SIMPLE EMAIL MARKETING

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy that utilizes email to gain customers and brand awareness.

Why is it important?

1. The majority of the world has an email address and check it daily. That means that you have direct access to billions of people world wide for your business.

2. You own your list. Unlike with social media accounts, which can be deleted, suspended, and which you do not own EMAIL allows your business full autonomy. You don’t have to worry about changing algorithms and buying key words.

3. People buy more products and services marketed through email than other forms of marketing.

Now that you know what email marketing is, how you best go about it?

1. Identify your target audience and where they are in their customer journey.

2. Create campaigns with proper call to actions.

3. Send out test emails.

4. Schedule and send campaigns.

5. Analyze performance.

Identify your target audience and where they are in their customer journey.

The five main stages in the customer journey are:

1. AWARENESS: this is when customers realize that they have a problem, but are not quite sure how to solve them. These are people who most likely have no idea who you are or what your brand stands for.

2. CONSIDERATION: Customers realize that they have a need and are actively searching and comparing products and services to see which company best fits their needs.

3. PURCHASE: Customers are ready to buy a product or service.

4. RETENTION: These are the individuals and businesses that have actually bought your products/services.

5. ADVOCACY: This is the stage when you move from a business to a brand. Where YOUR customers tag posts using your hashtags, tall all their friends and family about you, post pictures of your products on social media. This last stage is what every business should aim for.

PROPER CALL TO ACTIONS

1. AWARENESS: Sending out a brand awareness/ welcome email is great for a customer in this stage.

2. CONSIDERATION: This is the stage where you need to educate. Introducing offers such as webinars, checklists, small e-books will help this customer choose you. They need to know why you are better than your competitors.

3. PURCHASE: Sending out an email that uses incentives i.e. “Get $20 off your first order!” Are very helpful for this stage.

4. RETENTION: Sending news alerts, first grabs, and coupon emails will help keep customers.This is turns a business into a brand. BE PERSONABLE, have fun, and let your customers know you appreciate their business.

5. ADVOCACY: Ask for reviews, for customers to use your hashtags, or create contests. You want to get a a place where your customers speak for your brand. The best form of advertising is still word of mouth.

PLAN OUT CAMPAIGN AND SEND TEST EMAILS

Decide which customer type you would like to market to and start planning out your campaign(s). Once you have your campaign ready send a TEST EMAIL to yourself. This allows you to see what your campaign would look like live and what your potential customers will see.

It also allows to make any necessary changes BEFORE your campaign goes out. The last thing you want is your brand to appear sloppy. In order to do this, you need to use email marketing software. This helps you automate your campaigns and see their progress. Here are two of my favorites

1. www.campaignmonitor.com – very affordable and has analytics built in for you to see the campaign’s performance.

2. www.wix.com – If you built your website through WIX, you also have the option of email marketing through your dashboard as well.

SEND CAMPAIGNS AND ANALYZE PERFORMANCE

Congrats you are ready to send out your campaigns! Keep and eye on your performance and tweak your campaigns as necessary. Use A/B testing, and play around with images and video. Read up on best practices so your emails aren’t flagged as spam, and remember, to be consistent in your marketing.

Author: Leslie Berry