Email Marketing The secret is a maintained relationship, not subscribers What is email marketing? Simply, email marketing is marketing services or products in a compelling way via email. The goal is to entice and educate the reader to know more about a company, service or product and the end goal is for the reader to eventually purchase it. Email marketing facts, numbers and statistics: As of 2013, there were nearly 4 billion registered email addresses worldwide Almost half of all emails are opened on a mobile device Almost 80% of consumer s sign up for email specifically for discount offers Monday emails were voted the best revenue day to send out offer newsletters More than half of the people who read emails identify if the email is spam by reading the subject line Reader s attention span is 3 seconds on average when reviewing an email, either to read now, later or delete straight away, the process is three seconds If used effectively, email marketing can deliver one of the highest returns on investment of any digital marketing activity. Email marketing is: Extremely cost effective Highly targeted Completely measurable
Offer an incentive for people to sign up - The problem though is that most of what people offer are as incentives are terrible. Not so much in the content itself, but the way it s laid out. For example, I log on many websites and the first thing I get shown is a pop up banner asking me for my email address. I don t even know the person or what he or she has to offer, I don t know what this person will do with my details. Think about it, what do you think of when you log on a site for the first time and immediately a popup banner appears? You re looking for the close button or cross at the top right of the screen. To grow your email database you need to provide value, but trust needs to be laid out correctly while providing value. If you have a popup, a good rule of thumb is alteast 30 seconds. A useful question: Why should I spend my bandwidth, which cost me money, on your website? So now that s out the way, let s begin: You would need an opt in, subscribe now section on your website (see my homepage and discover what I did correctly) whereby the customer or client can fill in their email address to follow your business newsletters or another offering. You could add additional information to identify your target market in detail, such as: Surname Gender Date of birth Telephone number But I don t recommend the additional details above. The more information people are asked to fill out, the less likely you are going to be successful in capturing their details. I would only recommend the above additional information if you are hosting a competition and providing a fantastic service or product to the winner, then you can afford to ask for information above when they sign up to win your prize. To add to your email database following, use more marketing methods such as: Sign up form on your Facebook page (Aweber does a great job explaining this) Sign up form for another section of your website on your email signatures, which you send out weekly
Best practice for email sign up forms: 1. Place the sign up form where it can be visible, easy to the eye 2. Teach your customer what they will gain by signing up, and how often 3. Teach customer s about your spam policy, you value giving them valuable information only How to write quality emails Many emails from entrepreneurs are not opened because they are missing captivating headlines Remember, you are speaking to people, you are just communicating by letters and sentences. Treat them as individuals and cherish them. Every once a while send out an email, for example Hi Brian, I value your opinion. If there is something you would like me to expand on in my resources or blogs page, please let me know. I would like to cater for you as though you were my only reader. 1. Subject lines = Give your customer a Gist of your email, just enough to entice your reader to complete the story. Avoid using any types of characters such as!&*&$ because this is affiliated with spamming. Use the name of your company and the content summarized in three words. 2. Personalised Greeting = Avoid using Dear valued customer as this makes the customer feel like a number and not an individual. You should always address the customer by their first name to show that the content you are sending is meant for them 3. Body = Rather focus more of your attention on valuable information, rather than images. The structure of your email will make it a success or failure. Use short paragraphs and highlight the important aspects in one or two colours, also emphasize important key phrases in bold 4. Always use your company details (footer) after you have finished writing your email. Your footer promotes your company and lists the contact information of you and your company. Be creative with the footer and think of ways to grow your following with this. Another legal aspect of your email newsletter is to keep in mind is a unsubscribe link with every email you send out, whereby a customer who does not want to receive any more email newsletters from you can unsubscribe without any hassle.
Always keep in mind: you are delivering a parcel: that parcel should aim to improve someone s life
I once read a post online which read: How many marketers does it take to change a lightbulb? (Answer revealed in the middle) I couldn t help but read the whole post, the excitement of searching through something to find the answer intrigues us, humans. The answer was 1, but there is another who can fit it quicker than him either by knowing more information about it or through personal experience. That s what marketing is about, doing something better and quicker, while maintaining quality. Vital information below: Avoid using images to show important content Avoid using links in your email unless it s your own, this will draw your subscribers to other sites Follow a theme, this week s newsletter must be consistent with next week s newsletter Test your bulk emails by sending it to staff members first, or close friends. Check for spelling errors, size of the words etc. Generally, it s best to send out your newsletters late in the evening or early morning (US time) When you write your subject line, don t sell what s inside tell what's inside Your email subject line should be between 6-10 words Studies have shown that % off deals, are more effective than dollar off deals The reader associates a high percentage, such as 40% off with half price. In the customers mind if they see a pair of jeans for R200 dollars but 40% off, they first associate it with half price. To give you an edge, like the world s best internet marketer s, Personalize your emails not just with the customer s names, but with their browsing history summary Want to grow a friend s knowledge on Email Marketing?
From personal experiences, I ve found that the best resource to manage my bulk emails and automate them for me are: 1. Aweber Useful statistics: 1. 44% of email recipients made at least one purchase last year based on a promotional email. Convinceandconvert.com 2. 33% of email recipients open email based on subject line alone. (Convinceandconvert.com) 3. Personalized subject lines are 22.2% more likely to be opened. (Adestra July 2012 Report) 4. According to a study by ExactTarget, 77% of consumers prefer to receive permission-based marketing communications through email 5. According to Invesp, emails are 40 times more likely to get new customers as compared to Facebook or twitter Advice for growing your email database: Encourage your current email subscribers to share and forward your emails by placing an email to a friend button Host an online Webinar and collect email addresses at registration Host a competition = Enter your email and stand a chance to win 200 dollars free worth our valuable products Encourage your social media audience to opt in via your website for the most valuable tips in marketing for you and your business Write blogs and treat your blogs as if it were a vacuum cleaner, sucking up email addresses. Your blog must have sign up forms, preferably on the right or left hand side Start a blog post if email marketing could. Create resources for your industry such as video s, ebook s, podcasts and blogs and give it away for free, although these types of material should redirect people to your website Place your email opt in page on your website homepage
According to studies, the best email subject lines are: Avoid: Humorous = 8 year old dominates SEO Shocking = Your marketing sucks = this is what you need to do Number countdown = The top 10 best subject lines to attract a large following Facts = OH NO! YOUR PRESCRIPTION IS ENDING, This is what you ve been missing out on! Promotional = New product just in, order now before we run out! Sales pitches Lengthy subject lines Your email being all about you and not about the customer Email marketing success stories: https://blog.aweber.com/user-success-stories-great-graphics https://blog.aweber.com/email-marketing/jackson-coffee.htm https://blog.aweber.com/email-marketing/dream-a-little-email-how-a-nonprofit-markets.htm Click here to get your first month of Aweber email marketing for free
Email marketing tips: Only email your subscribers when you have valuable content to add to their lives, not because you feel like it s time to send them an email Give people a reward for reading Personalize your email as if you were speaking only to one person Stay away from irrelevant statistics. Focus on your niche and what they want to know Stress the benefits of your product or service with testimonials Keep text under 500 words Never copy or paste from word into bulk emails. Your Word content is not web-ready content, instead copy your content into Notepad before inserting it into your email template I hope you ve enjoyed this ebook. Please like or subscribe to gain more valuable secrets and insights into your Email Marketing journey. I hope I was a door of new information to you Copyright 2016 - Do Marketing Yourself - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: Please note, some of the recommended links are affiliate links and I might get a small commission from it. I have either used them myself or know of close individuals who has and succeeded while using it.