If you think that email marketing is soooo last year and should be relegated to the graveyard of marketing campaigns past, it’s time to think again. The fact is that although marketing to your customers via the humble method of electronic mail may seem outmoded and uncool when compared with trendy social media or mobile marketing, it shouldn’t be dismissed so quickly. Let us show you a few types of email campaigns that can help you deliver a knockout blow to your competition.
The fact remains that email is still a valid and valuable way of communicating with your clients and is an incredibly useful tool for keeping your brand or business at the forefront of your target audiences’ minds. But – and you knew there was a ‘but’ coming didn’t you? – there are things that you need to take into consideration. Little things like, you know, content!
The main reason email marketing has got rather a bad rap of late is thanks to the slightly disagreeable practices utilized by some companies – whether they’re aware of it or not. You know the type: you subscribe to a newsletter from a website you visit regularly, and before you know it you have an inbox full of emails that are nowhere as interesting or as useful as you’d anticipated.
It’s not too long before we’re hitting delete, delete, delete when we check our mail every morning. But there is a silver lining, and that is, if your competition are getting sloppy with their mail outs, just imagine how delighted YOUR customers will be to receive something that is actually fun, informative and contains truly great special offers.
Crucially, you need to make sure your customers are opening your email by coming up with a great subject line. And once they’ve done that you need to ensure they’re sticking around long enough to read what you have to say. You only have a matter of seconds to make a winning first impression so make sure they’re captivated by an eye-catching headline and show them from the get-go what they can expect from the mail.
And be consistent: send just one uninformative, dry or dull email that doesn’t offer the recipient anything and you’ll have your readers hitting that ‘unsubscribe me now’ link faster than you can say booooring.
Why email marketing campaigns are still relevant
The big plus that emails have over other marketing campaigns is that they are so personal. They’re in your clients’ inbox. Their inbox. It’s not an advertisement shown to 1000s of other people, emails show your customers that you’re there and you’re thinking about them. And if that isn’t heartwarming, I don’t know what is. Put simply, email takes the impersonal and puts it into a personal environment: an inbox.
Sure, there are spam email campaigns that are very impersonal and are sent to huge groups of people at a time, but doing email marketing right means providing value to everyone who receives it.
It could be a personal email directly from you to a potential client or it could be a well-targeted piece of content sent to your clients that they’ll find helpful. If you’re not providing value to your readers and connecting with them, you’re not going to have a successful campaign.
It’s all about reaching out and making a connection
Regular newsletters, drip emails and personalized thank you messages can help you connect with your customers and stay at the forefront of their minds. And that right there, is how you gain the edge over your competition. After all, if you’re engaging with your clients and leaving them in awe of your sparkling wit, amazing promotions and compelling content, what’s not to love?
So what type of email campaigns work best and which should you deploy to make sure that whether your potential customers are looking for an IT solutions provider in Cleveland, OH or a pizza restaurant in London, England they think of you first?
5 email marketing campaigns to make you memorable
Be nice!
We’re all so busy that sometimes we forget how to be, well, nice. The perception of many consumers is that marketing as a concept is a hard sell and simply a pushy way of trying to get us to part with our hard earned cash. That’s why sometimes the soft approach can be far more effective. Impress your customers with something unexpected such as a personalized (and genuine) thank you email when they sign up for one of your services or purchase one of your products.
Inspire loyalty
Think about creating a loyalty program that gets customers coming back to you time after time. What will work best for you depends on your industry – perhaps a points system will win over your current clients and ensure that the next time they’re looking for a service, solution or product, you’ll be the one they turn to. Announce your program’s launch with a fanfare (via email of course) and send friendly occasional reminders to make sure that you’re staying connected.
Something for nothing
Who doesn’t love a freebie? Sending out occasional promotional emails will encourage customers to not only spend more, but enable you to capitalize on the brand awareness you’ve already built up.
What you choose to offer and how you do it is up to you; buy one get one free, spend over a certain amount and earn points, free shipping, get a free gift or additional service. Promos are perfect for highlighting your under-used services or, lets be honest, getting rid of surplus stock that’s sitting gathering dust!
Refer a friend
Create a buzz by sending current clients compelling emails that they just have to share with their friends or coworkers. By reminding your customers how awesome you are and getting them to refer you, you’ll have given their memory a nudge AND tapped into a potential new client base. Referrals are a fantastic way of creating more business; after all when an existing client is doing your marketing for you it has even more impact. Don’t forget to offer both parties an incentive too.
Let’s celebrate!
A great way of sporadically reminding your clients that you’re only a click or a call away is to send them greetings throughout the year on special occasions such as Christmas (or the holiday season) or Valentine’s Day. Holiday cards are a great way of connecting with your audience on a personal level and reminding those who hold the purchase power that, hey, you’re still out there!
Creating your campaign
Don’t lose sight of the fact that you need to stand out from the crowd if you want to make sure that even when you’re out of sight, you’re not out of mind. Before you hit delete take a look at some of those uninspiring emails you’ve received. Pinpoint what it is that makes them so unmemorable and create a persona that speaks to your audience in your company’s own unique voice. Be human. Be personable. Be you.
So, you’ve got a great concept for your next email campaign but how do you ensure it’s a roaring success? You need to take 3 crucial things into consideration to win your customers over within a matter of seconds: what are you asking them to do, why should they do it and – most importantly how easy is it for them to take action? When you’ve ticked all these boxes, hit the send button and sit back and wait for the additional sales to roll in.
Worried that you don’t have the time to send regular email newsletters? Not sure how to craft compelling offers or write zinging headlines? Why not let Pronto help. Our newsletter team is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to writing and deploying dynamic emails that enable you to engage with your customers, without having to lift a finger.
