Is e-mail marketing dead?
I can’t even count the number of times I’ve heard this question. But before I answer, let me ask you this: how many people do you know who don’t have email?
I personally don’t know any. I know people who are not active on social media, or those that are not on it at all. But email… I can’t think of one person.
E-mail marketing has been around for about 20 years now, and will probably outlast most social media platforms. There are more people using e-mail than even Facebook. So if you’re not using e-mail to communicate with your audience, you are missing out.
What Is E-mail Marketing?
E-mail marketing is a highly effective (if done right) digital marketing strategy that is based on sending e-mail newsletters to prospects and customers.
The end goal of this strategy is convert your audience into buyers.
The Importance of E-mail Marketing?
As you can tell, I strongly believe that your marketing strategy will be lacking if you don’t incorporate e-mail. But why?
If you’ve been following this digital marketing series, you would have noticed that one of the things we advocate strongly is for you to own your audience. Social media is great (fantastic actually), but the audience doesn’t belong to you, it belongs to the platform. And if you only have a presence on social media without building your own website or blog, then you could be setting yourself up for failure.
So below are a few reasons why we think email is better:
- Number 1 communication channel – As I’ve mentioned already, there are more people on email than on social media. And more importantly, people check their email on a daily basis.
- Email converts better – And the reason for this is because people actually choose to receive emails from you because they like what you have to say.
- You own your list – This is the number one reason why email is best. No one can take these leads away from you.
Where To Start?
So you’re considering getting started and wondering where to begin? This is why we’re here!
Get Permission
You’re probably thinking duh!, of course I have to get permission. But that’s not always the case. How many times have you received an email and wondered how the company go your information? Many times probably. A lot of companies still don’t obtain their lists ‘legally’.
Also, respect the unsubscribe button. Just because I signed up to receive your emails doesn’t mean I can’t change my mind. By clicking the unsubscribe button, the client is taking away their permission. If you continue to send emails after this, you’re essentially violating their trust.
Grow Your List
You’ll probably need a strong call-to-action to get people to sign up to your mailing list. Unless you’re Apple or Microsoft and already have an established brand name, your audience might need a bit more convincing.
So why should they sign up? What’s in it for them? Your call-to-action should be able to answer these questions. One of the best ways (if not the best) to grow your list is to use a lead magnet.
What Is A Lead Magnet?
A lead magnet is an awesome freebie you offer in exchange for an email address. It can be a video, audio file or digital materials like PDFs.
Examples of popular lead magnets:
- ebooks
- White papers
- Webinars
- Cheat sheets
- Quizzes
- Free assessments
Your lead magnet will work if it is:
- Relevant to your audience
- Improves the lives of your audience
- Actionable
- Immediately available
Follow Up With Great Content
So by now you have a few names on your email list and are wondering what’s next. Start sending out great content that will keep your audience hooked and looking forward to more.
But more than that, be consistent. If you promise to send out a monthly newsletter, keep to that schedule. Don’t start sending out emails daily as some of your clients might get annoyed and see this as spam.
Pitch Your Product Or Service
Like I said, the purpose of sending out an e-mail newsletter is to convert your audience and turn them into customers. So the content of the newsletter has to make it easy for the client to do so.
If you’re running a promotion, include it in your newsletter, making it easy for the client to ask queries or finalize the sale. Don’t make it so hard that the client gives up while trying to figure out what to do.
Personalize Your E-mail Newsletter
What I love when I open a newsletter is seeing my name at the top. I feel the company knows who I am, and are speaking to me directly. I feel like I’m not just a number, but I’m important.
I know it’s silly because almost all e-mail newsletter providers offer personalization to some degree. But it makes a difference to me. So take the time to add a bit of personalization to impress your client.
Segment Your List
Email segmentation is dividing your email list into smaller groups, and sending out only relevant emails to those groups. Rather than sending out one email to the entire list, you can send more targeted emails to your list, therefore increasing your conversion rate.
Segmentation works particularly well when you offer a variety of products or services. You can segment your list according to:
- Daily newsletters (instead of weekly or monthly)
- Client list (and also a prospects list), etc.
Check Your Analytics!
By now you should know why you need to keep an eye on your analytics. But if you need a refresher, click here to read our February blog.
Analytics to keep track of:
- Deliverability – this metric shows the number of emails that were delivered successfully.
- Open Rate – explains how many actually people opened your email. A low open rate shows a disengaged audience.
- Click-through rate – shows how many people clicked on a link in your email.
- Unsubscribe – shows how many people have clicked the unsubscribe button on your email.
It’s A Wrapp!
If you are using e-mail as a marketing tool, we hope that we have given you a few pointers on how to improve the success of your newsletters. But if you have not started yet, our guide will serve you well when you’re ready to take that journey.
Next week we take a look at the email service provider that we use to send out our newsletters, Mailchimp. There’s no need to keep your contact list on a spreadsheet and send out emails from your inbox anymore. There are systems out there to make the job easier.
Please leave us a comment below to let us know which service provider you use.
