Will Email Marketing Still Work in 2021? A Guide for Local Service Industries

Will email marketing still work in 2021 and beyond? The short answer is a resounding yes. In fact, email marketing peaked in 2020 due to the pandemic, with engagement rates soaring in March and April.

In a world that's still socially distanced, businesses large and small are relying heavily on digital marketing to attract and retain customers. Let's review some fast facts and best practices for email marketing in 2021 and beyond for local service businesses.

Fast facts about email marketing in 2021 and beyond

To illustrate how important email marketing will be in 2021, let's review some findings from a couple of studies on email marketing during the pandemic.

• Over 45% of marketers said they planned to send more emails in Q3 2020. (Source: The Seventh Sense)
• For almost all industries, email open and click-through rates surged to new highs in March and April 2020 compared to 2019. (Source: Mailchimp)
• Small businesses saw a dramatic increase in engagement in 2020 compared to 2019. (Source: Mailchimp)

Best practices for email marketing in 2021 for local service businesses

Most of the email marketing advice floating around on the internet caters to ecommerce. But what about small local service businesses? We're talking home improvement, healthcare, and legal specifically. That's why we've compiled a few general email marketing tips for these industries.

Write captivating, educational subject lines

The subject line alone entices nearly 35% of subscribers to open your email. But captivating does not equal clickbaity or spammy. Bad subject lines could cause your email to get caught in your subscribers' spam filters.

For local service businesses, educational is the way to go. For example, if you're in the finance industry, you might send out 5 easy tips for saving money. That's a pretty solid subject line in itself. But it sounds pretty bland, right?

Sometimes, straightforward is the way to go. Especially when you're working with so few characters. You don't want to dress up your subject line with buzzwords and emojis to the point where it's irrelevant or unclear.

Here are a few tips for writing good subject lines:

• Avoid "shouting" at your readers with all caps
• Use emojis and exclamation points sparingly
• A/B test different subject lines to discover which performs best

Check out this comprehensive list of captivating subject lines from OptinMonster. Remember, what works best for some businesses might not work best for yours! Heed our advice in the third tip and experiment often.

Avoid bombarding your customers with irrelevant messages

Sending frequent emails containing irrelevant messages is a sure-fire way to lose subscribers.

Your customers' inboxes are overflowing with promotional emails. If you want to rise above that noise, making more noise isn't the best tactic.

Sending an educational email once every two weeks or once a month is plenty for local service businesses to stay top-of-mind.

Segment your campaigns intelligently

Should you send that email to your whole list? Maybe. But probably not.

Your customers are more likely to interact with personalized emails. And we don't mean emails with a [NAME] property in the greeting. (That's pretty standard.)

You can hyperpersonalize email campaigns by segmenting your contacts into different buckets. A few examples of segmented lists might include:

• Customers who spent more than $2,000
• Customers serviced in the last 6 months
• Leads that submitted a form

Let's say you're a local home service business offering a $0 dispatch fee to high-paying customers. This is a classic example of a customer appreciation email.

You wouldn't want to send that email to leads who are still in the awareness stage. It's irrelevant and slightly confusing.

Don't neglect your existing customers

Local businesses in particular get so caught up chasing new customers that they forget all about the customers who already trust them! This is called the treadmill approach. And it's hurting local businesses already recovering from economic hardship related to the pandemic.

Most email marketing campaigns are aimed at nurturing new leads. But too few are aimed at retaining past customers.

It's time to flip that switch.

Some of our most successful clients generate 70% of their revenue from repeat customers. Thanks to a trustworthy brand, those service businesses enjoy lower customer acquisition costs and better customer retention. One of those same clients generated $70k+ in revenue through email marketing to existing customers!

Feeling overwhelmed just thinking about it?

Shopping around for an email platform. Hiring a copywriter and graphic designer. Drafting and reviewing multiple drafts of the same email. Tinkering, experimenting, A/B testing...

Sounds pretty overwhelming, right? Especially if you're new to email marketing and don't have a bottomless budget.

Keen to discover how email marketing can unlock explosive growth for your business? Don't have the time or expertise to create and test your own campaigns?

Say no more — we totally get it. You've already got your hands full managing social, blog, and a million and one other marketing channels. Maybe you've already tried email marketing but lacked the time and resources to commit.

That's exactly why we built the Engagement Engine from the ground up. This done-for-you email marketing solution harnesses the power of automation backed by humans to re-engage your past customers. You know, the members of your local community who spent their hard-earned money to support your business.

Create smarter customer interactions in half the time with industry-specific email copy, intelligent reporting, easy segmenting, and so much more.

Book your demo today and be one of the first to see the Engagement Engine in action!