I know you will agree with me that the internet and email have been with us for quite some time. Most of the generations that existed before the birth of the internet are gradually passing away. Hence, I can say that most of us were born in the “internet age” and as such are familiar with the usage of the internet and email. So I guess we have already moved past and are really in this “new age”.
As true as this conclusion is, the fact is that most individuals and companies are still naïve about the power and importance of email marketing, which has been adjudged as the best way of not only creating but also maintaining and sustaining the profitability of a business. And here’s why:
Why do people make purchases? In order to have and implement a successful email marketing campaign, you must understand why people make purchases. Basically, people buy a product or service to satisfy their “needs”, while others buy because of they just “want” it.
Although there are many factors affecting people’s decisions to buy, the most important reason why they bring out their money in exchange for that product or service is because they like it and have developed trust for the brand or person behind the product or service. This confirms the notion which states that “people buy people”, and this goes for any industry and the internet marketing industry is definitely not left out.
I am quite certain that you have come across different people on the internet who can be of help, the fact that you are reading this post clearly proves my point. So if you are a regular reader, am confident that you will find what I have to say useful and we would be able to relate in some way or the other.
For you to have a successful email marketing program, you must have a product or service which your target audience need or want. Email marketing is a great way for you to build relationship with people by enriching their lives by satisfying their needs with your product or service. Once you are able to do this, you do not only open the door for engagement and trust, you also have a list of people who WILL buy the product or service you are promoting if what you are offering solves their problems.
Another powerful saying I must also share with you is that, “there is money in the list”. This implies that as long as you have people who trust you on your email list, then you will always have a business and NEVER run out of cash inflow. The biggest asset of any business is its email list and this is not just restricted to internet businesses. I am also talking about brick and mortar businesses and self-employed people.
An email list is so important that if you take away any number of buildings, vehicles and equipment, you can still make money if you have your email list. So you can only imagine how it is if it’s your business email list that is taken away. You have no potential customers to reach out to straight away. Email marketing is therefore lifeblood of any business and I want you to understand how important it is.
What I want to achieve with this post is simple. My goal is to give you the knowledge and tools you need to launch an awesome email marketing campaign. I do not have an iota of doubt that you WILL get results. No more beating around the bush. Let me show you tried and tested methods that you can apply to your business as soon as you finish reading this post.
1. Create Compelling Content
Subject Line
There are millions of contents on the internet begging to be opened. So if you ever want your contents to be opened, then you have to start with a “catching” subject line. This is the beginning of a step by step check list you have to use each and every time you send a message to your subscribers.
The subject line is what your prospective customers will see in their inbox. Now if they are anything like me, then their inbox with be full of tonnes of different messages from all sorts of businesses and other people like you. Your message must therefore rise above the rest and catch their eyes.
To achieve this, some good ideas that have been used successfully on a regular basis includes “funny” subject lines, single word lines, controversial subject’s lines and of course, you can keep it simple by saying exactly what you are writing about. This technique has been proven to be effective and it will help your message to stand out amongst the crowd and increase your open rates by great lengths.
One Central Idea
It is very important for you to have a central idea when you are crafting you messages. There is a high chance that you are going to lose focus and this will confuse your target audience as to what you are trying to pass across. Don’t expect your target audience to work out what you are trying to pass across because they do not have the time and patience to do so. It is your responsibility to clearly pass your message across by harmonizing it with the central idea.
A Clear Call to Action
You must write in a way that all your messages have a clear call to action regardless of what you want your subscribers to do. Do you want your target audience to buy your product or service? Or do you want them to simply check out a piece of content which you have created? Then write in a way that will nudge your audience into action. If you fail to include a call to action, people will not take action and your message would have been a waste of time.
Relevance to Audience
In my opinion, this is the most important aspect of crafting a great email. If your message is not relevant to your audience in any way, shape or form, why do you think they will open it, talk less of reading it in the first place? If your audience are interested in losing weight, then don’t bother them at all with dog grooming products. Believe me, they may become so annoyed and simply jump off your list. You might think this does not happen but believe me, I have seen similarly bad examples and I would hate to see you make this fatal mistake.
Give Your Emails a Person Touch!
Relationship are what defines us as humans. Businesses must build cordial relationship with their customers because that might be the reason they keep coming back. So you must not jettison this personal touch which people love. You must “show” them that you care more about them than their money.
