Do you use email marketing for your business? If you aren’t then you really should be! Email marketing has the highest ROI of any digital marketing activity you can do. So how do you get started and what does it even look like?
Why do I need to do Email Marketing?
Email is a great way to nurture potential customers, and stay top of mind with previous customers. It is also a very cost effective method to market your business. Research shows that on average for every $1 you invest in email marketing generates $40 in revenue for your business. That is the highest ROI of ALL digital marketing activities. It also works well for brick and mortar, e-commerce, service providers and all types of businesses.
By creating your email strategy you are also building a list of customers that you own. Social media is great, but you don’t own that information. Your email list creates data you own and access to the subscribers for as long as you want.
Email is also better at converting customers to sales. You can easily link product, notify customers of sales, and drive traffic through your emails – more so than you can do through social media.
So you’re probably thinking, I don’t have a list so I can’t do email marketing, or my list is too small to make an impact. Here are four simple steps you can take to start an email campaign and grow your list.
Step 1: Get an Account with an Email Provider
There are lots of different companies that offer email marketing tools for small business. For companies just starting out, MailChimp is a great option, and very cost effective. They have amazing templates to inspire you and you can create amazing emails without needing to know any coding. They also give great analytics to show you how your emails are performing compared to other companies in your industry.
There are several other options out there. At H & E Marketing Solutions, we use ConvertKit. Other great options are:
Emma
ActiveCampaign
Drip
Make sure to do your research. Each program has different offerings and is best for different businesses.
Step 2: Grow (or start) a List
- Don’t be afraid if you don’t have a large list to start with. Starting with anything is better and will get you going to communicating with your audience. There are lots of ways to grow your list. Here are a few ideas.
- Create an opt-in for a downloadable document (ebook, white paper). People exchange their email for an immediate download.
- Do a giveaway at events you are at. Have them use their email as a sign up to enter to win a prize.
- Go through all your old business cards. You collect them and don’t know what to do with them! Create an email to reach out to all the contacts you have and ask them to opt-in to your email list.
- Put a sign-up form on your website. Pop up boxes, inline forms or slide-ins are all great options to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
By doing these strategies you’ll be on your way to creating an email list to communicate what’s happening with your business to warm leads and nurturing potential customers.
Step 3: Create Content that Converts
Remember that the goal of your emails is to educate your customers. Yes, you want to sell your product, but make sure that the information you’re sending them is educational and informative first.
Test your audience, poll them, ask them how often they want to hear from you and what they want to know. Then begin to create your newsletter. Depending on your business you might want to go with the plain text version of emails or a more visual newsletter. Again, testing will be key to see what your open and click-thru rates are.
At H & E Marketing Solutions we do a weekly newsletter. It shares the blog post that we have created that week and some information that our owner, Sami, wants to share with the audience. The weekly emails are educational and do not sell products or services. They also invite recipients to visit our Facebook page on Tuesday’s for a live training to learn more about what is in the post.
Step 4: Be Consistent
A question we get all the time is, “How often should I be sending out emails?” As with everything, it’s quality over quantity. Take a look at all the activities you’re doing to market your business. How often can you create great emails to send out? If it’s weekly, then that’s great, if it’s monthly, then start there.
By being regular and consistent, your audience will get used to the rhythm and come to expect, and hopefully, enjoy your communication. Remember that it will take time to grow your list and get engagement from your emails. Buy by regularly showing up for your customers, you’ll soon start to see the benefits of your hard work.
Conclusion
We hope you will use email marketing as part of your marketing strategy. It can be a great way to stay top of mind with current and potential customers. It is also a great way to drive traffic to your website and continue to educate.
Don’t get discouraged by the stats. Remember that depending on your industry, a great open rate is between 18% – 25%. Click through rates can range from 1% – 4%. It’s more important to have a small audience that’s engaged than a large audience that doesn’t’ care.
Email Marketing 10 is being offered on July 23 by Sami Bedell-Mulhern, of H & E Marketing Solutions. This one-day course will teach participants how to harness the power of email to help nurture, grow and ultimately increase sales for their business. Register at www.handemarketingsolutions.com for class, either in-person ($199), or online ($149).
