Getting Started With Email Marketing
What Is Email Marketing?
Email marketing isn’t spam, you’re customers don't give their information lightly and if you use it correctly, email marketing can be both a relationship-building and profit-building tool.
“Email marketing is the process of targeting your audience and customers through email. It helps you boost conversions and revenue by providing subscribers and customers with valuable information to help achieve their goals.”
Why Do You Need An Email List
Email marketing isn’t about you or your company, it's about the customer. If you’re able to provide them with valuable content and information then your subscribers will not only read your emails but they will look forward to hearing from you.
Here are some benefits about email marketing
On average, email generates $38 for every dollar spent, which is a 3,800% return on investment
When it comes to customer acquisition, email is 40x more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined
You own the channel, there is no external entity that can impact how, when or why you reach out to your subscribers
Two thirds of customers have made a purchase as a direct result of an email marketing message
One of the things business owners struggle with is when to send their emails. Some businesses send out emails every week, others every two weeks. Tactycs takes the guesswork out of trying to figure out when to post. Using simple information such as your objectives, target audience and resource breakdown, Tactycs is able to create a customized marketing strategy for your company. The software tells you exactly when you should be sending out your email marketing campaigns along with other marketing activities.
Click here to see how Tactycs is able to create a customized marketing plan for you.
What is Email Marketing Used for?
Below are few examples of what email marketing can be used for:
Building relationships - personalized engagement
Boosting brand awareness - keep your company top of mind
Promoting your content - share blog content or other useful information
Generating revenue - entice subscribers or prospects to further convert with your products or services
Marketing your products - new product launches, sales etc
Nurturing leads - give your customers content that can help them achieve their goals
Informed Customers - keep your customers informed or up to date on your business, the industry and any other important topics they might be interested in
How To Gather Emails
The most important step in your email marketing journey is gathering the emails. You can’t do email marketing without them.
Always Available
You always want to give your customers every opportunity to sign up for your emailing list. This could include a “sign up” button or link on your different social media platforms or website. You want the button or link to be highly visible and easy to recognize that way customers can easily identify where they can sign up.
An important component to your email marketing efforts is your opt-in form. Your opt-in form is how you get potential customers' information. That's why it should be branded, stand out from the page and entice people to sign up. You also want to make sure that the form is simple and only asks your customers for the essential information such as name and email address.
Lead Magnet
There are many ways to build your email list organically, meaning you don’t need to purchase emails. You can use what is called a lead magnet, essentially attracting potential customers to your email list, usually in the form of a free offer. There will be times that people just give you their emails because they want to learn more but more often than not people expect to receive something in return for their email addresses. Examples of lead magnets are: mini ebooks, infographics, templates, checklists, a company ‘secret’ or a tool.
Promotion
Another strategy is creating a social media campaign that your followers can sign up to access. You can offer a prize from some lucky new subscriber or a discount code for a first purchase. A lot of ecommerce stores have a pop up that says “sign up for our newsletter to receive 10% off!”. You can use this strategy and tailor it towards your business.
Step By Step List
Audit current marketing activities
Add-In email sign ups / trade-offs where possible
Social Media
Website
Advertisement Funnels
Any network interaction
Current Customers
Build Database to track according to how you got said email
Still looking for more guidance on gathering emails? Contact us here!
Email Distribution Platforms
There are many different platforms that someone could use to automate their email messaging systems. These platforms allow you to create your emails and then set a date and time to send it to your audience. Most of these platforms have multiple templates to choose from so if you’re not a graphic designer don’t worry, you can still create beautiful emails that are personalized and targeted without a lot of work. Below is a list of some of the most popular email marketing platforms.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing service providers in the world primarily because they offer a forever free email marketing service plan. There are limitations to the free plan, of course, such as having a limit of 2,000 subscribers, 12,000 emails, no send-time optimizations, advanced segmentation etc. You can easily integrate Mailchimp with Wordpress, Magento, Shopify and many other ecommerce platforms. If you’re a small business just starting out then this platform may be for you.
Constant Contact
One of the main reasons Constant Contact is one of the fastest growing platforms is that it’s the most easy to use and beginner friendly. You can easily manage your email lists, contacts, email templates, marketing calendar, and more. Each account gives you access to unlimited emails, easy tracking and reporting, built-in social media sharing tools, free image library and more. Constant Contact has a 60-day free trial (no credit card required) and after that the plans start as low as $20/month.
ConverKit
Converkit is more tailored towards professional bloggers, authors and marketers but don’t worry it’s still extremely easy to use and powerful. ConvertKit’s unique feature is that it allows you to easily offer content upgrades and incentives with email signup forms. It also comes with easy to manage auto-responders. They offer a 14-day free trail and their pricing starts at $29/month
GetResponse
GetResponse is another great option for small businesses, it is extremely easy to use and simplifies email marketing. It comes with a drag and drop builder, segmented contacts and the ability to send any number of emails designed for specific groups. These tools help you create effective email campaigns. GetResponse offers a 30-day free trial and their plans start at $15/month
If these platforms are still too big for your business then a simple excel sheet can work just fine! You can also just start off with the simple layout of a regular email. You’ve got to start somewhere right?
When and What To Distribute
We know why we need email marketing, we have the email collected, and the tool ready to fire. What’s next?
Frequency
You don’t want to send too many emails, the number one reason for unsubscribing from a list is too many emails. On the other hand if you send too few emails you can be missing out on revenue opportunities or lacking on engaging with your customers. There is no magic answer but usually different email segments require different frequencies. You’re more likely to send a higher frequency of emails to a potential prospect that doesn’t know a lot about your company than you would to an existing customer that’s been with you for years. Look at this example plan.
Company is a recruiting firm that services different industries:
Segment: Current Customer
1 time per month
No need to constantly send them information about your company as they have already purchased it. Send them only new product updates, sales, ‘sneak peak etc.
Segment: Prospect Segment A - digital marketers from LinkedIn
2 times per month
Digital marketers are on their computers almost everyday and this grouping opted into the email subscription organically. Hit them with a higher frequency.
Segment: Prospect Segment B - manufacturers from other clients
1 time per month
People in the manufacturing industry are not on their computers very often so 1 email per month is fine. These prospects were referrals from our other clients so lets not pester them and instead focus on high value content about their industries.
Content / Value
Understanding your audience and the people you are trying to target is also extremely important. Without having a good understanding of your customers you're basically shooting in the dark and hoping that something sticks. By tracking critical details during the email gathering stage we should be able to segment our email list according to a few key items. These items will distinguish the type of content you send out. A great example is how different segments may engage more with promotional, educational, or inspirational content. Find the best fit per grouping!
For example, if you’re targeting a 20 year old female that earns minimum wage, you may not want to send them an email about a new product that cost thousands of dollars. It is more than likely that this individual isn’t the best buyer for a high cost item. But if you email that same group with a list of sale items or provide a discount code for signing up then the individuals have a higher chance of engaging or seeing value. If you’re still stuck segmenting and ironing out content, you can use this tool to create buyer personas.
How To Write
There are four things that you need to keep in mind when writing your email messaging. If you include these four things in your email than it will be more valuable to your subscribers.
Get their attention
Personalize the message
Provide value
Tell them what to do
Every single email you ever write should include these steps. Regardless of whether we are talking about email marketing for promotional purposes, this is a process that should be followed across the board!
If you need help getting started with your email marketing, contact Tactycs and learn more about how we can help you take your marketing strategy to the next level!
