Many of us approach email marketing like a nervous teenage boy trying to approach the girl he likes. We don’t want to bother our contacts too much, we’re worried about saying the right thing, we don’t know how to start the conversation, and we’re afraid of being ignored or, worse yet, unsubscribed from. We make the terrible mistake of being timid with our email marketing strategies.
I was the same way, too, when I got started. Fortunately, you can learn from my mistakes as an email marketing wimp and take an approach that will get you noticed and get you results. Email marketing is proven to be one of the most effective tactics for generating sales, and you may even be able to get people to look forward to your messages if you offer quality content.
A recent study revealed that 27% of consumers were more likely to say their favorite companies should invest in more email, and a whopping 82% of consumers open emails from companies! Those are some promising statistics that should be enough to motivate you to start hitting send. If dollar signs are more your thing, consider that for every $1 spent, $44.25 is the average ROI for email marketing.
One of the most important things to implement into your email marketing strategy is sending consistent messages to your contacts. I know you might be concerned that people will get sick of hearing from you frequently. I’d like to remind you, however, that the people you are emailing voluntarily joined your email list. 95% of people who sign up for a newsletter from a brand they recognize consider the email useful. They signed up WANTING to receive valuable content from you, so now it’s your turn to deliver.
Your customers, both current and prospective, like to stay informed. You can inform them with newsletters, product updates, sale notifications, and new offers. Not only will you build a relationship with your contacts by allowing them to feel “in-the-know,” but you can also drive sales with these types of “informative” emails.
Another way to frequently email your list without annoying them is by creating an email series that educates and engages them. Think of it almost like a mini-course that is delivered via email. If you know what type of information your contacts want, or a specific problem they’re needing to solve, you can really hook them into following the series. They’ll see you as a subject matter expert, and you can benefit by adding a call to action to the series.
One of the most popular uses for smartphones is checking emails. The use of mobile devices translates to you being able to reach your contacts anytime and anywhere. However, make sure that your emails are mobile-friendly. Only 11% of emails are optimized for mobile devices, so if yours are, you might already be setting yourself apart from your competition. It’s highly likely that a subscriber’s first interaction with your emails will be on a mobile device, so you’ll want to make a good first impression by having an optimized email.
The typical open rate for email marketing ranges from 10-20%. That means, if you have 1000 people on your list, your email is getting opened by 100-200 people. It might be the same people opening your emails each time, or it might vary depending on the subject. If you send out five emails a week, you potentially have 1000 people viewing your emails regularly. Now that’s nothing to sneeze at!
Improve your open rate by using strong subject lines, making sure it’s clear who the email is coming from, and keeping your email list fresh and updated.
You might be worried that sending out emails so frequently will take up all of your time. Thanks to email automation software, that’s not the case. You can set up campaigns that are triggered by your contacts’ actions, so they’re highly personalized PLUS they start automatically, which is a win-win for you. These customized emails pay off, too. Over 75% of email revenue is generated by triggered campaigns, and some companies have seen 50% conversion rates with their automated email campaigns.
Automating your email marketing strategy not only allows you to send targeted messages but also makes it easy for you to send out frequent emails. If you’re not sure how to set up an email campaign, or if you’re looking for email marketing software, we’re happy to help.
The statistics don’t lie. People check their email frequently, they like receiving emails, and they act on emails. If you’re not utilizing email marketing, or your current strategy is not working for you, you’re missing out on potential customers and revenue.
Click here to book a free consultation with us, and we’ll help you go from email marketing wimp to email marketing powerhouse.
