You know you should be emailing your customers, but there is never time, and the advice online assumes a marketing team. This guide is for owners doing it alone. We cover which platform to pick and what it costs, how to stop emails landing in spam, where your first subscribers come from, the three emails to write first, how often to send and what to measure.
To start email marketing as a small business, pick a simple platform with a free plan, send from your own domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up, add a sign-up form where customers already find you, then write three emails: a welcome, a regular newsletter and a simple offer. Send weekly or fortnightly and track clicks and sales.
Who this is for: Small business owners with no marketing team who want email to bring in sales without taking over their week.
Start small and in the right order. Pick one email platform, connect your own domain so your emails reach the inbox, add a sign-up form where your customers already are, then write three emails: a welcome, a regular send and a simple offer. That is enough to make your first sale from email. Everything else can wait.
Most owners stall because they try to do it all at once: the perfect template, ten automations, a big list before the first send. You do not need any of that. A café with 120 regulars on its list, a bookkeeper with 60 past clients, a coach with 200 podcast listeners: each can start this week with an hour or two of setup.
Email is worth the effort for one simple reason. The people on your list asked to hear from you, and you do not pay each time you reach them, unlike ads. Social reach goes up and down with the algorithm. Your list stays yours, even if you change platforms later.
This guide follows the order we would use for a business with no spare time: platform, domain, first subscribers, first three emails, how often to send, what to measure and the mistakes to skip. If you only read one section, read the one on the first three emails.
For most small businesses the best platform is a cheap, simple one with a free plan, a sign-up form and basic automation. MailerLite, Kit, Brevo and Mailchimp all cover that. They differ in how they charge and who they are built for. Prices below are from each vendor's own pricing page at the time of writing (November 2026), in US dollars at the smallest list size. They change often, so check before you sign up.
| Platform | Price from | Free plan | Automation | Landing pages and forms | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MailerLite | Comfort plan from $12 a month (yearly billing saves 10%) | Yes, up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month | Yes, including on the free plan (3 active automations) | Free: 1 landing page and 3 forms. Comfort: 10 of each | Most small businesses that want simple and cheap |
| Kit | Creator plan from $33 a month, billed yearly ($390 a year) | Yes, up to 10,000 subscribers | Not on the free plan. Unlimited sequences and visual automations on Creator | Unlimited on all plans | Coaches, creators and experts selling courses or digital products |
| Brevo | Starter from $9 a month on monthly billing | Yes, up to 300 emails a day | Full multi-step workflows on Standard, from $18 a month | Forms included. Check current pricing for landing pages | Businesses with a big contact list who send less often, and those wanting SMS too |
| Mailchimp | Essentials from $13 a month for the first 12 months (50% introductory discount), then the list price | Yes, 250 contacts and 500 emails a month | Limited on Essentials. More flows on Standard | Forms included. Check current pricing for landing pages | Shops and businesses already using tools that connect to it |
Our honest starting point: if you sell services or products locally and want the least fuss, MailerLite's free plan is hard to beat until you pass 250 subscribers. If you sell knowledge, such as coaching, courses or a paid newsletter, Kit's free plan lets you grow a large list before you pay, though you need to upgrade for sequences. Brevo charges by emails sent rather than contacts, which suits a big list you email once a month. Mailchimp is the most familiar name, but watch what happens to the price after the introductory year.
For a longer look at features and catches, see our guide to the best email marketing software. Do not spend more than an afternoon choosing. You can move later, and your list comes with you.
Send from an address on your own domain, such as hello@yourbusiness.co.uk, not a Gmail or Outlook address. Then add three records to your domain's DNS settings. Your email platform will show you exactly what to copy in, and most domain hosts let you paste them in a few minutes.
Gmail and Yahoo now expect these records from anyone sending in bulk, and even small senders do better with them in place. Without them, your welcome email can land in spam and you will never know why sign-ups go quiet. Our step-by-step SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup guide covers each record for the common domain hosts.
When you are done, run your domain through our free email deliverability checker. It shows which records are missing or broken. Then send a test email to a Gmail and an Outlook address you own, and check it arrives in the inbox, not in spam or junk.
Your first subscribers are people who already know you. Start with them before you chase strangers.
Ask current and past customers. Add a tick box to your booking form, checkout or invoice, and ask in person: "Want our monthly email with offers and new dates?" Only add people who say yes. Under UK and EU rules you need permission, and people who did not ask to hear from you rarely open anyway.
