If you ever spy on a chef running a small restaurant, it’s possible that their kitchen isn’t equipped with impressive cookware or expensive ingredients. This doesn’t mean their creations are not of high quality. What they do is plan everything carefully, so they get just the essential ingredients and tools. And that’s how they can make the most of what they have.
Affordable email marketing works the same way. You don’t need a mythical budget to create high-quality content that your subscribers love and remember. Like a resourceful chef, the right mix of planning and creativity is enough to elevate your email campaigns.
In this post, we’ll cover five budget-conscious email marketing strategies to build campaigns that stick with your audience—so they keep coming back for more.
1. Invest in an Email Template Builder
Pre-designed email templates should be your first step if you’re aiming for low-cost email marketing. With them, you don’t need coding or design skills to craft a professionally looking email. Which means you save time and effort from creating your email from scratch. But what about money?
With email templates, you don’t just save time. You save money, too, as you don’t need to hire an experienced professional like a designer or email marketer to build email campaigns for you.
This doesn’t mean all email templates are free, though. Some email services allow you to access and customize email templates without charging you. However, they come with limitations. For example, they’re not mobile responsive or they don’t allow you to replace their logo with yours.
Ready-made templates aren’t enough to create cost-effective and high-performing email campaigns. To optimize and tweak email templates to your branding, you’ll also need an email template designer. Instead of going after free yet generic templates, an effective email strategy would be to invest in a budget-conscious email tool featuring such a builder.
Here are some of the most essential characteristics to look for in an email template builder:
- Email preview so you can check how each email is displayed across devices and email clients.
- Customization options that allow you to remove the platform’s logo and incorporate your own, along with other brand assets.
- Options to add conditional blocks and create dynamic email content that adjusts to each subscriber’s unique needs and behavioral patterns.
By considering these factors, you save valuable time and money from using different tools. Plus, you’ll increase your ROI, targeting each subscriber with tailored and professional messages that are properly displayed.
2. Use Automation Wisely
Scarce time is a common challenge among marketing professionals today, especially when budgets are tight, and they have to wear multiple hats. So, how do you create great emails while cutting both time and costs?
The answer is with smart email automation. Most email solutions have incorporated automation options so marketers can send automated emails based on predefined triggers. Email automation might get expensive, though.
This means you need to be strategic about which workflows are worth investing in for your business. For instance, a SaaS company could incorporate a basic onboarding workflow into their email marketing strategy, whereas a typical eCommerce would make better use of cart abandonment emails.
For email automation to bear fruits and not cost you more than needed, there are some best affordable practices to consider:
- Start small. Most email marketing platforms have free or low-cost plans that cover basic automation workflows like welcome series or simple drip campaigns. Rather than signing up for the full automation suite, start with a few high-impact workflows that won’t strain your budget.
- Focus on the timing of your messages. Timely emails, like the ones sent after a sign-up or on a subscriber’s birthday feel more personalized. And since personalized content improves engagement, you get to maximize each automated email’s value.
- Keep your content up to date. Automated workflows may run on autopilot, but they’re more effective when they’re relevant. Schedule periodic updates to reflect new offerings, exciting blog content, or seasonal deals. This is a great method to maximize the return on your automation investment with minimum manual work.
- Prevent over-sending with segmented campaigns. By using basic segmentation rules, you’ll be able to send relevant emails only to those who will benefit from them. For instance, consider sending regular updates to your most engaged subscribers instead of sending every email to your entire email list. That way, you reduce the number of emails sent, which, in turn, leads to cost savings on ESPs that charge per email send.
3. Leverage User-Generated Content
Your emails shouldn’t just sell products or services. They should be adding value. And there’s no better way for subscribers to see value than knowing how their peers benefit from your offerings. That’s where user-generated content comes in.
UGC in your emails works as powerful social proof while adding credibility and authenticity to your content. Plus, customer testimonials and reviews create a sense of community among consumers.
But the best part is that UGC costs companies literally nothing—perhaps just a small incentive like a discount or a free sample to convince people to share their feedback. It’s free, authentic, and valuable content that customers give you permission to use. And you can do so across different channels to showcase real-life scenarios in which satisfied customers talk about your products or services.
Encouraging people to share their experiences with your offerings and brand is a key ingredient of an affordable email marketing strategy. For instance, a trainer could ask clients to tell their progress stories via email and feature one success story in their monthly fitness email newsletter. Then, they should add a CTA that prompts recipients to share their own story so they can be featured in the next email.
