GETTING STARTED WITH EMAIL MARKETING

Are you tired of failing to attract more people to your business and taking it to the next level? If so, realize there is no need to worry. This year can be your year. You can meet your goals and reach the right audience.

Of all the numerous ways of staying one step ahead of the competition and getting the attention you need from your target audience; email marketing is the best.

It will help you to stay ahead of the pack and improve lead generation, conversion, and revenue.

By channeling emailing lists and providing content tailored to your target base, you can engage your audience and basically drive them to your service or product. Many people underestimate the power of emailing and this year, you should not do the same.

So, here is how you can master email marketing and stay ahead of the pack.

KEEP YOUR AUDIENCE ENGAGED

The smartest way of ensuring you retain your subscribers and add new ones is by boosting your engagement. You achieve this by keeping your emails short, interactive, and straight to the point. Avoid bombarding your subscribers with too much content to the point of driving them away. Keep your emails brief and informative. Capture their attention by giving them more control.

Giving your audience more control over the mailing process will hold their attention.

So, let them choose how often they want to receive emails from you. The kind of content you can send. How often they need to hear about new offers and whether or not you can email them about new products based on their purchase history.

When you have a new product, talk about your new offer in the email. Promote the new product but don’t dwell too much on it. Remember that you want your audience to feel appreciated. They need to know that your relationship isn’t a one-way street where you are the only one who benefits. Show them your desire to improve their lives, businesses, and take them to the next level.

Offer freebies each time you promote your product. For instance, if you are a graphic designer, you could say “I will design your logo for free if you choose a package that costs $100 or more.” This is a smart way of getting more business and referrals. If you do a great job, your client will be more than happy to advertise your business. You will retain your subscribers and add more to the list. If you are worried about losing them or sending emails that go unnoticed, personalize your emails.

That way, you will boost engagement and have them fall in love with your content. This is because people are more likely to open your email if they feel it’s only meant for them. If you include your recipient’s name and mention or thank them for an item previously purchased, they will feel right at home. The goal is to keep your audience thinking “This is exactly what I need” and “This will make my life easier” when reading your emails.

Use interactive emails to pique their interest.

Because the ability to view a product offer from your mailbox without clicking multiple times till the final purchase brings convenience and ease. So, take advantage of that and allow your potential customers to view your products and shop directly from your email.

Automated emails such as confirmation, or follow-up emails after a purchase or specific action on your site will also keep your subscribers engaged. So, send welcome emails, confirmation emails, transactional emails, and even birthday emails. This shows that you don’t just care about doing business with the recipient but are interested in their personal life as well. At a professional level.

If you still fail to get the reaction you need, analyze your subscribers’ behaviors and interests so you can send relevant information and offer the right products. That will capture their attention! Gather information from their purchase history or have them answer a short survey. Remember to keep your survey short and ask relevant questions. For instance, “What type of content would you like to receive from us?” “What are some of the changes you would like to see?” That is how you keep your subscribers involved!

When your audience knows that you value their opinion, they will look forward to the next email and be excited about your next offer.

But what happens when after all that effort you still have a bunch of inactive subscribers?

It’s simple really. Identify and isolate them. Find out who hasn’t clicked on any of your links or viewed your emails in the past 4 months and remove them from your mailing list. You don’t want to be sending information to people who are no longer interested. So, either find smart ways of re-engaging them or just isolate them from your list.

Have a call to action on your next email and find out who to keep or who to let go. You can also send an email that will let them change their email preferences so you can send relevant information if you intend to keep them.

GROW YOUR MAILING LIST & YOUR INCOME

Sharing content that is valuable to your audience and knowing their preferences will help you to grow your mailing list fast. This means you only produce and send content that they are interested in and never bother them with irrelevant information. Find out the kind of information they want to receive and cater to their needs.

Doing this will help you to continue adding new subscribers to your mailing list and keep them. Include discounts, free giveaways, and other exciting offers such as “free shipping on the next order” in your emails. This will give your emails the attention they need from your audience and inspire them to take action.

If there is a delay and you aren’t getting the reaction you desire, use pop-up forms. They are a great way of growing your mailing list because they enable your visitors to share their contact information easier and faster. So, add one to your site and ensure it is attractive enough to pique their curiosity. Choose a headline that will spell out what they will benefit from subscribing to your emails. Add a relevant description that will compel them to subscribe and don’t ask for too much information. Just their name and email address will do. That’s all you need.

