Here’s What Really Matters in Email Marketing
You have probably already heard that growing your email list is really important…
But what do you do with this magical list? And where do you even start?
Now is a great time to get your email marketing going for real or even fine-tune your email marketing campaigns so that they’re more effective in the future.
To help you rocket your email marketing efforts, we’re going to cover these main questions about email marketing:
- Why is my email list is so important?
- How do I choose email marketing software?
- How do I attract and keep subscribers?
Why your email list is so important
Do you have an email signup form on your website? If not… you are missing out.
An email list is valuable because it is made up completely of potential clients, fans or people who have shown an interest in you or your company! When they choose to sign up, they have “allowed” you to promote to them.
In today’s world, the consumer has more power of choice than ever. Unlike the old school TV marketing days, the consumer can now just unfollow, switch channels or unsubscribe to your marketing if they don’t like it.
This means having a list of subscribers that chose to be sent your marketing materials is more special than you at first might realize.
One of the most common things you hear successful entrepreneurs say when asked what they would have done differently when it comes to their marketing is this: “I wish I had started to grow my email list sooner!”
Email marketing is one of the easier forms of marketing and can be done for free.
Setting up an email automation or system isn’t even difficult. It just takes some of your time to fine-tune the setup and make your emails stand out more from all the other boring emails littering the average inbox.
The beautiful thing about an email list is that, unlike many other forms of marketing, at least you know the email was sent to your subscriber. Yes, some may be in a spam box, promotion tab or unfocused tab (depending on which email client they use).
This is still much much better than social media followers who only see your content at all about 6.4% of the time you post something!
This means something you email someone is probably at least 10 times more likely to reach them than social media.
Email is also something that’s more traditionally used for business and direct communications. People actually conduct business over email and have long discussions and conversations over it regularly. This makes it a channel that suits marketing a lot better than many others.
The other obvious reason a list of email subscribers is valuable is that they can simply reply to you!
We have an email that goes off to every new subscriber on one of our email lists. It’s called Two Golden Questions So You Only Get the Best.
We simply ask our new subscriber why they joined our email list and what they hope to get from us.
Many subscribers that we’ve never even met reply and tell us! Some of them straight up say what they’d like to order from us. It can be that easy.
Here’s that email:
This kind of approach also lets us know what our subscribers actually want to know about. It also tells us exactly what brought them there in the first place. From this we can learn:
- How to get more engaged subscribers like this who actually replied to an email from us.
- What these engaged subscribers really want in terms of future content, services, etc. It even tells us what problems they want us to address for them.
This way we send out less spam and demonstrate more value to our audience. This generates more goodwill, more trust and builds a stronger relationship. And of course, you’ve probably heard, people buy from those that they know, like and trust.
Choosing email marketing software
There are loads of different Email Marketing Platforms you can use.
Ask your friends or your own network or forums who uses what and how they find it. There are the free versions for smaller lists and of course the paid versions that offer a bunch of extras.
It all depends on where you are in the game and what you need.
Most platforms have beautiful free templates, or you can create it from scratch, with drag and drop options. No coding skills needed.
You can set up automations (emails that are automatically sent to new subscribers). Often, the free ones only allow you to set up one “on-boarding series”.
You should always set it up to automatically send a newsletter for when someone subscribes to your list. It’s a sort of Welcome email.
You can also include the freebie to download that convinced them to join the list.
Try and make it sound a bit more personal and give the reader a little bit more info about you or your company. Make them want to go back to your website.
Also, let them know that you will be sending emails from time to time. Most people know this already but it helps to give them an idea of what to expect.
Here are some of the Email Marketing Platforms that we have used:
Mailchimp
Free for the first 2000 contacts, the free version is slightly limited. They have some great free templates and there are loads of tutorials on how to use it and set up your platform. They have 4 tier pricing plans to suit your needs.
MailerLite
Free for the first 1000 contacts. Great templates and also easy to use or you can build one from scratch – no coding. It’s similar to Mailchimp. Create a free account or do a trial and see which platform you feel comfortable with. Their pricing is based on how big your list is.
Sendinblue
With this free option you can send 300 emails a day and have unlimited contacts!! There is a Lite, essential and premium pricing plan. They have some great templates that you can work with.
Campaign Monitor
No free offering, it has three tiers. You can sign up for a free trial. They have beautiful drag and drop templates.
ActiveCampaign
Also doesn’t have a free offering. Four pricing tiers. Pricing also depends on how big your list is, and how many users will use it.
This platform is powerful, linking Facebook, SMS marketing and in-depth Onboarding series options.
You are able to have in-depth reports and tracking. This, in my opinion, is the “Big Daddy” of Email Marketing Platforms.
It’s the most powerful one we’ve personally used and what we’d recommend if you really want to have a lot of control and power in creating email campaigns that link with your other online marketing.
There are loads of options, test them out and see which works best for you. Often they have a free trial for you to check them out first.
How to attract and keep your subscribers
It’s all about relationships!
Provide value. Create interest by giving them a reason to subscribe in the first place, or a reason to open your next emails.