An alternative is to ask your social media followers to post photos or videos where they use your products or services. This would be the basic entry criterion for joining a fun contest and winning a compelling but low-cost prize. You can use the UGC collected in future email campaigns, as well as on your website or other touch points.
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Adding a few standout customer quotes is an excellent way to humanize your emails. Just like Hiyo does in their product promotion email. The email is effective and powerful using the bare minimum elements: a compelling product image, a few words on the brand’s side, many 5-star flattering reviews, and a clever CTA.
4. Repurpose Existing Content
Nowadays, consumers expect more than just an email, a social media post, or a webinar. In fact, they’re navigating across channels. In this demanding world, a multichannel marketing approach is essential to maximize your reach and strengthen your online presence.
You don’t have to spend extra resources to create the content required, though. In other words, you make the most of the work you’ve already done. Just a few tweaks to fit each channel’s requirements, and you’re ready to engage your audience in different touch points. Now let’s see how you can repurpose existing content in your emails:
- Turn blog posts into shorter email versions. You can break long-form, informative blogs down to smaller and digestible content pieces for your emails. Consider taking the blog’s key takeaways and presenting them as a quick how-to email guide. For example, a financial consulting company could transform a blog on “X Ways to Manage Financial Debt” into simple, concise email tips. Of course, you should add a link directing users to the full blog post for further reading.
- Transform webinars into educational email series. Webinar presentations could turn into a true treasure-trove for your email campaigns. All you need to do is adjust the copy and create an educational email series sharing the most actionable tips. Let’s say you hosted a webinar on emerging digital marketing trends. You could use each email to analyze a single trend, linking to the webinar recording and relevant resources.
- Repurpose social media posts in email content. Benefit from the success of your most engaging social media posts, using them to generate excitement with your emails. The key is to keep them conversational and brief, just like a post. For instance, if you have created a “behind-the-scenes” post, you can convert it into an email that dives deeper into your business’s routine. Make sure to include eye-catching visuals from the original content to maintain consistency and social sharing buttons to drive social media traffic.
5. Opt for Simple Email Designs
Minimalism has emerged as an email marketing trend—and it seems it will stay for a while. Minimalistic email layouts are usually simple and easy to read. Fewer design elements are translated in faster load times, too, which is key for increased engagement—especially for mobile users or people with short attention spans.
By avoiding fancy and complex email designs, you minimize distractions. A clean layout helps readers focus on what matters the most, meaning your message and your branding. Plus, you can easily guide the reader’s eye towards critical components like your CTA. Minimalistic designs are mobile-friendly, too, facilitating click-throughs for mobile users.
A minimalistic approach in email design is cost-effective. You’ll spend less time and fewer resources on email creation, resulting in higher ROI. With unnecessary components out of the way, readers are more likely to click through your email content and, ultimately, convert.
But minimalistic doesn’t equal boring. Low-cost interactive elements are all you need to boost engagement without overcomplicating things. For instance, you can add a simple poll or survey to gather valuable feedback or include an eye-catching product image to pique your recipient’s interest. Such small touches make the email feel more engaging without cluttering the design—or breaking the bank.
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Slightglass Coffee’s email is centered around the action the brand requires readers to take. From the straightforward subject line to the simple email copy, every element plays a pivotal role in getting to the point. To convey the message effectively, the brand uses short text, an image, and an action-oriented CTA that directs subscribers to the survey.
Keep Reviewing Features for Low-Cost Email Creation
Affordable email marketing is something every business can dive into with some careful planning and clever email marketing strategies. When you first subscribe to an email marketing platform’s paid plan, consider looking for annual plans that may come at a discounted price.
Every now and then, evaluate feature usage to identify add-ons that you can do without. If you find unnecessary ones, ask for a downgrade. That way, you will only pay for the capabilities you really require.
With such strategic optimizations and the tips discussed in our blog, you can reduce email marketing costs in a short period. Then, you’ll be ready to channel your budget into other email strategies to further enhance the bonds between your brand and your audience.
Author
Maria Fintanidou works as a copywriter for email marketing automation software Moosend, having created the Help Articles (FAQs) and overseen the platform’s translations in Greek and Spanish. She loves exploring new cultures and ways of thinking through traveling, reading, and language learning.