If you have been anywhere near online marketing trends lately you will know there are just two words on everyone’s lips: email marketing. And business owners are talking about it for good reason. Email marketing has one of the highest rates of return over any other inbound marketing channel. They say that for every $1 dollar invested in email marketing, you could see a 40% ROI. For online shop owners and small businesses, this is great news.
I see it daily with my clients. Email is the single best tool for getting in front of your prospects and customers, for building a relationship with them, and for triggering sales. At the heart of it, email marketing is about having a conversation with people who are interested in what you do or sell. What better audience to have then an engaged and targeted group of individuals who have invited you into their inbox? You can easily see why email marketing has the potential to become the single biggest source of traffic and revenue for your site (tweet this!).
The only thing standing between you and this great influx of massive results is getting started with email marketing. If you have some hesitation or are unsure where to start or what to do, I’ve broken it down for you with these 4 steps that outline how to get started. Let’s dive in.
Start a list
Choose an email service provider software such as MailChimp- one of my favorites! Set up a list in your email program of your choosing.
When it comes to creating your list you might be wondering if you need several or one will do. I recommend starting with one master list. Sticking to one list, as opposed to managing several lists in your account, will help keep confusion at bay and save you from making errors down the line. This will be the list that your signup forms and opt-ins will feed into.
After you have your list set up, create a signup form for your master list. Then place the signup form in various spots around your website. The goal is to create as many opportunities to capture individuals' email addresses as possible. Getting the email address of a site visitor is the best way to ensure the potential for an ongoing relationship; otherwise, that visitor can just come and go on your site and possibly vanish forever.
A great tool for capturing signups on your site is the use of a pop-up. While some feel that this approach is slightly too aggressive, I think that as long as you create a compelling offer and word it well then it’s a great way to go. Just be sure that the pop-up has a quick and easy way to X out of it.
Rookie Mistake Alert: When naming the master list within your email program, be aware that the list name can be seen by your contacts. So avoid giving an internal name to your list and choose one you are fine with your prospects and customers seeing.
Create an incentive
List growth is a vital element of your email marketing plan- you always want to be growing your list. One of the best methods for doing so is to set up an incentive to offer when your prospects or customers join your list. We all love getting free things and feeling special, so when you create that experience around your email opt-in, more of your site visitors will sign up. Come up with creative offers that fit with your brand, are appealing to your target customer, and relate to the products or services that you sell.
Service based businesses can offer up exclusive content in the forms of special reports, e-books and downloadable lists (like One Woman Shop's 28 Secrets to Growing Your Community slideshow!). Popular incentives for product based business are offering some form of discount. Test between offering a dollar amount vs. a percentage to see what yields the best results for your business.
Set up a welcome email
This next step is a crucial one. A welcome email is the first piece of communication you have with your new contact; it is the email that gets sent out immediately after they've opted in.
The bond between your business and your new contact is at its strongest in the moments just after they’ve opted in. A welcome email is there to acknowledge your new contact and let them know what to expect from you in the future. Setting the stage for your future communications will go a long way in the effectiveness of your email marketing. Welcome emails typically have very high open rates so really prioritize what you put inside the email and what the main point you want to get across is.
Some things to consider including in your welcome email:
- A branded experience- this email should show off your brand and creating a lasting memory of it for the reader
- The incentive you offered as an opt-in bonus
- Introduce yourself or point them to your About page. Give them a chance to get to know you a little better
- Highlight or feature the top benefits of your services or products you sell
- A next step. Do you want them to make a purchase, contact you or follow you on social media? Give them clear direction of what to do next
Rookie Mistake Alert: Keep the focus on just a few top points and don’t over-stuff the welcome email. Include what you think is the most important and be confident you will have more opportunities to expand on your brand in future emails.
Get regular
After a prospect or customer has joined your list, the worst thing you can do is to never email them again. They’ve shown an interest in hearing from you so be in touch with them frequently. Start by committing to how often you will be sending emails to your list. Decide if you will be sending your emails weekly, bi-weekly, at a different regular interval, or just when you feel you have something important to say.
Schedule those dates into a calendar and get started on content creation. Develop a theme or topic for each email while ensuring that every email has a goal and objective. Don’t send emails just for the sake of sending them; rather use them as powerful tools in your business and make each email count.
Before sending an email make sure you have answered these 4 questions.
- Why are you sending this email? Assign an outcome you want the email to have
- Who are you sending this email to? Be clear on who will be reading it
- When are you sending this email? Know when it’s being sent and how it fits into your broader editorial calendar strategy
- What are you including? Based on the above answers, be sure you know how the content and design of the email will achieve your goals and objectives
Try these steps out in your business and see how straightforward it can be to get started with email marketing. Feel confident that you are investing your time and resources into an area of the business that will come back ten-fold!
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- Getting Started with Email Marketing: A Primer - June 5, 2014
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