If you think email marketing is for big businesses with even bigger budgets, think again. In fact, results from Sinch Mailjet’s Inbox Insights 2023 survey show email marketers at small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) may even enjoy some unique advantages over larger competitors. Check out these small business email marketing stats to see where you stand.
What % of small businesses use email marketing?
64% of small businesses use email marketing
Email marketing remains a popular strategy among small businesses. According to Forbes, 64% of small businesses use email marketing as an important customer acquisition and retention tool in their marketing mix.
What’s stopping the rest?
One of the main reasons a small business may not pursue email marketing is a lack of capacity. Small business owners and teams are often pulled in multiple directions, and with 53.7% of small business owners managing their own email marketing, finding the time and resources (while running an entire business) is a challenge. Over a third (33.9%) of small business marketers cite a lack of time/focus as a significant constraint.
Another challenge facing small businesses is measuring the success of email marketing. Accurate metrics are crucial for understanding and improving performance, but, according to the survey, only about 25% of small business marketers feel confident in accurately measuring their email marketing impact.
Yet we know that measuring and optimizing email marketing campaigns (smartly) can lead to significant improvements. For example, over 60% of small businesses with fewer than 10 employees consider open rate a top metric. However, many may not be aware that this metric can be misleading due to artificial inflation (think features like Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection). So while open rates are important, a metric like click-through rate (CTR) that you track on your website gives a clearer picture of engagement.
How successful is email marketing?
60% of email marketers report success with email marketing
Around 60% of all respondents in the survey would describe the success of their email programs over the last 12 months as:
- “very successful” (16.4%),
- “somewhat successful” (43.5%)
However, when honing in on the smallest businesses (under 10 employees), the survey found that only 47% reported success in their email marketing efforts—34.4% called email “somewhat successful”, and only 12.6% said it was “very successful”. Just over 15% of the smallest businesses called email “unsuccessful”, which is the highest percentage of any business size.
With less than half of small businesses in the survey reporting email marketing success, you may be tempted to click off this blog post and move right along to a different strategy.
BUT DON’T DO IT!
When done right and given the appropriate time, effort, and consistency, email marketing can pay off for small businesses!
Before you go, remember the potential return on investment (ROI)…
The Sinch Mailjet report, Email in an evolving economy, found that nearly 60% of those who work in marketing believe email is the channel best poised to provide a strong ROI during a global recession.
You may also be interested in: Is email marketing still worth it?
Is email marketing profitable?
$42 return for every $1 spent on email marketing
Email marketing can be highly profitable for small businesses. Online research reveals that the average return on investment (ROI) can be as high as $36 to $42 for every dollar spent. That’s 3600% to 4200%, an ROI that most other marketing strategies will struggle to achieve.
Sure, larger organizations may see higher financial returns due to more sophisticated strategies, but small businesses can still leverage email for substantial gains.
You may also be interested in: Mastering email marketing for new and small businesses
Small business email marketing doesn’t have to be a struggle
It bears repeating: with the right email strategy, software, and content, email marketing offers significant potential for small businesses. Let us know if you’d like help optimizing your email marketing strategies for better engagement and profitability.
