Marketing channels and tactics can get themselves a bad name when they’re abused by companies out to make a quick buck and email marketing is no different. For many, email marketing has become synonymous with unwanted spam and often dismissed by business owners as a marketing activity as they don’t want to be seen as spamming people. It’s such a shame, as email marketing, when done well, can massively increase your sales and customer retention. It’s just about getting your strategy right.
Don’t just sell
The same principles of knowing your audience apply for email marketing as they do for any other form of marketing – this is crucial if we’re going to get our messaging right. But we often overlook the content and format of our emails in the same way we do for social media, instead choosing to use the channel as just another sales platform, promoting our products and services regardless of whether it’s appropriate.
Whether your database is made up of prospects, existing and past customers, or a mixture of both, it’s important not to be selling with every email you send. Imagine if every time someone phoned you, it was to sell you something. You’d soon stop answering their calls. It’s the same with email marketing. Show a genuine interest in your customers and what’s important to them. Provide them with something of value and they may just look forward to receiving your emails.
Other ways to use email marketing
#1: Educate and inform
Every industry has news, updates and best practice that can be shared with your customers. Remember to make it relevant to them, rather than you. You may have content from your blog or news section that you can use in your email. If you do this, be sure to only email the headline and a summary of the article with a link to read the full article on your website. This benefits the reader, as you’ll keep the content of the email short and easier to digest, as well as benefiting you as it will drive traffic back to your website. You’ll also be able to track which articles people click on to gauge the popularity of the content. This can help guide your future content strategy.
#2: Entertain
It doesn’t all have to be serious news and announcements. How about injecting some humour into your email campaigns with a regular slot to lighten the mood. A great example of this is Capital B Media‘s emails that include a “Headlines of the Month” section, highlighting some of the random and often hilarious headlines spotted in the tabloids.
#3: Build relationships
There may be people on your email list who have never met you or anyone from your company. To them, you’re a faceless organisation sending them emails each week or month. We know that people are interested in people (Facebook wouldn’t be the success it is, if we weren’t) and we’ve all probably heard the phrase “people buy from people”. So, why not use your email marketing to virtually meet with your audience using video content? A video can be the next best thing to meeting all your customers and prospects, without physically having to do so. A video can be used to introduce you (if you are your business), greet your recipients with an introduction to the content in your email, or be used as a follow up to an enquiry. If video isn’t your thing, you could include a profile picture in your footer and sign off your email from an individual rather than the company. Be sure to give people a way to contact you directly if they need to.
Your email marketing strategy should be thought as a long-term process of building relationships with prospects and nurturing relationships with past and existing customers. This doesn’t mean that you can’t promote your products and services via email – of course you can! – just make sure you’re offering your audience something more; something to keep them engaged and keep them opening your emails. If done right, your audience should not only open your emails, they should look forward to receiving them and feel compelled to forward them to their friends and colleagues. That’s the email marketer’s dream!
What email campaigns stand out to you? What emails do you look forward to receiving? Let us know in the comments!
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