Email marketing is delivering your messages (advertising or promotional) to prospective clients or buyers through email.
WHY EMAIL MARKETING
Emails are personalized messages that go to a person’s inbox. They are a low cost method to get the attention of your target audience. Needless to say it is also very fast. Emails are used to share content that your subsciber might find valuable. The biggest plus is that you own your list. There are no unpredictable algorithm changes as is in the case of social media platforms.
RETURNS
Your email marketing strategy is not just about selling and making money. It is also about other non quantifiable returns such as feedback, validation and testimonials. It is also an excellent way of establishing your thought leadership by sharing exclusive content which can be in the form of an ebook, exercises, must reads, tips, etc. with your email list.
In addition, the emails, the content and the products/services that you offer need to be aligned with your website and social media presence so that the right target group are converted to email subscribers. For it is through these subscribers that you’ll be able to nurture evangelists for your brand.
GETTING STARTED
DEFINE YOUR GOALS
Some questions to ask yourself:
- What are you hoping to achieve through this – what’s the action you wish your subscriber to take when they read your emailer
- How often will you be sending an emailer
- What type of content do you wish to share
- Does my email marketing strategy align with my overall brand/blog and social media strategy
BUILD A LIST
You can build a new list of subscribers through simple opportunity to subscribe and by giving them a valuable incentive. The incentive could be a freebie like an ebook or a printable planner.
CREATE YOUR FIRST CAMPAIGN
Plan out your campaign thoroughly. You will need to decide on your welcome email, the follow up emails and exactly when and how are you going to introduce your offering.
MEASURE RESULTS
Measure the results of your campaign in terms of growth of your list, click throughs and other actions on your Call to Action. This would help you understand what works and repeat those strategies.
Email marketing helps you to tap into that portion of your readership that is most loyal and to reward that loyalty via a special glimpse into your brand. On the journey of blogger to thought leadership through#LeaderChatter all April. Come back for more!