Put a sign-up form where people already look. Your website header or footer, your contact page, your Instagram or Facebook bio link, your Google Business Profile and your email signature. Every platform in the table above gives you a form or a simple page to link to.
Give a reason to join. "Join our newsletter" is weak. Something specific works better: a 10% first-order code for a shop, a seasonal checklist for a garden service, a free price guide for a builder, a short video lesson for a coach. Our guide on how to build an email list fast has more ideas that work without paid ads.
Do not buy or scrape lists. It breaks the rules in the UK and EU, it damages your sender reputation, and those addresses will not buy from you. A list of 100 people who chose you is a better start than 5,000 who did not.
This goes out automatically the moment someone joins, and it is usually the most opened email you will ever send. Thank them, deliver what you promised (the code, the checklist, the video), say what they will get from you and how often, and give one next step, such as booking, shopping or replying with a question. Keep it short. Once it works, you can grow it into a short series. Our guide to a high-converting welcome email sequence shows how.
This is your newsletter, sent on a set day. One useful idea per email works best: a tip, a short customer story, what is new this month, an answer to a question people often ask you. A florist might send "How to make supermarket tulips last a week" with a line about this week's bouquets at the end. Write it like a note to one customer, not a brochure.
At some point you have to ask. Once a month, or around a natural moment like a new season, a launch or spare diary space, send an email with one clear offer: what it is, who it is for, the price or the deal, and one button or link. A plumber could offer boiler service slots before winter. A salon could fill quiet Tuesdays. People on your list expect to hear about offers, and a clear one rarely puts them off.
With those three running, you have a welcome that greets every new subscriber, a regular email that builds trust and an offer that turns it into sales.
For most small businesses, once a week to once a fortnight is right. Once a month is fine if that is all you can keep up. Steady matters more than frequent: an email that lands every other Thursday builds more trust than a weekly one that stops for two months when you get busy. Pick a rhythm you can keep through your busiest season, and write a few emails ahead.
Then watch a handful of numbers in your platform's reports:
Look at the numbers once a month, not after every send. One email is too few to judge. If you want a benchmark for opens, our page on the average email open rate explains what is normal and why it is less reliable than it used to be.
Common mistakes. Waiting for a big list before sending. Sending from a free Gmail address. Skipping the welcome email, so new subscribers hear nothing for weeks. Heavy designs full of images that load slowly on a phone and look like adverts to inbox filters. Every email selling, or no email ever selling. And going silent for months, then emailing a cold list that no longer remembers you, which leads to spam complaints.
When email is not your priority yet. Be honest with yourself here. If almost nobody knows your business exists, email has no one to talk to. Spend your first hours getting found, through your Google Business Profile, referrals, local partners or content, and add a simple sign-up form so the list grows in the background. If your offer is unclear, or you cannot handle more customers right now, email will only add pressure. Fix the offer or the capacity first.
And if your customers buy once in a lifetime, such as a wedding venue, email still helps for referrals and reviews, but a fortnightly newsletter is probably too much. A few well-timed emails a year may be all you need.
When a done-for-you studio fits. You can do everything in this guide yourself with a free plan and a couple of hours a month. Many owners do. The usual problem is time: the welcome email never gets written, the newsletter slips when you are busy and nobody checks the numbers. A done-for-you studio fits when you know email should be bringing in sales but you do not have the hours to set it up and keep it running. That is what we do at Unbury: find where your marketing is losing customers, build the fix and run it week to week. If you want to see where to start, book a free marketing audit.
For most small businesses, a simple platform with a free plan is the best start. MailerLite suits most local and service businesses, Kit suits coaches and creators selling digital products, and Brevo suits big contact lists you email less often. Pick one in an afternoon and move later if you outgrow it.
You can start for free. At the time of writing (November 2026), MailerLite's free plan covers 250 subscribers, Kit's covers up to 10,000, Brevo's allows 300 emails a day and Mailchimp's covers 250 contacts. You will usually pay once your list grows or you need more automation.
Once a week to once a fortnight works for most small businesses, and once a month is fine if that is what you can keep up. Sending on a steady schedule matters more than sending often.
None. Start with the customers who have agreed to hear from you, even if that is 30 people. Sending early builds the habit and shows you what your readers respond to before the list gets bigger.
The usual causes are a missing SPF, DKIM or DMARC record, sending from a free Gmail or Outlook address, or emailing people who did not sign up. Check your domain with a deliverability checker, send from your own domain and only email people who opted in.
Send us your setup and we will tell you honestly where it is leaking customers and what to fix first. Free, no pitch.