An excellent way you can achieve this through email is by using fields built with modern templates, which refers to purchasing history, customer values and most importantly, their names. Remember, a person’s name is the sweetest thing to them that they will love to hear and this has been proven to be very effective. The best provider of this service in my opinion is AWEBER, as they are very reliable and have everything you need.
2. Use the Right Tools
You do not have to be an expert, or know how to code in order to give your emails great designs. Welcome to the drag and drop templates world that is making life easier. You are at liberty to modify themes, colours, drag and drop all different fields within your email. This saves time. You can also create your own signature to use at the end of every email you write. So before you send the mail to your audience, you can preview it to ensure that the design and the display is exactly how you want people to see it. In the past, I worried about how the email was actually going to look like when it is opened but this has now been taken care of with the drag and drop builder.
3. Test Your Deliverability
The best email in the world cannot be effective if it fails to reach its target audience. There are a number of reason why this may occur and it is therefore important that this problem is nipped in the bud in order to avoid a waste of time and effort.
The first thing you need to consider is compatibility. You must therefore ask yourself if the emails you are sending to your audience are compatible with all devices such as mobiles, tablets and desktops. You must ensure that it displays properly by initially previewing it. If not, your audiences will have no choice other than to unsubscribe from your mailing list.
Another aspect of your emails that you must not toil with is its format. You need to ensure that your emails can be opened in plain text format if the HTML cannot be read. You need readability in all clients and on all platforms.
The last and not the least is spam analysis. If you are sending out valuable information to people in the form of great written content and videos, it shouldn’t be a problem. However, you will have to watch your step so that you wouldn’t be classified as “too spammy” once you start running promotions and asking people to buy your product or service.
4. Segment Your Audience
With segmenting, you will be able to match your content with your recipient’s interests. This creates a level of personalization that can make your email marketing campaign more successful. There are two ways you can segment your audience which can greatly improve your results.
Geographic: adding a little local flavour to your emails draws your audience closer to you because they will see you as a person who understands them. Hence, on a subconscious level, they will be able to relate better with you because people often relate better with persons who talks about their home country or town than others especially if you are marketing locally.
Behavioural: you can also segment your audience based on their behaviour pattern once you can churn out relevant and timely information to suit their buying pattern. People are at different stages of buying cycles and depending on what you are selling; there can either be a long or short buying cycle. The higher the price, the longer the cycle and vice versa.
So you must be able to understand your audience buying pattern for you to be able to reduce the length your buying cycle. Another factor you must watch out for is repeat purchases. If you are able to get your price tailored along what your audience can afford in relation to what your competitors are offering, then you can achieve a short buying cycle.
5. Get Your Timing Right
I believe this adequately sums it up. It is quite easy to present this as part of research that have been done into the timing of emails, you should however do your own research. Since customer behaviours are not static, you need to test different days and times since your audience may have their own patterns of behaviour at different times and days.
6. Track, Analyse and Adjust
You need to ensure that your email marketing campaign is actually working in order to move ahead. You have to take stock and see if you are really achieving the goals you set out for your email campaign. Tracking produces actionable metrics which helps you can determine whether your messages are effective. If you are achieving your goals with your email campaigns, it means that your messages are effective. And if this is not the case, then you need to change the aspect of your marketing that is not working.
This is the key to any successful marketing campaign regardless of what type it is. You should be able to track your efforts and analyse what is working and what is not. Then make the necessary change of the part that is not working. Listed below are some aspects you must look out for:
Open rates: let’s assume you are experiencing poor open rates. You can overcome this problem by changing your subject line to something more catching and appealing to open. As I have explained earlier in this post, there are multiple ways in which you can do this.
Click Through’s: So you are not getting the massive click through’s you want? Why don’t you change your content and make it more engaging? Ensure you also have a call to action message by including natural looking links to your products and services.
Bounces: You should constantly watch out for this. A simple clean up of your list is sufficient and running checks from time to time to ensure that your messages are been delivered to each and every operating system your prospects are using is worth the effort.
Entrepreneur and business owner, Joe is dedicated to helping people live the quality of life that they really deserve. Alongside running a remedial massage and rehab business, Joe spends much of his time coaching others to create their digital lifestyle and build a sustainable income on the internet, with the help of the Six Figure Mentors training community. For more information check out http://ift.tt/1oIJ7df
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