Keep this list for your use only and to build up a relationship with these people who have given you a chance to communicate with them.
Do not spam your list. They will vanish just as fast as they subscribed.
It can also lead to your email address being spam flagged which will mean that any emails sent with the same @yourbusiness.com ending will go straight to their spam box!
Have you ever noticed that some people who email you always have their email go to your spam box? Now you know why.
How do you know what is spam?
Spam is anything that your subscribers do not find value in.
What is Spam? – The Rocket Expansion Marketing Blog
Ask yourself before you send out an email: Would my ideal customer be interested in reading this email?
If they would, great! If not, send them something else.
If you answered yes and someone unsubscribes, great! They were not your ideal customer.
Now you can concentrate more on those who are interested in your content, your business, your products, and your services.
Remember, your ideal customer is interested in your offers as well! Make sure to also continually remind your list what they can buy from you and exactly what they have to do to buy it.
It can be as simple as saying, “Hey, at Rocket Expansion we can help you with your digital marketing. If you’d like some help with this contact us.”
See that? I did it right there!
Just tell people what they can get from you and how to get it. No pressure. It’s that simple.
Do this often enough and in a friendly enough way and you’ll get more and more subscribers buying what you have to offer.
Don’t worry about a few unsubscribes
Realize that people need to be able to unsubscribe, it will happen.
Sometimes they are only there for the freebie that got them to subscribe in the first place. Sorry, I feel sad when someone unsubscribes too. But maybe you can add a note for when people decide to do this – “why have you chosen to unsubscribe?”
Then maybe you can see what people enjoy and what they don’t.
Also realize, some people were never going to become customers in the first place. Don’t feel bad if they leave.
I also know that even after I’ve unsubscribed from some lists, I’ve still come back to those business websites and buy from them. So maybe their email marketing actually did work after all?
Make your emails look attractive and interesting
All email marketing platforms offer free templates and layouts, use them to build your newsletter.
Make it attractive and not a boring plain white email with black copy.
At the same time don’t try to be someone you aren’t. People like to buy from people, not businesses. Make your email real and personal. Show a bit of yourself in what you say and write about.
Add all your social links and your website link on the newsletter footer.
Always allow people to find you and follow you easily.
Add photos/images, add some colour to text and headers.
Make your email a pleasure to open and read.
The most important part of an email is the subject line. Spend more time on your subject line than on anything else. Craft a subject line that is going to get your list to be interested enough to start reading your email.
Without a good subject line, not many people are going to read your emails.
They have to click the email to open it and read it, right?
Make sure your subject line is very interesting, and make sure your subject line gives a very good idea of what your email is about.
If you really deliver on the promise of the subject line, subscribers will come to trust that your emails really are valuable to them and will start reading more and more of them.
How often should you send out emails?
You don’t have to send an email every day, although some companies do that – it all depends on your company model and business.
An easy way to know if you’re sending out emails too often is to go back to our question earlier on what is spam. Ask yourself if your ideal customer would find this email valuable.
I don’t know about you but there are some emails I’ll always read when I see them, even if they come in every day.
It’s not really about how frequently you send emails. It’s more about if your emails are helping you build a relationship with your audience or just wasting their time.
There is another important thing to realize about how often you send out emails: It is more important to send out any emails than to send out perfect emails.
Think about it: If you send out any email at all at least the receiver is reminded you exist, even if they only read the subject line and who it’s from.
It might be all they need to consider contacting you right then. If they only receive emails from you once a month, they’re probably going to miss many of them, and they might even forget who you even are when they do try and read one of them.
So rather send too many emails than too little.
What content should you send them?
Email newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with people who have shown an interest in you, so keep them interested by providing information, specials, news and tell them about how your services can help them.
Blogging helps with SEO (search engine optimization). This is how you become an authority in your niche and get found on Google.
So why don’t you put all that work to good use and share it in an email? Not sure what to write about? Here are 10 types of blog posts to WOW your audience.
You can also share any of your video content in your emails or blogs that your email your list.
Video is one of the most powerful ways to really build a relationship with your audience and help them really get to know you. I’d highly recommend using video in your email marketing whenever you can.
With any email marketing platform, you can schedule your campaigns. So set up a few to run automatically. With paid email marketing software you get a few more features, removing the platform’s branding, get more detailed reports, etc.
It all depends on what you need right now.
With all of these platforms, you can link up your website for clients/fans to subscribe. So a simple pop-up form or email form on your website is essential. You can share the sign-up on your socials as well.
Now get out there and start emailing!
So get your list growing, create some awesome newsletters and share your content.
Email marketing is a great way to stay in touch and remind people that you are there and that you have something that can help them
Sometimes they might already be totally “sold” on the idea of your product or services. It just takes building that trust and giving them some extra free value to prove your worth to close the deal!
We love helping our clients with their email marketing. Tomorrow we’re sending out a very exciting email for one of our clients as part of their new book launch campaign.
Send me an email with your newsletter creation, I would love to see it: sonja@rocketexpansion.com or if you need a hand in setting this up, give us a shout too! Happy emailing!
