Gone are the days of the town crier, the community bulletin board and the classified advertisement. If you want to share your business with people, you have to meet them where they are. That means weaseling your way into the 8 inches of real estate that they carry with them in their purse or pocket and capturing their attention in the three to four seconds they’ll devote to clearing your notification. Oh, and you’re also competing with every other business that they’ve ever come in contact with. Good luck! 

As a business owner looking to embark upon an email marketing journey, the entire process can be overwhelming and feel unproductive. It is a lot of work to put together email campaigns, and when you watch unsubscribes tick up while opens dwindle, it’s understandable that you want to step away from the content manager. But with a solid strategy and perseverance on your side, you can make the most of an email marketing strategy. Here’s our best advice to get you started building yours. 

Set expectations.

Email marketing can be as large-scale or as low-investment as you want to make it. There are endless possibilities when it comes to integrations with your business, and there are some incredible email marketers who do creative work to connect with consumers. But doing so takes time and a concerted effort. As a business owner, you have to determine whether or not that investment is a worthwhile decision for your project. If you choose to invest less time and energy into creating content, expect less interaction. And if you launch an exciting campaign, know that it may take some time for it to pay dividends. 

Define your intention. 

There are many different types of email marketing. You could use email to position your brand, to publicize deals, recruit talent or share knowledge. Everything flows from a clear intention – your strategy, content and audience should always point back to your intention. 

Research your industry. 

Wonder how often you should send emails? The best day of the week to reach out? The cadence to send coupons? I can’t provide an answer without knowing you or your business, but the internet usually can! Research your industry to determine what email marketers agree is the appropriate cadence to connect with your customers. Your intention will also drive some of these decisions. If your primary goal is to inform, then sending emails when you have meaningful content to share is better than blasting out an email on a weekly basis just to say you did. On the flip side, if you’re looking to drive e-commerce traffic, high-frequency outreach might be a better strategy. 

Prioritize data management. 

Highly tailored and relevant emails are more likely to succeed with consumers. So understanding who your email subscribers are and how they engage with your business is critical to delivering the right message at the right time. This takes work – you’ll have to work your list consistently, updating information and clearing out data that are no longer relevant. But the result means you can better connect with your consumers. 

Segment your content. 

Your mom probably told you not to try to be everything to everyone. The same can be said for your email marketing campaigns. Using your cleaned and organized customer lists, you can deliver segmented content that speaks to your audiences. Depending upon your campaign intention, you can determine how to segment your list. For example, if you’re a candlemaker and your goal is to share knowledge, you could segment your customers by how they engage with your business. Purchasers might get an email about the benefits of aromatic candles on their mood with a 10% off coupon. Candlemaking class attendees might get a reminder that their recent candle is probably running low with a VIP registration code for your next class. Cold leads might get information about your available offerings from both a candlemaking and a purchasing perspective. 

Focus on brief, high-quality content. 

Once you’ve captured someone’s attention, you only have a few moments in the spotlight. To make the most of each engagement, get to the point quickly. Focus on creating emails that are short, sweet and highly relevant.

Leverage personalized and action-based content tools. 

If you’re leveling up your email marketing strategy, use tools within your content management system to send automated emails based on audience actions. For example, you could create a follow-up email when someone abandons their shopping cart. Or, you could send a blog post about the mental health benefits of vacation after they view your list of available vacation rentals. 

There are probably 30 more suggestions that I could offer to help you strengthen your campaign, but these few should set you on the right path! If you want to get more into the nitty-gritty, we’re just an email away. Connect with us today to get started.

Gone are the days of the town crier, the community bulletin board and the classified advertisement. If you want to share your business with people, you have to meet them where they are. That means weaseling your way into the 8 inches of real estate that they carry with them in their purse or pocket and capturing their attention in the three to four seconds they’ll devote to clearing your notification. Oh, and you’re also competing with every other business that they’ve ever come in contact with. Good luck! 

As a business owner looking to embark upon an email marketing journey, the entire process can be overwhelming and feel unproductive. It is a lot of work to put together email campaigns, and when you watch unsubscribes tick up while opens dwindle, it’s understandable that you want to step away from the content manager. But with a solid strategy and perseverance on your side, you can make the most of an email marketing strategy. Here’s our best advice to get you started building yours. 

Set expectations.

Email marketing can be as large-scale or as low-investment as you want to make it. There are endless possibilities when it comes to integrations with your business, and there are some incredible email marketers who do creative work to connect with consumers. But doing so takes time and a concerted effort. As a business owner, you have to determine whether or not that investment is a worthwhile decision for your project. If you choose to invest less time and energy into creating content, expect less interaction. And if you launch an exciting campaign, know that it may take some time for it to pay dividends. 

Define your intention. 

There are many different types of email marketing. You could use email to position your brand, to publicize deals, recruit talent or share knowledge. Everything flows from a clear intention – your strategy, content and audience should always point back to your intention. 

Research your industry. 

Wonder how often you should send emails? The best day of the week to reach out? The cadence to send coupons? I can’t provide an answer without knowing you or your business, but the internet usually can! Research your industry to determine what email marketers agree is the appropriate cadence to connect with your customers. Your intention will also drive some of these decisions. If your primary goal is to inform, then sending emails when you have meaningful content to share is better than blasting out an email on a weekly basis just to say you did. On the flip side, if you’re looking to drive e-commerce traffic, high-frequency outreach might be a better strategy. 

Prioritize data management. 

Highly tailored and relevant emails are more likely to succeed with consumers. So understanding who your email subscribers are and how they engage with your business is critical to delivering the right message at the right time. This takes work – you’ll have to work your list consistently, updating information and clearing out data that are no longer relevant. But the result means you can better connect with your consumers. 

Segment your content. 

Your mom probably told you not to try to be everything to everyone. The same can be said for your email marketing campaigns. Using your cleaned and organized customer lists, you can deliver segmented content that speaks to your audiences. Depending upon your campaign intention, you can determine how to segment your list. For example, if you’re a candlemaker and your goal is to share knowledge, you could segment your customers by how they engage with your business. Purchasers might get an email about the benefits of aromatic candles on their mood with a 10% off coupon. Candlemaking class attendees might get a reminder that their recent candle is probably running low with a VIP registration code for your next class. Cold leads might get information about your available offerings from both a candlemaking and a purchasing perspective. 

Focus on brief, high-quality content. 

Once you’ve captured someone’s attention, you only have a few moments in the spotlight. To make the most of each engagement, get to the point quickly. Focus on creating emails that are short, sweet and highly relevant.

Leverage personalized and action-based content tools. 

If you’re leveling up your email marketing strategy, use tools within your content management system to send automated emails based on audience actions. For example, you could create a follow-up email when someone abandons their shopping cart. Or, you could send a blog post about the mental health benefits of vacation after they view your list of available vacation rentals. 

There are probably 30 more suggestions that I could offer to help you strengthen your campaign, but these few should set you on the right path! If you want to get more into the nitty-gritty, we’re just an email away. Connect with us today to get started.