Use your blog or website to build your mailing list.

Your blog or site is a great way of attracting more people especially if you have a decent number of faithful readers. So, use it to your advantage. Talk about your new product or service on your blog and ask them to join your mailing list if interested. The best thing about adding your followers to your mailing list is that you already know what they love. The kind of content they are interested in and the style of writing they prefer. So, use the information you have to get them to sign up.

Your social media followers can also help you to build your mailing list fast. If you do it right. For example, if you have 200 Twitter followers or 600 Facebook friends, as a beginner, half of them might be interested in joining your mailing list. Half that number can turn into your regular customers. Which is more than enough to get you started.

Convincing your social media followers or friends to sign up may not be easy but it’s doable. You could offer a special discount and exclusive content that is only available to subscribers. Once you do that, make sure your exclusive offer is valuable and well worth it. This will prove your credibility and help you to build your reputation.

Target your subscriber’s friends and colleagues.

Add a “share-with-a-friend” link to your emails and ensure the link redirects newcomers to your opt-in form so they can join your mailing list.

Last but not least, use testimonials. Nothing shows how reliable you are other than a testimonial from one of your existing clients. So, add testimonials on your site, blog, and across all your social media platforms. Ask your active email subscriber turned client to write about his experience. How subscribing to your emails helped him to take his business to the next level. What changed after becoming a subscriber and the quality of your content. Remember to keep testimonials brief. You don’t want to overwhelm potential subscribers or make them feel the testimonials are just another sales pitch. Once you have a mailing list that you are proud of, use it to launch your new product.

Use email lists to launch your new product.

Those testimonials you include in your emails, blog, etc. will go a long way. They will help you to win over new customers and launch your new product. Once your site visitors see how your product or service is changing other people’s lives, they will consider giving you a try. Take advantage of that and use it to launch your new product and reach more people. You’ve invested so much time and energy into it and failing to sell is the last thing you need. So, use your email lists to launch your product.

Send weekly emails to promote your product before the launch date.

And get your subscribers excited about your product by building anticipation or sending weekly emails that talk about the new product and lead to the launch date. Keep them involved by including CTAs in your emails. Briefly explain what the new product is. What they should expect. When it’s going to be available and how they are going to benefit from it. Be careful not to mention all the features before the launch. Just tease them and keep them anxious for more until the final product is available. Make it a point to intentionally mention unique features only. That way, they will have a reason to keep looking forward to the launch.

Keep your emails lively and informative.

For example, if in this week’s email you asked your subscribers to fill in a survey after mentioning one feature of your product that “simply can’t be missed”, do a follow-up. If no action was taken, say “You may have missed last week’s email. This is what you missed” and then continue with your weekly content. This will get them to fill in the survey and remain enthusiastic about what you are sharing.

Your emails mustn’t give the impression that you are only interested in having them buy something. So, don’t try to get them to purchase anything from you during the early days. Show that one of the main things you are interested in is adding value to their lives, the way they work, as well as their business. Don’t try and get them to buy anything on your first 3 emails. Keep the conversation going by asking questions, having them do short surveys, or briefly mentioning your product.

A week before the launch write “7 days to the launch” on the subject line and raise anticipation.

On the launch date, first, mention how you have all been waiting for this moment and then reveal the final product. The way you present your product can also determine whether or not you get purchases. So, be careful about that. Using images, bright colors or animated text will make your product stand out. Or simply add a screenshot of your site or app’s landing page to your email showcasing your product. Add a call to action and a link to your site for more details as well as purchases.

Your release date is the appropriate date to talk about discounts that are only available for a certain period. It is the only day you can try to convince your subscribers to buy your product. Therefore, don’t let it go to waste. Remember, you are talking to people who are extremely interested in what you are offering. So, get them to buy while they are still interested. “Offer valid for 15 days only” and “Free shipping for the first 30 purchases” are taglines that will get them to speed up their buying decisions.

The best thing about using email lists to promote your new product is that when the launch date comes, you won’t have to do too much convincing. Your previous emails would have already done the work for you. Your subscribers would have already fallen in love with your product. All that’s needed now is for them to hit the “Buy Now” button.

