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Have you ever thought about if it is worth to start an email campaign? At the very beginning of running your own business, you probably don’t think about it, but as your company grows, the client base grows as well. That’s when you start to think about automation of your processes. Maybe at first it is hard to get used to it, as you don’t know how to do it, where, what tools you need, or where to look for a company or mechanisms that will help you. Yes, you have plenty of questions, so you procrastinate. You don’t have to anymore. You can start mailing campaign anytime – the sooner the better.
Using this tool you can:
You just can’t ignore such a wonderful opportunity. Everyone has at least one email address. Some people refresh their inbox regularly every 30 minutes, other people may check them once a day. You can use that to send a message to your clients, presenting your product. It’s fast and convenient. Don’t forget to check, who got your email, who read it, and what percentage of your audience made a certain action, by clicking links. Using that information, you can analyze your performance, draw conclusions, correct mistakes, and work even more efficiently.
Email marketing is inexpensive, simple, and fast.
Step one is to build a mailing list. It consists of collecting email addresses from people, who are interested in your products or content you post on your website. If you think about email marketing seriously, you have to focus on building subscriber contact database first. It’s worth to remember that sending emails shouldn’t be exclusively focused on sales; it should also be a way to build a relationship with the recipient.
Where is the best time to start building an email list? Ideally, now.
In this exact moment. First, you should ask yourself, who should be a recipient of your emails, who is in your target group, and who is your audience? Try to find out, what interests them, and what kind of knowledge do they search for. You can build a mailing list on many ways. However, if you care about the efficiency of your email campaigns, you should build it yourself. If somebody signs up to your list on their own initiative, you’re on the winning position. It means that they are interested in your products and they will probably open the emails they receive from you.
You may ask yourself now, how much time it would take? It is a long process, however, if you plan it carefully, you can be confident about the effects.
Put a newsletter sign-up form on your page. Of course, you won’t get email addresses for free. In exchange for emails, the client should get certain value. If you have a website or a blog, you can offer your audience a guide you wrote, or an interesting article, they won’t find on your site. If your reader finds your content valuable, they will give you their email address and wait for the next portion of knowledge, so it’s good to let them know when you publish something new. If you run an online shop, offer a discount in exchange for the email address.
Before you decide to put a pop-up window on your website, you have to think, when it will appear. You can choose from a couple of options. It could happen after a certain time spent on the website or when the potential customer wants to leave. You only have a second to get their attention! So put a catchy text on the graphic, for example: “Hello! Wait a second”, and encourage them to give you their email address, to which you provide value.
It is a real power, but you know it well. Even on Facebook, you can create sign-up forms. It will appear to a certain group of people, which you can establish yourself while you create a post. Brag a little bit about your new e-book guide you wrote, and give it to your audience in exchange for their email address. If someone follows you on social media, it means that they are interested in your brand. Therefore, if you offer them a value, they will gladly give you their contact information, to be up to date with the new entries.
On the below example, you can see how brand, called Hub Spot did it. They’ve prepared a free lookbook about 50 Best Facebook Ads. After clicking “Learn More” you are taken to the website, where you need to provide your contact details. Next, as promised, materials are being sent to your inbox, and your email address goes to Hub Spot’s mailing database.
It is one of the most effective forms of communication, mainly because you have a direct contact with your customers. This way you can get to know them, build a relationship, which can result in sales, if you guide the client properly. If anyone wants to attend the webinar, they need to give you their email address in order to get a confirmation and further information regarding the event. Maybe you are not fully convinced yet, but implementing webinars to your business could be really beneficial. When your audience is interested in the topic you discuss in your webinar, they will gladly attend the event and learn something, and you will have the opportunity to share your knowledge, help them make a decision, and if you’re lucky, close the sales. If you don’t succeed at first attempt, don’t worry – you have their email address.
In order to build an email list, you need a sign-up form. For that purpose, you need a squeeze page, aka landing page. The person who is interested in your services, can leave their contact information there, as well as their first and second name. Squeeze page has to be well-constructed in order to maximize the attention grabbing effect on your potential customer, and convince them to fill the blank spaces on the form. Text, graphic design, and colors have to be cohesive, and above all it has to be minimal. Too much elements or text can be discouraging. Furthermore, your potential subscriber has to feel that they will gain something valuable after signing up, and your offer is attractive.
What the sign-up form should be like?
Attention grabbing, minimal information, responsive.
The most important thing is that it should draw attention, and be visually coherent with your website. The next thing is that it should contain minimal information. Don’t expect too much. Collect only the most basic and essential personal info. If you ask your potential clients to give you their full name, address, or job title, they could be discouraged. The less the better – at least at the beginning. The final crucial element of the sign-up form is that it has to be responsive. Most people use mobile devices, so the form has to be clearly visible and look good on all of them.
In exchange for email, you can offer:
Discover effective solutions, which will help you to build a mailing database step by step, with NetSendo.
Building a mailing list and sending emails is not enough. You need to know, what specific content to send and, most importantly, to whom. And here we can switch to talking about segmentation of subscriber list.
Segmentation will undoubtedly help you to achieve your goals and increase sales. There is no point in sending emails to just one contact database, one group, as not everybody is the same and expects the same. That’s why it’s important to be familiar with your audience’s behaviors, needs, problems, and manage your database accordingly, dividing the list into smaller segments. That way you can personalize the emails and send exactly what the recipient needs.
The knowledge by itself won’t suffice. You can share it the best way you can, give examples, tell stories, but if you don’t know the client and you’re not familiar with their problems and needs, you can easily fail, as the client wouldn’t get what they want. And what do they want? Knowledge on how to deal with a particular problem they have.
First, establish a target group to whom you will send your mailing, and what problem would the emails solve. Email marketing is one of the most effective forms of communication with the customer. It consists of creating value the way the recipient feels like they get an attractive offer which is directed to them personally. Segmentation is a good way to improve the opening rate of your emails. And what’s the most important, it allows you to build a better and closer relationship with your audience, because they are divided into smaller groups. People are assigned to a particular group according to their actions and behaviors.
With the correct segmentation, you can be sure that the information you provide are useful to the recipient, as you know what they want and what is the answer to their problems. You give them the solution on what they can do now. Segment your database, using the information about the purchases they’ve made. Knowing that, you can prepare a special email with an offer. Also, remember why your subscriber gave you their email address, as this is another important piece of information.
It’s all for today. Check your inbox tomorrow. You will get another lesson, where we will talk about the proper construction of emails.
See you tomorrow!
