Entries Tagged 'email marketing' ↓

Regular contact with your customers (and prospective customers) is vital, which is why many businesses now produce a monthly (or at least regular) newsletter.

It is a great way to nurture relationships.

They can be used to convey great information, industry updates, special offers, announcements, helpful hints—anything that will add value to your customers.

By maintaining regular contact in this way you are ensuring your business name remains firmly lodged in their mind so when they are in need, it is you they will turn to.

The best way to develop your mailing list is to grow it organically—home grown will always bring in better results than a bought in list.

So how do you ensure you and your customers get the most out of your business relationship?

Well, here are 3 ways to ensure your newsletter works:

1. Opt-in

If you want someone to opt into your mailing list, you have to make it easy for them.

There’s no point in hiding your opt-in form so your reader has to search your entire website for it—because they won’t bother.

Make sure your sign-up box is highly visible, preferably on every page and simple to complete.

It would also be a good idea to quickly tell them what they can expect to receive from you, the frequency of your mailings, oh, and reassure them that you won’t share their details with anyone else.

2. Content

What you send out each month is critical.

Don’t make your content overly promotional and certainly don’t start with a sales pitch.

Kick off with a recommendation, article, or comment on industry news. Then enhance your relationship further by offering a hint or tip that your reader will find useful. Once you’ve given them something you can then bring in your offer or a case study to promote your products/services.

If you are unsure about how or what to write, it may be an idea to enlist the help of a freelance copywriter to write the content for you.

Just remember always give first and ask second.

3. Two way traffic

If you want your newsletter to enhance your relationship make sure it is easy for your reader to interact with you.

After reading your news they may want to get in touch so don’t use a “no-reply” email address. Make it simple for them.

The main thing to remember about using a regular newsletter to keep in touch with your customers is that it shouldn’t all be about selling.

Your newsletter should be used to add value to your relationship. Be generous with your information as this will develop trust and with trust comes sales.

Email marketing can be an incredibly effective way of communicating with your customers and prospective customers.

When someone initially opts-in to your marketing list they wait in eager anticipation for your first email to land in their inbox. They continue to welcome your communications with open arms until, one day, the honeymoon period is over.

As time progresses you realise that your emails aren’t being opened as often (or at all); your messages are now unloved, unopened and unwanted.

What do you do?

Panic?

Send flowers?

Nope. When this happens it’s time to take action.

What to do when you get email marketing list fatigue

1. Look at your frequency

When they originally opted-in, you would have made it clear how often they would hear from you.  Are you now sending emails more frequently?

If so, begin to scale back. There are only so many times people will want to see you in their inbox. Don’t be that nosy neighbour who’s always popping in – you know, the one you hide from under the kitchen table so they think you’re out.

2. Gone stale

Take a look at your past few emails. Are you covering the same type of information? Is their layout and content becoming too predictable? If so you may find that the perceived value of your emails has dwindled so it could be time to rethink your strategy.

3. Incoming!

Don’t bombard your readers. If you are launching new products or offers, stagger them. It’s never a good idea to announce 4 or 5 within the same month. Firstly people won’t want that number of emails from you and secondly, they’ll get confused.

4. What’s your subject line?

Have you gotten sloppy with your subject lines?

These hold the key to people opening your emails so if they are no longer appealing, your emails won’t get opened. Perhaps it’s time to have a rethink about your subject line approach (or call in a copywriter to help you generate fresh and appealing content).

5. No one’s home

We all, from time to time, change our email addresses.

If one of your recipients hasn’t engaged with your mailings (i.e. they haven’t opened it) for 6 months or more, send out a ‘reengagement’ email – something that forces an action if they want to remain on your list.

If you don’t hear anything it’s safe to say that either:

• The email address is no longer active, or
• They no longer want to receive your emails

So it may be time to remove them from your list.

6. Spam

When was the last time you checked your emails against spam filters?

It could well be that something is triggering your recipients spam filters so your emails aren’t even reaching their in box.

If you want your email marketing to continue to be successful, regular list maintenance is essential to ensure that:

• Your readers are happy with their content
• All email addresses are active
• You are avoiding spam triggers
• Your subject lines are being effective

Congratulations! You’ve made the decision to run an email marketing strategy. Every customer you have will become part of your campaign (or at least those that opt in) so you can always keep in touch with them to maximise your sales opportunities.

Great—but have you worked out how your strategy is going to work, what you’ll offer them and how you’ll present your information?

If your strategy is to work you can’t just sent out emails willy nilly without any thought. Equally, sending one out initially and then nothing for months also won’t work.

The idea behind email marketing isn’t just to sell things, it’s also there to help you build and enhance your customer relationships.

Sending emails at regular intervals will certainly help keep your clients interested in your services. Great information interspersed with offers will give a bit of variety. If your emails are constantly trying to sell your customers are likely to get a bit fed up so make sure you alternate them.

But other than that there are a few other things you can do with your email strategy to help build your relationships. Below are five suggestions that will add value and boost the effectiveness of your email campaigns.

1. Welcome, welcome

When someone first signs up for your emails make sure you send out a welcome email. Thank them for subscribing and give them some free and valuable information. This email is also a good opportunity to give them an outline of what they can expect to receive from you—email frequency, offers, information, competitions etc.

