It’s a well-known fact that people are more inclined to do business with companies they have a good relationship with. Companies they know, like and trust. The thing is, this type of relationship doesn’t just happen overnight. It needs to be earned over time.
Email marketing is a fantastic way to help you build these long-term relationships with your clients and prospects.
Let me explain what I mean.
This is a simple ladder of loyalty and it shows you the different types of relationships people might have with your company.
Email marketing helps you move people up the ladder of loyalty.
So for example, your prospects; people who are aware of your company and have shown interest in what you have to offer, but haven’t actually done business with you before, will decide to use you for the first time and become customers. Similarly, your customers will eventually become advocates; people who help spread the word about your fantastic product or service and hopefully win you lots of new business into the bargain.
How to Move People up the Ladder of Loyalty
The key thing to remember is that you don’t want to just sell, sell, sell at every given opportunity. People hate that and will quickly unsubscribe from your mailing list if you send them sales email after sales email.
Instead of just selling all the time, try sharing useful and valuable information with your subscribers on a regular, but not obtrusive basis.
So what are you actually going to write about in your emails?
Well, it’s easy to take for granted what you already know, but the chances are, you are a fountain of knowledge when it comes to your industry. Use that knowledge to your advantage. Entertain and delight your subscribers with your expert knowledge.
Let’s think of some examples.
If you were a pet shop owner, you might segment your list and send your cat lovers an email to warn them about common household plants that are dangerous to cats (in case you didn’t know, lilies are highly toxic to cats).
Or imagine you were a cookery school, you might email your subscribers about what knives a chef needs.
Or if you were an online tea company, you might email your subscribers to tell them how to prepare the perfect cup of green tea. Or what teas go best with honey and why.
So you’ve got your emails ready. What can you do to make sure you get the best return on your investment? How can you increase their conversion rate?
Stand Out in the Inbox
One of the first hurdles you need to overcome is to get people to actually open your emails in their inbox.
Your emails will probably be competing with lots and lots of other emails in your subscriber’s inbox and so if your emails don’t really stand out in the inbox, then the chances are they won’t get opened. And if your emails don’t get opened on a regular basis, your subscriber will be more inclined to unsubscribe from your list when they eventually tidy up their inbox.
All that hard work and money you put into getting that subscriber will have been for nothing. Don’t let that happen.
Work That Subject Line!
Turn bland and boring subject lines into something that your subscribers will want to actually click on and read.
For example, if you were a coffee company and you were emailing your list about how to make an espresso, instead of just using “How to make an Espresso” as the subject line, you could use something like this “How to make an Espresso like a Barista.”
Personalise Your Subject Line
According to Campaign Monitor emails with personalised subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened.
The great thing is, hardly anyone does it. So if you do personalise your subject lines, you’ll have a huge competitive advantage over your competitors who don’t do it.
Subject Line Tip!
Look at your own inbox and check which subject lines make you want to click on them. Make a note of them for later and then when you are preparing your next email, see if you can adapt any of the subject lines you have written down for your own means.
Timing Is Everything
Think about when you send your emails. The temptation once you’ve prepared an email is to just send it straight away, because you want to start seeing a return on your hard work as soon as possible.
The truth is, it’s best to wait and send it at the best time. This way you’ll get a much better return on your investment.
Ideally you want to send your emails when your subscriber is most likely to be checking their inbox and ready to read their emails. This way your email will be at the top of the queue.
What you don’t want is for your email to appear when your subscriber is away from their inbox for hours and hours on end and so lots and lots of other emails come in after yours.
Why?
Because if this happens then the subscriber will have to scroll down and down to even have a chance of seeing your email and if they’re busy, they may not bother.
CoSchedule did some research and they found that Tuesday is the best day of the week by far to send your emails and 10am is the best time.
But my advice to you would be to test what works for you. You might find that there’s too much competition at this time, and actually another day / time works better for you.
Also, think about who you’re emailing.
For example, if you’re a recruitment company and you’ve segmented your list and you’re emailing your night shift candidate subscribers, don’t email them at 10am in the morning because if they’ve just finished a night shift they’ll be heading off to bed!
And think about time zones too.
For example, if you’re a tour operator trying to build a relationship with your subscribers based in Hong Kong to encourage them to take one of your tours, don’t email them at 8pm UK time (this is the start of the second most popular time to send an email, according to CoSchedule’s research mentioned above), because that’s currently 4am in Hong King and they will most likely be asleep!
I hope you’ve found this blog post on email marketing helpful.
If you would like to find out more about what email marketing can do for your business, please schedule a free, no obligation 1-2-1 with me now using this link to my calendar:
https://calendly.com/ticketyboomarketing
Or you can email me
tara@ticketyboomarketing.co.uk
Either way, I’d love to hear from you.
Tara Macgregor is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (MCIM) and a Chartered Marketer. She runs Ticketyboo Marketing a marketing consultancy based in Edinburgh, that works with SMEs to help them find new customers and increase revenue from their existing customers.