How To: Reach A New Audience With Email Marketing Today!

Email marketing has been a staple of digital marketing ever since...well emails! While some people may feel emails are outdated, even with the addition of GDPR - the stats do not lie about how effective email marketing is compared to other platforms (like social ads).

●       269 billion emails are sent and received daily from businesses

●       by the end of 2018, worldwide mobile email users are expected to total over 2.2 billion

●       last year, the average results for email campaigns across various industries were:

       ●       open rate: 24.79%

       ●       average click-through rate: 4.19%

       ●       click-to-open rate: 11.88%

●       89% of marketers say email is their most effective channel for lead generation

Building your email list

The first step in your email marketing campaign revolves around your list of contacts.

You may well have a list already, collected from people who have opted-in when purchasing from your site, or have subscribed to your mailing list elsewhere. But what about new customers? How do you get them?

Building a new list from scratch may seem a large task but there is a fantastic formula that will help you achieve this:

INCENTIVE + OPPORTUNITY = EMAILS

Incentive

You need to entice people to sign-up with you. What can you offer for a piece of their time? How about:

●       great content: do you produce content as part of your business? Give customers who sign up to your email list some of your best work

●       whitepapers or downloads: Can you offer your customers advice or a whitepaper on a topic which they would find interesting and informative?

●       discounts: it may seem obvious to say but discounts (perhaps on a first order) are a great way to a customer’s heart

●       free or express shipping upgrade: nothing says incentive more than free or fast postage and packaging!

Opportunity

Incentives are all well and good but these need to be seen! Increase the likelihood of new signups by having more opportunities to sign up in the first place.

Many websites, particularly for businesses who offer services, often have various call-to-actions. These include:

●       pop-up window: most often seen after landing on a page, with a clear instruction and hopefully a great incentive too

●       clickable header: an image at the top of the page that links to a sign-up page

●       sliders: named because they slide onto the page, usually from the bottom corner. Similar to a pop-up window but not as imposing

What next?

Your list is building nicely, thanks to the incentive + opportunity formula you have put to good use. So what should you do?

Retention becomes the aim of the game. Here are a few ideas to keep customers signed-up:

●       give new customers a warm welcome: you have incentivised them to sign-up, so make an introduction and send them a welcome email

●       invite them to follow you on social media: keep in touch with other mediums so they can learn more about your business (in their own time)

●       customise campaigns to specific audience types: don’t send out “one size fits all” emails. Instead create list segmentations and tailor different campaigns to suit different demographics

●       keep them invested with offers: it’s simple, people love a good offer! Discounts, great content (see above) and events are a sure fire way to retain loyal customers

These tips should help you keep the customers you have worked so hard to win. If you need further assistance or wish to share some ideas with our team please do not hesitate to get in touch!

Scott Jones is the CEO of 123 Internet Group, a full service digital marketing agency with a head office in Milton Keynes and further locations in Northampton and London we support a national audience with web design and development, search engine marketing, social media management, hosting and email services. For more information about our services or advice on how to improve your online marketing activities please reach out and connect with us via our website or our social media channels.