an adaptable tool that can be used for the complete customer journey, from acquisition and retention to promoting your products and offers.

So as a small business, what can you do to optimise your email campaigns?

Before you craft your emails, think about what you want to achieve. Do you want to acquire new customers, build loyalty or drive sales? This will help determine who you want to target and the key performance indicators (KPIs) you could use to measure and track campaign performance. This could be your open rate, click-through rate or conversion rate for example, which you can monitor over time and compare against industry benchmarks. 

Who are your target audience, what do they want to hear about, and what will draw them in to engage with your content? You might have an existing audience list or choose a sales intelligence tool like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to build one. Review your email lists every quarter, ditching out of date email addresses and checking job titles.

Once you’ve put the groundwork in to identify exactly who you’re sending your emails to, you can begin to craft the content.

Work hard on your subject line

In a crowded inbox, your subject line will need to jump out. If it doesn’t grab your reader’s attention, the ‘delete’ icon is all too available.

Now that you’ve hooked them into the body of your email, it’s vital to keep that momentum going with the right structure and messaging.

Create a coherent, structured email

You may be completely clear on the messages you want to get across, but finding the right words and structure can be a challenge. It’s crucial to use meaningful content that’s about the reader, not you. We recommend using an email framework like PAS (Problem, Agitate, Solve) to get a personalised message across while driving a clear call to action.

Remember to keep your emails jargon free and benefit led, and end with a strong call to action to make the reader's next steps clear.

Measuring the success of your emails cannot be an afterthought, it must be baked into the process from the start. Take time to regularly review performance against your KPIs, so you can identify trends and insights to continually optimise and refine your content.

Email remains one of the most effective and affordable ways for small businesses to reach the people who matter. When you combine clear audience targeting with compelling subject lines, structured messaging and consistent testing, you turn each send into a smarter, more efficient driver of revenue.

By keeping your emails focused, personalised and genuinely useful to the reader, you’ll build stronger relationships, improve engagement and ultimately maximise the ROI of every campaign. With the right approach, email isn’t just a communication channel – it becomes a reliable engine for long‑term business growth.

Footnotes

1. Courageous 
   ROI for email marketing in the UK is £35 for every £1 spent.
2. The Lead Generation Company 
   77% of B2B buyers say they prefer to be contacted by email than any other channel.
3. LinkedIn Sales Navigator 
   Sales intelligence tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
4. Campaign Monitor 
   Incorporating their job role, company, past activity, interest or challenges delivers a 20% increase in sales.
5. The Lead Generation Company 
   73% of B2B marketers cite email as their most effective solution.
6. Campaign Monitor 
   74% of marketers say targeted personalisation increases customer engagement.