RUN A SUCCESSFUL EMAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Nothing brings more satisfaction than watching your product fly off the shelves. It is proof that you have created something valuable. Something that pleases your customers and keeps them coming back. Getting your creation out to the world and having everyone talking about it is one thing. Ensuring that everyone remains excited about your next offer and turns into a recurring customer is a completely different story. So, how do you keep your clients eager for more? How do you get them to continue buying from you? By running an email marketing campaign every time you have an offer. Doing so will get you more attention, leads, and sales.

Here are 4 steps to running a successful campaign:

1. Know your goals.

Think about what you want to achieve. What are your goals? Is it nurturing existing subscribers? If so, then provide something worthwhile to keep them on your list. Find a way to ensure they always open and read your emails.

If your goal is to re-engage inactive readers, find out why they are no longer interested in your content. Send a questionnaire and explore their preferences. You will be surprised by the information you gather. Maybe your audience hasn’t been viewing your emails because they have new aims. If that’s the case, you may need to change your content based on the recipient. After you set clear goals, start building your email list.

2. Build a targeted email list.

The email list should include everyone who shows interest in what you have to offer. It could be your site site visitors, etc. The key thing is to ensure you convert 90 percent of them to subscribers. Use exit-intent popups on your website to observe user behavior and prompt them with a targeted campaign. This will get them to enter their names and email addresses.

Once your mailing list begins to grow, be careful of how you draft your emails because it will determine whether or not you keep your subscribers. Write and send emails that are both personal and plain.

3. Use personalized and plain emails.

This will help the recipient to relate easier with you and keep him interested. Use plain emails that have less or zero imagery. Too many images can distract your readers from the main message you want to draw their attention to. Don’t forget to add CTAs at the end of each email and have them take action.

Drafting personalized emails can be labor-intensive as your mailing grows. So, consider using the best email marketing tools available to make your life easier.

4. Use email marketing tools.

They are a great way of working more effectively and reaching more people within a short space of time. So, choose one mailing service and stick to it. Look for one that best suits your needs and use it to get the job done faster and efficiently. When deciding which one to go with, keep a few things in mind; Is the free version going to give me the flexibility I need? Is opting for the paid version an option? Which software is going to cater to all my needs and give me the flexibility I want?

USE THE BEST EMAIL MARKETING TOOLS

Deciding which software to use can be difficult because most of them are designed to give you the convenience you desire. You may spend too much time trying to choose the “right one” only to rue the experience. So, here are the top 3 email marketing tools to help you decide:

● ConvertKit.

ConvertKit is popular among bloggers, authors, and marketers. They have an excellent support system and their platform is extremely easy to use. If you already have a list of subscribers, you can easily get started. If you want to migrate from another platform, you get easy-to-follow video tutorials to help you along.

The ability to flexibly segment your audience into those who have already purchased and ones who are interested in doing so is one of its key features. Other notable features include; advanced automation features, its drag and drop email editor, the ability to integrate with popular website builders, and the ability to sell your digital products and subscriptions from within the platform.

● Mailchimp.

Mailchimp is one of the most popular marketing tools because of its forever free email marketing plan. Which allows you to send 12 000 emails for up to 2 000 subscribers. It integrates with hundreds of software platforms including WordPress, Shopify, Facebook and incorporates artificial intelligence to provide recommendations on how to optimize a successful marketing campaign.

It comes with many exciting features including an easy drag-and-drop email builder, autoresponders, as well as simple tracking for analytics. It also enables you to segment your contacts based on geolocation.

● Constant Contact.

Constant Contact is one of the fastest-growing and beginner-friendly email marketing platforms in the world. They offer lots of documentation which makes it easy to get started. They have the best customer support with live chat in multiple languages, weekend help, phone support, email support, as well as community support.

Some of the platform’s great features are its simple drag and drop builder, segmentation options, easy tracking, over 100 predesigned email templates, drip campaigns, subject line A/B testing, and coupons.

The most important thing to remember is to choose a platform that will best suit your business needs. To make it easy for you, I recommend you use ConvertKit if you are a content creator or professional blogger. Their easy-to-use platform which has advanced segmentation (among other reasons) will help take your blogging to the next level.

Use Constant Contact if you are a new blogger, small business, or non-profit. Their pricing is excellent and their support team will help you find success with your campaigns.

Use Mail chimp for more convenience and flexibility.

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