Not only is email marketing the most popular way of reaching customers and retailers, but its effectiveness is also undeniable. According to a January 2019 survey from Omnichannel Retail Management Company – iVend Retail, 62.9% of respondents prefer to receive communications from retailers via email.
Your decision to get started with email marketing is a step in the right direction, statistics prove it is not dead. No matter your business type, email marketing is one of the cheapest ways to communicate and market your business. If properly executed, it has the capacity to land you the targeted sales in no time. Below are 5 ways you can start off right.
1. Get Personal
Start with personal details. What is the nature of your business? What are your business objectives? What are your short-term goals? How patient can you be with a marketing campaign? Who is your target audience?
One could imagine that social media has replaced email marketing by now, considering the approximately 3.04 billion social media population. According to the statistics, about 90% of social media users try to reach out to brands and retailers using social media. Much of this ‘reaching out’ is to make inquiries, which is usually a window to further elaborate business conversations – email marketing.
If your business is the type that caters for a bunch of teenagers, you may want to spend more efforts on social media. If your business objective is to operative a local store, your email marketing needs would certainly differ from the guy who wants to go global.
Starting with clarifying your business and marketing intentions. That way, you have a basis for judging the performance of your marketing efforts.
2. Develop a content marketing strategy
It is true that content is king. It is also true that all kings work with strategies. Your content marketing strategy defines why you are creating content, who you are helping, and how you will help them in a way no one else can. The end result is to build an audience, lower costs and drive the revenue target of the business.
Such content marketing strategy brings to the fore your content strategy and content plan. These variables need to be clarified and stated in very clear terms for effectiveness and progress tracking. Your strategy should be flexibly rigid and built with frequency in mind.
It might also help to monitor your competitors’ content strategy as it helps you become more proactive, and opens you up to gaps you can capitalize on to outperform the competition.
3. Choose an email marketing service
How you move is as important as movement itself. Your email marketing service provider can make or mar your entire effort. You don’t want to dutifully curate content only to have it stuck on your dashboard and not reaching your audience.
Whether paid or free, the key is to pick an email marketing service that works best for you and your marketing campaign. The email marketing software you choose is responsible for making sure your emails get delivered and on schedule too.
Look out for a service provider with an easy user interface, customizable mail templates that are easily adaptable. You want to also make sure that the service has functionalities that help you manage your contacts seamlessly and track performance.
4. Build a mailing list and newsletter
Every marketing campaign depends on people to succeed. Building your email list from scratch can be a daunting task, but certainly necessary. You can start by getting permission from your existing contacts to add them to your mailing list.
If your business already exists on social media, consider inviting your followers to sign up for your mailing list. That way, they don’t miss out on your newsletters which might be too detailed for your social media posts. Deliberately put this information on your social media pages. These days, social media platforms now have business accounts that aid business communications.
To build your list, consider using baits by way of promotions and freebies. No matter the nature of your business – product or service, offer a discount to people who sign up to receive your newsletters. Everyone loves giveaways.
On your website, consider adding an attractive popup that lands visitors straight to your mailing list. The idea is to utilize all media to build your mailing list.
When used effectively, email newsletters can be one of the most effective digital marketing tools. Proactively acquiring subscribers, nailing the design, and delivering high-quality, engaging content are three essential steps for driving business and building your brand’s perception through an email newsletter.
5. Launch your campaign
No better way to start your campaign than to actually start. Good advice would be for you to test the waters first. Start with the contacts on your budding mailing list. On most paid email service, you get a free demo to play around with.
By testing, you are able to determine if your choice email software actually works. This also provides data for analytical purposes, such analytical data is necessary for making decisions and reaching conclusions.
You should also be wary of making a good first impression. Be sure to create a very compelling welcome mail for all first-timers to your mailing list.
Your first email marketing campaign should be personalized to fit each user, people generally respond better when you communicate in personal terms. A good email service must provide this feature.
Contrary to expectations, email marketing is still asleep effective as it has always been. There is no denying that social media attracts a larger online presence. But when the chips are down and as long as business communications go, email is king. Keep your newsletters conversational, flexible and relevant. Communicate more than you pitch, and the sale orders would keep flooding in.