Marketing and presence
Email marketing
Is email marketing worth doing for your business, and what do you need?
Six short steps. No email or account.
- Who needs it
- Businesses with repeat or seasonal demand, and professionals with a long consideration cycle.
- When it matters
- Once you have a customer list worth mailing, typically a few hundred contacts.
- Compare first
- List size pricing
- Matters most when
- growing, mature
Is this the right tool for you?
Past customers are the easiest people to win work from, but they forget you between jobs. Regular, useful email keeps you in mind for the next job and the referral, and emailing from your own inbox does not scale and risks landing in spam.
Signs you need it now
- You have a list of past customers you never contact.
- Seasonal or maintenance work goes to whoever reminds the customer first.
- You send group emails from your own inbox with everyone copied.
- You have no way to let people unsubscribe.
When another area fits better
- Your customers respond to texts, not email, and messages are short and timely. Read the text messaging guide
Recognise two or more of these? Sort out email marketing next.
Tell us how your business runs and get a plan that puts email marketing in order with everything else: what to set up first, your must-haves and what to compare.
What matters at your size
Working alone
An email tool with simple templates, a monthly or seasonal message and a clean list of people who agreed to hear from you is enough.
A small team
Segments by service or customer type, automatic reminders for maintenance or renewals, and connection to your CRM so the list stays current.
Several teams or locations
Automated sequences after quotes and jobs, reporting by campaign, and someone responsible for content and list quality.
How the way you work changes the choice
- Trades and home services
- Seasonal reminders, maintenance prompts and requests for referrals. Short, practical messages beat newsletters.
- Professional firms
- Useful updates and insight that keep you credible between engagements. Quality and relevance matter more than frequency.
- Shops and restaurants
- New stock, events and offers to a list collected at the counter or checkout, with clear consent.
What to compare
List size pricing
Costs scale with contacts. Model it at the list size you expect.
Automation depth
Triggered sequences outperform broadcasts for service businesses.
Deliverability
Reaching the inbox matters more than template design.
Cost and setup effort
- Email tools usually charge by the number of contacts or emails sent, so a clean list costs less. Remove people who never engage.
- You need permission to email people for marketing, a working unsubscribe in every message that you honor promptly, and your business address in the footer. Check current rules before you send.
- Set up your domain's email authentication when you start; without it, messages are more likely to go to spam.
Trade-offs to weigh
- Standalone or built into your CRM
- A built-in tool keeps the list current automatically; a dedicated email tool offers better design, automation and deliverability.
- Newsletter or automated messages
- Newsletters take ongoing writing; automated reminders tied to jobs take setup once and keep working.
When to sort it out
Once you have a customer list worth mailing, typically a few hundred contacts.
Your next step
Answer six short questions about how your business runs. You get an operating plan: where email marketing fits among your priorities, the must-haves to hold every option to, and what to compare when you choose.
Where this comes first
Trades and businesses that usually sort this out early.
Often decided alongside
Other parts of marketing and presence.