Why is Email Marketing still important for SMEs?

In the era of social networks, many small business owners in Vietnam think that Email Marketing is “outdated”. However, the reality shows that Email Marketing is still the channel with the highest ROI in Digital Marketing: On average, for every 1 USD spent, businesses receive about 36 USD.

This is not just a statistic. The case study from Birchbox has proven that combining Email Marketing with Marketing Automation can absolutely make a difference. With automated workflows and personalized content, Birchbox has retained millions of customers, boosted online sales, and turned email into the most effective channel for nurturing loyal customers.

So what can Vietnamese SMEs learn from this lesson?

Who is Birchbox?

Birchbox is a subscription box brand specializing in providing personalized beauty products in the US. Each month, customers receive a “beauty box” containing skincare, makeup, or haircare products selected based on their personal preferences and needs.

Birchbox’s unique feature is its way of exploiting customer data to personalize the email experience. Previously, emails sent were often generic, leading to low open rates. But when applying Marketing Automation, Birchbox segmented customers by their beauty habits, created a workflow to send emails at the right time (e.g., suggesting new products when customers were running low, or suggesting seasonal beauty boxes), and personalized the content to the point of mentioning the customer's name and individual needs.

Case Study - How Birchbox Succeeded with Email Automation?

BirchBox's Initial Problems

Before investing in automation, Birchbox encountered difficulties familiar to SMEs:

• Email delivery series, general content → customers are less interested.
• Email open rate decreases, CTR is low.
• Marketing teams spend many hours manually: filtering lists, entering data, sending each campaign separately.

As a result, email costs increase, while conversion rates are not commensurate.

Birchbox solution applied

Birchbox decided to deploy Marketing Automation with a clear strategy:

• Detailed customer segmentation: New customer group, long-term subscribers, customers about to expire their subscription, customers who have purchased but abandoned their cart.
• Create an automatic workflow for each group: Create a welcome email for new customers, send a promotional email for customers about to expire their subscription, …

Example 1: Send a welcome email introducing the beauty box as soon as the customer registers

Example Example 2: Email instructing customers on how to register

Example 3: Email providing a discount code to encourage customer action

• Email personalization: Not just stopping at “Hello [Name]”, but also suggesting products that match the declared interests.
• Continuous testing (A/B Testing): Email title, CTA, image to optimize open rate and CTR.

Results achieved

After a period of implementation:

• Email open rate maintained at 2 times higher than before
• CTR increased significantly thanks to personalization personalize suggested products
• Email has become a stable revenue channel, accounting for a large proportion of total online revenue

This is proof that email marketing is not outdated - the problem lies in the implementation.

What can Vietnamese SMEs learn from the Birchbox case?

Lesson 1 - Personalization is vital

Customers today no longer accept mass spam emails. They want messages that are tailored to their needs and behaviors. SMEs can start by:

• Collect customer data from registration forms, surveys, orders.
• Segment by age, gender, needs or behavior (e.g., new customers - second-time customers - loyal customers).
• Write different emails for each group, instead of a single email.

Lesson 2 - Automated workflow helps save resources

SMEs often have small marketing teams, even just 1-2 people. Sending emails manually can easily lead to errors and missed customers. An automated workflow solves this problem:

• Welcome email when customers sign up
• Cart reminder email after 24 hours
• Happy birthday email with special offer
• Reminders for appointments or service renewals

This allows businesses to maintain regular customer care without adding staff.

Lesson 3 - Measure and Continuously Improve

Birchbox not only sends automated emails, but also continuously testing. Vietnamese SMEs should also learn how to:

• A/B testing email subject lines to choose the most attractive version.
• Compare CTR of each type of CTA to optimize.
• Analyze open - click - conversion reports to improve scripts.

GTG CRM - Marketing Automation solution specifically for Vietnamese SMEs

If Birchbox has succeeded in the US thanks to automation, Vietnamese SMEs can do the same with the support of GTG CRM - Marketing platform All-in-one designed specifically for small businesses.

Outstanding features supporting SMEs

Email Builder: Beautiful email template library, easy to use drag-and-drop, suitable for people without design experience

AI writes content email: Just enter a few commands, AI will suggest titles, CTAs, personalized content according to customer groups

Automation Workflow: Set up an automatic email sending scenario (welcome, appointment reminder, birthday care...)

Integrated CRM: Customer data from multiple channels is automatically saved to the system, helping you easily classify by status

Why is GTG CRM suitable for Vietnamese SMEs?

• Reasonable cost: From only 208,000 VND/month ($7), much lower than international tools
• Simple - Easy to use Use: No need for IT knowledge, SMEs can set up in just a few minutes
• All-in-one: In addition to Email Automation, GTG CRM also has a Landing Page builder with AI, multi-channel social media and messaging management, running Facebook and Google Ads easily with AI, Messaging → Save costs when not needing to buy many separate tools

Conclusion

Birchbox's story shows: Email Marketing combined with Automation is still a powerful weapon to nurture customers and increase revenue. Vietnamese SMEs can absolutely learn from it, with the right tools and reasonable costs. And that's where GTG CRM becomes a smart choice - a comprehensive, cost-effective, easy-to-use solution that's powerful enough for SMEs to thrive.