Email marketing is one of the oldest forms of digital marketing around. But guess what? It’s still relevant. And it still converts. Although the strategy behind your email might be different than it was when people were still excited to receive emails, you can still create a successful email marketing strategy that will generate new customers.
How many emails do you typically wake up to each day? This comic strip probably isn’t far off in its estimate of 436. (Kidding. I do probably get about 100 marketing emails throughout each day, though.)
In this digital age, our email inboxes are absolutely saturated with work, personal, and promotional emails. Google even has a filter for promotional emails so they don’t end up in your main inbox.
So how on earth is email marketing supposed to remain successful if everyone is waking up to 100+ emails each day?
You need to come up with a plan of action that will help your email content to stand out from the rest. What can you offer that gets your subscribers to not only open your emails, but read them and click off of them?
1. Create your lead generation strategy
Lead generation is essentially the process of getting people to actually sign up for your email list. What will it take for your potential customer to willingly hand you their email address? Typically this is a discount code, checklist, or ebook that you’re using as an opt-in freebie or lead magnet.
A lead magnet is something of value that you’re giving away in exchange for an email address. For example, a goal checklist to help you with your mid-year goal progress or a marketing plan guide for the new year would be considered a lead magnet. It’s a free PDF worksheet or workbook that we’ve offered in exchange for joining our email list.
It’s smart to offer various opt-in freebies to attract as many people from your target audience as possible. It’s also a better way to get people to sign up to your email list. Most people aren’t going to simply see a sign-up form and fill it out unless they already have a strong affinity for your business.
You should also include opt-ins in multiple places on your website and social platforms to help grow your email list. Your blog posts, a pop-up on your website, and a blurb on your contact page are just a few ideas.
2. Don’t send exclusively promotional content
No one wants to be constantly blasted with promotional information about your business. The surest way to lose email subscribers is to talk only about yourself and your business and what they should buy from you.
Your email marketing strategy should be equal parts informational and promotional. Or even better, more informational than promotional. You should offer valuable information in your emails, like blog content, industry news, company updates, and more. Each newsletter should include a call-to-action to entice your subscribers to buy.
This could be a discount code, a link to your sales page, or a limited-time offer, to name a few examples.
3. Send newsletters regularly
You should send out email newsletters weekly or monthly to stay top of mind to your email list. We recommend writing out an editorial calendar of content ideas for your email newsletter each week or month to help you keep the process streamlined and efficient.
Although a weekly email marketing strategy would be better than monthly, we recommend not going as far as sending daily email content like many large retailers do. You don’t want to clog your subscribers’ inboxes too much unless you have seriously valuable information to share.
If email marketing is something that’s important to your overall strategy but you’re not sure where to get started, give us a call at (888) 632-4499! We’d be happy to get you started with a strategy that will convert.
