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No, it’s not the trendiest or most glamorous tactic, and no, you’re not likely to win “Ad Campaign of the Year,” but good old-fashioned email marketing can offer a tremendous return with minor investments of time and money — especially for small- and medium-sized businesses.
In my experience helping such companies grow and maximize their sales and marketing efforts, I’ve found that email marketing is a great way to test and measure messaging strategies, new markets or new niches before ramping up investment in paid ad campaigns, content creation, etc. It’s a direct line of one-on-one communication with the customer — there aren’t any middlemen or ad platforms to pay for every message or impression — and there’s a low barrier to entry, since most of us are already collecting prospects’ and customers’ emails. To start collecting and organizing them in a systematic way and using them consistently is often as simple as activating some features in the customer relationship management system and website you already have.
Creating marketing emails doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming either. Here’s how to get started:
1. Start with the basic messaging and call to action.
Your team may already be sending great emails out on a daily basis; they’re just sending them one at a time. Gather together the most frequent types of client emails your team sends, and use the best of what you already have for the main body of your marketing emails. This is a great starting point.
Then, you can fine-tune your emails to be specific to the different segments of customers that you cater to. I’ve found that the most effective campaigns are based on an ongoing series of messages targeted to very specific niches.
For the call to action (the thing you want the reader to do after they’ve read the email), try to avoid obvious sales language like “Buy Now,” “Apply Now,” etc. Instead, offer the reader something of value. Some examples include, “Download the Guide Now” and “Learn to Do X Here.”
2. Measure your results, and then adjust your messaging.
Collect information about customer engagement, purchases and sales interactions to finely segment your messages over time and tailor marketing messages to ever more specific niches. Your email marketing tool will likely be able to tell you who opened and clicked on links in your emails. This can help you optimize your messages. Using Google Analytics, you also can track clicked links from your emails and determine whether someone placed an order on your website.
If needed, invest in design, videos and other email content when results warrant. An investment of just three or four hours per month in measurement and improvement on your messages can enable you to use the same email list month after month.
3. Add new products, promotional offers and industry news to the mix to build engagement and boost sales.
Let the results of your initial emails guide you in creating new ones. If your guide to saving money on maintenance costs is getting the most engagement, then create more emails about maintenance costs. Also consider including news about new products, industry trends or even a special offer for a product or service that’s related to that topic.
Remember that email marketing is a journey, not a destination. It’s imminently measurable and easy to make adjustments based on results. Don’t get stuck trying to design the best email in the world.
