Message Marketing Series pt 2 - Email Mailing
Welcome back to the #SFSB Podcast and the Message Marketing Series.
In this episode Christina Littrell-Williams shares about one of the four most used platforms for Message Marketing. Email Marketing. Some people will say Email Marketing is no longer effective and that is WRONG! The fact it still is the most used platform out there for marketing and still retains a high ROI (Return on Investment)! She also shares some tips and best practices advice.
In the next few podcasts, I will be breaking down these different tools and sharing “best practices” you should be using in your marketing efforts in order to achieve your best results.
Probably the most familiar Message Marketing Tool is Email. In one way or another we have all been exposed to email marketing. Currently it has been recorded there are 4.26 billion email users around the world and increases are projected to continue each year. Email is consistently the most used “messaging tool” around.
Email is used by marketers for different reasons throughout their marketing funnels.
Generating Leads Primarily through JV relationships where you are introduced to a new group of prospects by someone you have a relationship with. Cold emailing is not recommended and can damage your email/business domain reputation.
Communicating with your current database (Sharing special offers)
Nurturing your current database (Sharing informative/useful content - no sales involved)
Commonly Asked Questions:
One of the most common questions I am asked is, “Is email still effective with all of the other current methods to reach my audience?”
The answer is YES! Research shows that email is still the most effective method to reach people. The ROI (Return on Investment) is highest with email and should most definitely be part of any and all Marketing Plans.
Remember the 80/20 rule with email; 80% content, 20% sales. If you are supplying your database with informative, usable content they are going to want to open your emails and see what you are sharing next.
As you increase your copy writing skills, there are really great ways to share content and then offer a tool at the end, if your reader would like to know more about what they can do and not have your reader feeling like all you care about is selling them something. Because you are teaching or sharing something really solid, readers can walk away with a golden nugget of knowledge.
When you are structuring any email marketing plan and content message, an important point to keep in mind is the average person receives over 100 emails per day. So you need to find ways to make your message stand out and your reader WANT to look for and open YOUR emails to see what you have to say.
Your messaging reputation is KEY here. By making sure you educate your audience about who you are, what they can expect to learn/hear from you, and how often they can expect to hear from you right at the start of joining your messaging community is the first step. Making sure your subject lines peak interest is key! And some email marketing platforms allow you to include a “subline” that will be seen as the summary caption in your reader’s inbox instead of the first line of the email content. It is another way to capture their attention, and as I shared earlier your actual email content is KEY.
Another question prospects ask is “How many emails should I be sending?” The answer differs based on a few metrics:
- Your type of business
- What can you be consistent with
- What content you are sharing
The type of business - brick and mortar product offerings businesses and restaurants are usually based on “special offers” looking to drive traffic through their doors or increasing online orders, so these would be suggested monthly.
I invite you to go over to StrategiesForSmallBusinesses.com and download the Branding and Purpose Checklist. This will help you work through the questions you need to answer and really helps you have a focused dive into all of your Branding.
If you have any questions, remember we're always here for you. Just utilize the question button on the website and will get back to you.
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For online marketers offering services/programs message marketing is increased because the main way to build relationships with your readers is your written shared word. So CONTENT emails should be no less than twice a month and then alternating one or two offer emails a month. As a marketer, you might be creating a BIG sales campaign where you are focusing on one specific special offer with a deadline to the sale, and at that point, no matter whether you’re a brick and mortar business or an online marketer, you will run a specific campaign/sales funnel focused on that specific sale. With these types of messaging you can send two to three a week counting down to your deadline. These types of sales should be spread out, for instance one per quarter, so you don’t exhaust your reader in sales-focused messages.
What to Avoid
When designing your email messages avoid SPAM triggers:
- Within Your Written Content
- With Your Subject Lines
- With the Email Platform/Address You are Sending From
All email providers scan your emails to discern if they are spam or contain questionable content before they deliver the message to someone’s inbox. They will score each email based on their filters and you want to make sure your messages make the cut and get delivered!
Some spam triggers are over promises, manipulative verbiage, sounding needy or desperate, being too pushy, questionable statements, too many images because they cannot be “measured for content”, AVOID using the word FREE in your emails at all cost, and too heavy on exaggeration punctuation marks like exclamation marks.
In subject lines avoid all caps, too many exclamations, and avoid your subject line being unrelated to your content (this can upset some of your readers).
You want to make sure you are not using your personal inbox to send marketing emails or nurturing emails out to your audience - not only are your sending abilities limited to how many people you can put in the TO or BCC line, you are also limited to how many you can send per day/week/month.
Make sure you’re using a proper email address to send your marketing emails. Do not use a free email provider email addy like Gmail. If you are in business you should set up and use your company domain name. Best practices are to send from a custom domain. Invest in an email address that is directly related to your company.
Another thing to remember when marketing is not to use Support@ or some generic email address for your company because that, too, triggers spam and also disconnects the “human” connection with your reader. If you do not want to use your personal email address I suggest you create a second email address that is your first name and last name@. Any replies can go into a different inbox where you can check for direct responses from your readers or you can have a team member be responsible for monitoring that inbox.
So remember Email Marketing is the top marketing tool for results, so make sure you are using it. If you do not have an email marketing platform my first suggestion is you get one ASAP. There are several email marketing platforms out there, from Free platforms such as MailChimp, to paid platforms like Aweber, to full marketing systems such as Keap/Infusionsoft. There is a platform option for everyone. The key is choosing the right one.
If you need help choosing which platform would be a better fit for you, your needs, and your wanted growth, reach out to us and we can help you choose one in a complimentary “meet and greet”. You can get on our appointment calendar HERE.
We’d love to work with you in building your support team, whether it's SFSB or another company. We specialize in working as part of a team and building those relationships.
We look forward to hearing from you so you can work with an expert to help you grow your business!
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