Email Campaign Examples and Tips to Upgrade Your Marketing
- Jobber Blueprint /
- Articles /
- Email Marketing for Small Businesses
You could spend more money on attracting new customers. But the best customer is the customer you already have.
Your client list is full of homeowners you’ve already impressed with your service work. Those one-off customers could become lifetime customers if you approach them the right way.
Getting good at email marketing is the best way to do that.
Find out why it’s important to run email campaigns all year. Then get our campaign template examples you can customize and run for all types of customers.
Why you should always be running email campaigns
You’re thinking about your business all the time. Your customers aren’t.
They’re seeing ads for other service providers on trucks, flyers, and billboards everywhere. Even though they’ve already worked with you, there’s no guarantee they’ll call you again when they need your services.
Email marketing is the best way to stay on every customer’s mind. Emails tell customers that you’re still around—and remind them you’re the best person for the job.
So, whether they’re ready to book your services ASAP or in a few months, they’ll think of you first.
Here are other reasons you run email campaigns all year round:
It keeps you profitable during slow periods
If it’s hard for you to attract new customers during certain times of year in business, run email campaigns to your past customers. It’s much easier to get them to pre-book your services than to convince a brand new customer to book when your seasonal services aren’t top-of-mind.
Not to mention: many customers will only book your services at the last minute or when it becomes urgent—like spring clean-up when their lawns get out of control.
Sending your customers emails about your services can remind your customers to book important services in advance.
With automated email marketing tools, you can set up a few “reminder” campaigns in just one afternoon, and let them run throughout your slow season.
It’s targeted and efficient
Flyers, door hangers, and other “spray and pray” ads can work sometimes. But these ads aren’t personal, and they might get thrown in the trash before the decision maker of the house even sees them.
With email, your message goes directly to the inbox of the person who needs to see it.
And using email marketing software, you don’t have to spend hours writing a customized email for every single customer. It’s still fast and efficient, like printing and spreading out flyers, but much more effective.
When you build an email campaign in Jobber, you can start with a premade template that’s built for your target audience and your goal.
Or, you can start from scratch if you already know what you want your campaign to look like.
Once you choose your template, you can choose what group of clients you want to email—choose from segments like all clients or past clients.
You can drill down and make your list even more specific by editing the criteria. For example, you can send a specific campaign to clients whose last job was completed more than 6 months ago and had a specific service done.
Email results are easy to track
When you can see the results of your marketing efforts, you can figure out how to improve them. That’s easy to do with email campaigns—especially in Jobber.
For every campaign you send in Jobber, you’ll see the number of customers who opened the email and clicked on a link inside.
You’ll even see how many jobs the email has created—and how much revenue they generated
Over time, you can track your success by comparing open rate and click rate percentages between your emails.
4 email campaign examples
1. Re-engagement campaign
It’s much easier to get business from past customers than it is to win over new ones. Reconnect with old customers using email campaigns, and you could turn one-off jobs into recurring services.
Let’s say 50 customers booked one-off jobs in the past year. You could send all 50 a marketing email that:
- Reminds them that you still offer that same service
- Offers a similar package with added value
- Provides a time-sensitive offer for re-booking
- Discounts the service if they schedule recurring visits
Here’s an example of this kind of email made in Jobber:
2. New service campaign
When you add a new service, tell everyone on your client list.
If a customer has already been thinking about that service, a simple email that mentions it could push them to book with you. Or, they might realize they need it after they see your email.
Check out this example:
3. Seasonal campaign
Does your business have intense highs and lows during the year? Use seasonal email campaigns to:
- Encourage customers to schedule work for next season. Your emails can encourage them to book soon to get a guaranteed spot before your calendar fills up. Or, offer a discount for booking in advance.
- Inform customers about other services you may have that aren’t affected by seasonality.
Here’s a seasonal email that offers a discount:
Or, use this email example to inform customers about a completely different service:
4. Newsletters or educational campaign
Try sending regular newsletters that share useful, educational information with your customers. If you have a blog on your website already, use that content to inform customers.
If you don’t, consider sharing a round-up of articles from trusted home DIY sites like The Family Handyman. Or, share informative Instagram posts from home service pros like That Lawn Dude.
That information makes your emails immediately valuable to your customers. It also reminds them that you’re an expert in your field—and someone they can trust to provide professional services.
Check out this educational newsletter example:
Send this type of email campaign as a monthly or quarterly newsletter. You can write a few months’ worth of emails in one sitting, then schedule them in advance.
Don’t worry about annoying your customers with ‘spam.’ As long as you’re sending customers information that’s related to your services and useful for them, they’ll be thankful for the value you’re providing between services.
6 ways to improve your email campaigns
1. Keep your customer records organized
When your customers are organized in Jobber, you’ll have an easier time selecting your email campaign audience. Make sure your clients in Jobber are organized with the right tags and job information.
To make segmentation easier:
- Add tags to your customers. Tags are categories you can assign to customers so that they’re easier to search for—like Lead, Residential, or South Side. When it’s time to choose a campaign audience, Jobber lets you select customers by tag.
- Save line items from your quotes. Whenever you add a service or product on a quote, save it so that you can use it later. That way, you can filter your campaign audience by line item if you only want to email customers who’ve received a certain service.
Archive old clients who don’t work with you anymore or who have asked to stop contacting you. This way, you don’t send unwanted emails—which can hurt your ability to appear in people’s inboxes.
2. Always offer value
Your emails should always contain something that a client finds valuable. If it’s not a service announcement or special offer, it could be a blog post with DIY home improvement tips.
Whatever it is, your client will only read it if they’re getting something in exchange.
3. Write strong subject lines
When an email lands in someone’s inbox, the subject line is the first thing they see. Make it accurate and interesting.
For example, instead of just saying “Humidifiers installs are 20% off,” say “Save 20% on a humidifier install when you book today.”
Pro Tip: Use ChatGPT to generate subject lines for you. Hear how these home service business owners use AI tools for their campaigns.
4. Include a clear call to action (CTA)
Before writing an email, decide what action you want the customer to take after reading it.
Do you want them to fill out your online booking form? Call your number? Reply to the email?
Each email should have one clear purpose and just one button or link that you want customers to click. Plan this ahead of time so that your emails are clear, quick, and give you the result you want.
5. Don’t hide your unsubscribe link
Every email needs an “unsubscribe” option. Your business can get penalized for not having one, and that can put your emails into Spam folders.
And it’s just good customer service. You shouldn’t force customers to keep receiving your marketing emails if they don’t want them.
Jobber Campaigns automatically include an “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of every email:
6. Always send a test email
Before you send a campaign, send a test email to yourself and at least one other person. This is your chance to review the email for errors—and to preview how your customer will see it.
Even if you’ve reviewed it a dozen times, seeing your email campaign in your own inbox can help you find opportunities for improvement that you might not have noticed before.
Start making campaigns in Jobber with all your client details ready to use.
You’ll hit the ground running with pre-built campaign templates and easy audience filtering.
Then you’ll be able to track results, book more jobs, and keep delighting customers.
Originally published in December 2019. Last updated on March 6, 2024.
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