Why You Need an Email Marketing Strategy
The other day, I was chatting with a friend - we have many chats about marketing. She has a fantastic little boutique, and we often have long chats about marketing. She mentioned an opportunity for me and we started talking about email marketing. It baffles me that in 2020, there are still businesses that don’t market via email.
Listen, there are lots of arguments against email marketing and I agree with most of them as an email subscriber. However, as a marketer I also know that email marketing has a huge ROI. In fact, a few statistics that Hubspot rounded up: 73 percent of millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email. Additionally, they state “email generates $38 for every $1 spent, which is an astounding 3,800% ROI, making it one of the most effective options available.”
I’ve known people who follow up manually with customers - whether scheduling or seeking out testimonials. Imagine how many man hours that takes? How much time would be saved if you could automate that? If you’re trying to schedule appointments or even just send a follow up after a service or after you interact with a customer - adding an email workflow would save all that time.
Promote Your Content
Email marketing is one of the most effective mediums to promote your content. If you have a blog, you should be email marketing (I know! I know! I need to get my own email marketing spun up but I’m getting there!). Given the lackluster organic reach across social networks, sharing your content to customers via email is a sure fire way to get it in front of people who will read it, take a desired action, and most importantly, remain customers.
From the same Hubspot report, note that 80% of business professionals believe that email marketing increases customer retention. Similarly, 59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI. So imagine, for a second, the impact on your business if you were reaching out to your customers 2-4 times per week, or if you were reengaging old customers via email? What would it mean if you got 2, 3, or even 10 new customers from email marketing or reengaged former customers. Could be pretty significant right?
How to start email marketing
Listen, if you’re not sure how to get started with email marketing, first choose a platform. Mailchimp, Emma, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact are all great options that are reliable and inexpensive. Start with your customer list and upload it into your email marketing platform - boom, there’s your audience. Send a welcome email to allow them to opt-in (especially if you’ve never sent email marketing to them before).
As for content, here are a couple of ideas to promote your business on email.
Seasonal marketing - think about your business. What’s going on now? Are you a service based industry? Is now a great time to schedule maintenance on your lawn? Your HVAC? Get a reminder out to your customers.
Start a newsletter. If you’re an expert in your field, put together a weekly blog and send it out as a newsletter. Put an offer together for subscribers and give readers an opportunity to share (forward to a friend, share on social...etc..)
Set up a thank you or anniversary email. These can be set up easily in programs such as mail chimp - especially if you already know your customers information (i.e. when their anniversary is, what their last purchase/service was).
Send a lead magnet. what type of resoure can you put together that people can download? A tip sheet? A resource or an ebook? Putting together a lead magnet
If you’re not sure where to start with email marketing, let’s chat! I offer email marketing services and can help you develop an email marketing strategy that helps you accomplish long term goals for your business.
