How to Engage and Convert Through Email Campaigns
The modern marketing scene puts
a lot of emphasis on social media. However, email is where an entrepreneur can really make a large impact in promoting his or her business. But where do you start?
You’re a businessperson. You don’t know marketing. Thankfully, there are people like Matt Heinz, who know everything there is to know about marketing, so you don’t have to. Here’s some of his most useful tips for making the most of email as part of your marketing campaign.
Cram Your Email with Purpose and Personality
When sending out an email, you want to make sure it has a clearly defined purpose. It shouldn’t read like an automated message. It should give consumers a reason to open the email and engage with it. If your email doesn’t have value, people will ignore it.
One way you can do this is by tailoring your emails to the consumers you’d like to reach. This will depend on what business you’re in.
For instance, if you’re selling men’s deodorant, you might take a more masculine approach. If you’re selling lipstick, you might take a more feminine approach.
Be Smart with Your Offers
In making compelling offers to your recipients, you should always keep your offers simple. Nobody wants anything so badly that they’ll jump through several different hoops to get it. Your customers should be able to see the light at the end of your offer.
You’ll also want to make sure your offers are unique and don’t sound too automated. People are less likely to react to emails that look like the average internet spam. A large part of avoiding that perception is by achieving a positive reputation, so consumers feel comfortable interacting with your content.
Don’t Underestimate the Value of Good Timing
Doing research on your target audience is a must for any marketing campaign. One of your more important statistics is the time at which your audience is most likely to be reading their email. Usually, this will be at a time when they’ll feel most relaxed, such as late evening.
While market research will take you a long way in understanding your audience, a lot of your most precious information will come from first-hand experience. While broad research can be useful, your most useful research will come from your specific, unique slice of the market.
In order to get the best research from your specific market, don’t be afraid to ask people questions. And with these questions, make sure they’re unique to your market. Don’t send out generic questions – the answers of which you could get anywhere.
It’s likely that your customers will be reluctant to participate in any questionnaire or survey. Nobody likes to be bothered. Because of this, you’ll need to communicate the idea that by participating, they are helping to increase the value of your product or service.
Don’t Be Afraid to Expand Your Email Campaign
While you could certainly achieve results by marketing with email, you can easily take that same campaign and repackage it for social media. Both are designed to capture a user’s attention in the shortest amount of time possible.
One technique that every social media marketer knows is when you get aggressive by shifting from insight-based messages to solution-based messages.
This same mentality could also be applied to email campaigns. Another way you can take advantage of social media is through the establishment of groups. Through these, you can easily engage with your audience.
Keep Records of Your Findings
From the very start of your marketing, be sure to keep copious amounts of records. This will not only give you a clear depiction of your progress, but it will also provide information that you can analyze and react to.
If you’d like to compile some information for your records, there’s no better way than requesting an in-person meeting with one of your customers. Not only will you accumulate some helpful information, but you’ll also develop a relationship and some goodwill. Asking customers for recommendations also helps you build a connection with them.
If you don’t want to meet in-person with your customers, there’s another handy way to compile information. Simply go to a customer’s social media profile and spend 30 seconds gathering their hobbies or interests. Then, you can use this information in your marketing materials.
The Construction of Your Emails is Important
Your emails should be constructed according to this simple blueprint. You should have a subject line that teases your message, a small amount of body text, a quick CTA and a P.S. that acts as a cherry on top.
Any time you offer any kind of content to your customers, it should have a simple template. If you leave a P.S. message in your emails, make sure it’s relevant to the email’s body text. You don’t want to be sending mixed messages to your customers.
Remember, one email isn’t going to garner many results. It’s going to take a lot of emails before you start seeing the results you’d like.
Repetition is the key to success. Along with repetition, you’ll want to have a common theme throughout your emails. Make them feel like a natural progression, instead of disjointed pleas.
With a Little Help from Your Friends
If you’d like to appeal to some high-profile consumers, try eliciting the help of your CEO. This can be anything you’d like it to be, but make sure your CEO is willing to provide follow-ups.
Another place to find help in pulling in customers is customers. By involving your customers through contests, you can actually get them to do your marketing for you.
Along with contests, other kinds of interactive content can prove equally successful. One of the most popular is the quiz, which can give you some useful information, as well. Contests and giveaways are other forms of engagement that work wonders.
Crafting the Best Possible Email Campaign
Despite the rise of social media, email remains one of the handiest resources for marketing. But if you’ve never jumped into the world of email marketing before, it might seem somewhat confusing.
Hopefully, the techniques listed here will go a long way in clearing the fog. With these methods, you can turn what would normally be an ineffective email campaign into a giant fishing net that’s going to bring in customers.
You might even get more customers than you know what to do with. If you do, feel free to send some our way.
David Reimherr
David brings 20 years of sales, marketing, strategy & branding experience to the table. He is the founder of Magnificent Marketing which specializes in content marketing, video marketing & social media advertising (e-commerce, lead-gen, strategic content distribution) and is a lover of marketing, dogs and life!