Email marketing is a proven tactic for increasing leads and earning support no matter if you’re a small business or non-profit organization. Through email, companies have a direct line to their customers and cut through the mountain of advertising they see elsewhere.
Unlike paid ads and social media marketing, users generally opt-in to receive marketing emails. In other words, those that opt into email subscriptions already want more from that business.
If you want to grow your business using proven methods, follow the three steps listed in this article and learn how to get started in email marketing.
1. Craft a Lead Magnet and Welcome Email
Building a mailing list starts with collecting emails. To entice customers to opt into your email marketing campaigns, you’ll want to create a lead magnet.
A lead magnet is content you offer to customers for free in exchange for their email addresses. This content can come in many forms, everything from eBooks to discounts.
Here are a few more lead magnet ideas:
- Email series
- White papers
- Infographics
- Product updates
- Webinars
- Free samples/trials
Your lead magnet should be information that’s valuable. Otherwise, customers are not likely to sign up. Customers that sign up should get what’s promised to them in a welcome email immediately after opting into your email subscription list.
The welcome email has two goals: it gives them the content they want and establishes expectations. Make it clear to customers how often you will email them and what content they can expect.
2. Choose an Email Marketing Service
Email service providers offer the tools you need to create a successful email marketing campaign. These providers let you create the landing pages and pop-ups for email collection and distribution.
Many email service providers offer amazing tools that allow you to segment emails into specific categories and datasets. With these tools, users can target specific customers and refine their marketing campaigns.
Additionally, email providers let you A/B test lead magnets and content, so you can adjust your efforts for better success.
Here are the top 10 email marketing services for 2021, as provided by PC Mag:
- HubSpot Marketing Hub
- Constant Contact
- Zoho Campaigns
- Campaigner
- Salesforce Pardot
- Sendinblue
- Campaign Monitor
- Get Response
- Infusionsoft
- Mailchimp
Besides UI and features, the key difference between these email marketers is the size of the businesses they serve. Salesforce Pardot is built for large-scale businesses whereas Mailchimp is an excellent service for companies just starting their email marketing efforts.
Select the service that makes the most sense for what your goals are and begin building email templates for your mailing list.
3. Start Your Campaign
With your lead magnet and email service provider in place, you can begin collecting emails and delivering content. This content looks different for every business, but there are best practices to follow.
For one, emails should be conversational and friendly. A stiff, corporate-sounding email is off-putting to customers.
Emails are not the place to feature enormous blocks of text or your entire product catalog. Give customers just enough information, pictures, and snippets to get users excited about your product or service.
Format your emails in a way that’s consistent and easy to understand. A messy format can leave customers confused
A good format to build from starts with a catchy and interesting subject line. Fill the body of the email with valuable content, like information your customers may appreciate or coupons for promotions your business is running.
Always finish emails with a call to action that specifically says what you want customers to do. A clear email format can mean the difference between successful customer engagement and none at all.
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