It’s also a great opportunity to start selling—incorporate a promotional offer as a thank you for signing up.

2. High days and holidays

There are no end of holidays throughout the year—Christmas, Easter, Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day etc. All present an ideal sales opportunity so make sure you have your offers ready and email in plenty of time.

3. Customer birthdays

Assuming you have a note of each customer’s birthday, you have yet another opportunity to add value to your relationship by offering them a special offer on their special day. Use subject lines such as Happy Birthday from Briar Copywriting, Your special birthday bonus etc.

4. Is everything OK?

Every once in a while it’s a good idea to send out a ‘maintenance’ email. You can ask for feedback about your service, whether they still want your emails etc. This will help you weed out ‘dead’ emails to ensure you are mailing to an active database and therefore maximising your ROI.

5. Sorry

Although this is last on the list it is possibly one of the most important emails you can send. No matter how careful you are something at sometime is likely to go wrong. But if dealt with quickly and efficiently, you could turn a negative experience into a positive one.

Make sure you send out an apology email. Explain what went wrong, if you can (depending on its seriousness) make it a bit light hearted and give an offer to say sorry.

Handled well, your email marketing strategy will boost your sales. Whether you write them in-house or utilise the services of a professional copywriter, the words within those emails will cement and enhance relationships and encourage your customers to open their wallets.

You may think writing email copy is easy.

But if you want your recipients to open your email, read it and act upon it your email content must hit the spot instantly.

But don’t be fooled into thinking the hard work starts when you sit down and begin to write; on the contrary, the work begins as soon as you make the decision to create an email marketing strategy.

Step 1 of your email marketing campaign

So far you’ve reached the decision you’re going to create an email marketing campaign.

Don’t jump in and start writing—before you start hitting your keyboard, stop and think about a few aspects:

• What are you selling?—this isn’t just about the product/service but rather then emotional aspect of what you’re selling (what will it make your readers feel like?)
• Who are you selling to?—think carefully about the type of person who will buy your product. What’s important to them?
• Why are you selling it now?—are there any trends you can tie it into?
• What do you want your reader to do?—this is your call to action. Think about how you want them to react (make an order, call you etc.)

Step 2 – get creating your content

Whether you decide to write the content yourself or hire in a copywriter, full consideration has to be given to the aesthetics of the email as well as what it will say to your reader.

So let’s take a look at the whole email package and how to create the biggest impact possible.

• Font – it might seem insignificant but the font you use can have a huge impact on whether your email is read or not. Use a sans-serif font such as Arial or Verdana as it’s much easier to read on a screen.
• Loud and proud – the only way to hear your email as your reader will is by reading it aloud. This will help you spot areas that don’t flow or appear stilted.
• De-clutter – when you write anything it is very easy to throw in unnecessary words. If you review your work you’ll find plenty of ‘thats’, ‘tos’ and various other words that aren’t needed. Read through and take out any superfluous words to create tighter copy.
• Rhetoric – utilise the power of rhetoric and incorporate the power of the three part list. They add punch and rhythm which will really make your words standout (remember Tony Blair’s ‘education, education, education’?)
• Fast paced – make sure every word counts and your reader is carried through your copy by using words such as ‘remember’, ‘but’, ‘consider’, ‘for example’ which constantly move your copy forwards.
• Variety – to keep your readers’ interest, vary your sentence length, don’t be afraid of using sentence fragments and keep your paragraphs short to grab their interest and keep their interest. Also make sure you include your most powerful benefits in a bulleted list.
• Benefits – make sure your copy distinguished between the benefits of your product and its features.
• Second person – make your writing personal by using the second person (i.e. you and your). This will make it appear as though you have written the email solely for the person reading it making an instant connection.
• Keep it short – many people don’t like reading off screen so make sure you keep your copy short.

Creating emails that will be read is not as easy as it sounds. But by using these tips will help you generate marketing emails that will capture your readers’ attention and get them to act.

One of the most important aspects of any email marketing campaign—more so than the content or offer—is your email mailing list.

It stands to reason that no matter how great your message, if you’re not sending it to the right people it won’t work.

Many companies will buy in a mailing list because it’s a quick solution. But time and time again these campaigns fail simply because the offer doesn’t address the audience.

The only way to generate a good mailing list which will work is by building your own. It does take time but it will be worth it.

So how do you get started?

Well this post offers you a few ideas to get your list started:

• Have a sign-up box on every page of your website so your visitors can’t miss it
• Provide a free giveaway that’s of value to capture their email address
• Include a sing-up link in your email signature—after all if you’re like me you’ll send out masses of emails every day so why not use them as another opportunity to gather sign-ups
• Promote your newsletter on your print materials too. Once  they’ve signed up for your newsletter you have their details to send other offer to as well
• If you use direct mail, send an offer that will drive them to a landing page that requires an email address to access the deal
• Promote your giveaways through social media to widen your audience
• If you work regularly with other companies see if they would be willing to promote your newsletter within theirs

All these ideas are easy to implement and in time will lead to the creation of a high quality in-house marketing list to which you can make offers and provide news and advice to constantly strengthen your customer relationships.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter