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Everyone’s email inbox is always full of solicited and unsolicited emails. If you’ve considered starting an e-newsletter here are some tips and tricks for email marketing to make sure your emails stand out and add value to your customers.
According to Mailchimp (one of the leading email marketing platforms), email marketing is a form of marketing that can make the customers on your email list aware of new products, discounts, and other services. It can also be a softer sell to educate your audience on the value of your brand or keep them engaged between purchases. It can also be anything in between.
Email is widely used, so it will have a larger, more targeted reach when working to grow your business and connect with customers and potential customers. You are in more control with email than you are your social media presence.
According to Campaign Monitor 90% of email gets delivered to the intended recipient’s inbox, whereas only 2% of your Facebook fans see your posts in their News Feed. In other words, your message is 45 times more likely to be seen using email than Facebook.
Email marketing is a great way to stay connected with your audience. One of the first rules of email marketing: always get permission to email someone first! Ask your audience to sign up for your e-newsletter to receive updates and always allow the option to unsubscribe. Learn more about the legalities of email marketing from Campaign Monitor.
Your emails are a great way to not always ‘sell’ but to share with your audience. Those who subscribe are invested in what you do, the product you make, or the services you provide. Give them updates, offer loyalty discounts, share customer stories, and connect with them in real time.
Overall, make sure you are adding value to the reader or they won’t open your emails, or even worse, they will unsubscribe. How do you add value? Know your audience. Use analytics to learn about what they are reading and clicking on in your campaigns (see more below). If you offer a product or a service, give them special deals and coupons. Focus on what they need, not just what you want to share.
Email marketing is so easy to measure and track — if you are doing it correctly. Most email marketing platform tools allow you to track:
These numbers allow you to see which of your campaigns and information are working and connecting with readers. Do not ignore this information! You will know what people are clicking on — meaning what they are most invested in with your company.
Another way to use the information you are gather is targeted messaging to the right people. You can create segmented lists to send emails to those who have purchased from you before, stayed at your campground, participated in your online programing, etc. This helps you add the right value to the right people.
When you are interacting with someone in person, this is a great opportunity to get them on your email list. Make it easy with something like a QR code they can scan with their phones that leads right to your sign up form.
If someone lands on your website, be sure to give them quick and easy options to sign up to be a part of your e-newsletter. This means placing a button frequently on your website that lead to a quick form — yes, quick! Don’t require too much information or they will not fill it out.
If you are creating value on your website that changes often, offer the ability to subscribe for updates. This is a great opportunity to use a blog or store to create hype so customers can be alerted with a new release.
If you create content or provide resources to customers, consider lead-generating tools like a free eBook or a new printable that can only be access through a landing page requiring an email for them to download. This is a great way to see what people are interested in and want to learn more about.
Consider segmenting your list based on how someone signs up for your e-newsletter. This gives you insights on to how they found you and what they are interested in reading in your emails.
According to HubSpot, If you create multiple targeted subscriber types, you’ll increase the chance that visitors will subscribe to one of them. In fact, marketers who used segmented campaigns noted as much as a 760% increase in revenue.
If you already have a presence on Facebook or other social media channels, use them to help lead people to your sign up form. A great way to do this on Facebook is to use the custom button at the top of your page to send someone to your sign up form.
You can also create graphics to share in posts, use as your cover photo, or even run contests to encourage sign up. If people are not signing up, use a sample of your e-newsletter content to drive them to sign up to see the rest.
Don’t over do it, but make sure you are consistent with your messaging. It needs to match your brand and it needs to come regularly. This doesn’t mean it has to come at the same time every week, but refer to your analytics to figure out how often you should share and when you should share. Are people more likely to open your email on a Monday? Maybe they wait until later in the week or only read your emails once a month.
Do not spam people with too many emails — another way to utilize list segments is allowing people to be removed from specific campaigns you are running if they are not interested in their inbox being flooded, but want to stay on your list for your general information.
Overall, be sure you are consistently sharing valuable and meaningful content to your subscribers. You want to keep them active and engaged. It is important to review and audit your email lists over time. Make sure you still have good emails. Besides people unsubscribing, people will abandon old email addresses, change jobs, or ignore your emails. Make sure you are always growing your list and are aware of trends within your email list on open and click through rates.
Remember these quick tips and tricks to stay on the right path for email marketing:
Funny enough, I do not have my own email list — but it is in the works! I would love to have you sign up here to be a part of my growing email list for when it officially launches!
