What is email marketing?
Definition
Email marketing is sending emails to people who have agreed to hear from your business, such as customers and newsletter subscribers. It covers newsletters, offers, seasonal reminders and automatic messages like a welcome email or a follow-up after a visit. For a small business, it's one of the most direct ways to bring past customers back.
Why email marketing works for a small business
Your past customers already know and trust you, and winning them back is usually easier than finding someone new. But they forget. An email at the right moment, saying the furnace is due a check or the patio is open again, puts you in front of them before they search and find someone else. And unlike a social media following, the list belongs to you.
Aim for useful and regular rather than frequent: one good email a month beats four forgettable ones. Give each email one point and one button, and write the way you talk. Email people who asked to hear from you, and follow the US rules in the CAN-SPAM Act, which include putting your business's postal address and a clear way to unsubscribe in every marketing email.
For HVAC companies, the calendar writes the emails: a furnace tune-up reminder in early fall and an AC check before the first heat wave. For restaurants, it's new seasonal dishes, holiday hours, private event dates and seats for a tasting dinner. For landscaping companies, it's spring cleanup sign-ups, fall leaf removal and booking next year's maintenance before the schedule fills.
How to start email marketing
- Add a sign-up box to your site, and ask customers in person after a job or visit.
- Keep a record of what each person agreed to, and when.
- Plan one email a month around the seasons of your business.
- Give each email one main message and one button.
- Include your business address and an easy way to unsubscribe.
- Send a welcome email, so new subscribers hear from you while they remember signing up.
How Future handles it
Every Future plan builds your list for you: sign-up boxes and forms save each person to Contacts with what they agreed to hear from you, and confirm the yes by email. The list is yours: export it as a spreadsheet file to send one-off newsletters from the email tool you use.
Pro sends the automatic emails for you: welcome emails, rebooking nudges, win-back notes and review requests, up to 3 running at once, to people who said yes. Premier runs them all. Nothing goes out until you approve the words. Text messages are Coming soon.