Email marketing is one of the most lucrative investments companies can make for themselves. Businesses that invest in email marketing often find their reach growing and brand loyalty developing. Email is far from an outdated communication method. People sign up for brand emails regularly and enjoy hearing from their favorite companies.
If you’re running a small business and are ready to start seeing growth, a great place to start is with an email marketing campaign. Getting started, learn how to build your business through email marketing with this introductory guide.
Grow Your List
Building your email subscriber list is the first step to successfully growing your business through email marketing. The email you send must get to the people who are interested in your industry. Simply purchasing another company’s email list will not yield results. Earn your list and gather the proper email permissions. Here are a few ways to gain email permissions to grow your send list.
Collect Consent at Check-Out
One of the most successful spots to gain permission for emailing from your customers is at checkout. This strategy is widely successful in e-commerce websites. Include a pre-checked box at the checkout that gives your brand permission to send the customer promotional emails.
Pre-checking the box is the most successful method because many customers will not uncheck a pre-checked box, but very few will check an unchecked box. Be aware, however, that if you are in the European Union, permission laws differ, and pre-checking boxes may not be permissible.
Use a Pop-up To Get Consent
Another way to get email permission is to place a pop-up on your site. Pop-up grab attention, so users will be sure to see them. There are different ways to entice customers to give their email in a pop-up. Here are a few examples:
- Prompt customers to provide their emails to keep up to date with your brand.
- Incentivize them with a first-time customer discount that you’ll email to them after they provide permission.
- Offer exclusive content or access to special deals or sales once they provide their emails—then deliver on that promise.
Link in the Footer
The best practice for a business website is to have a spot in the footer for users to provide their email addresses and give permission for the brand to send them promotional emails. In the footer of your site, add a simple box and a clear call to action. For example, a company could have text that displays, “Keep up to date!” and a field for their email.
Keep it simple and easy for customers to join the emailing list. Using clear calls to action and easy-to-use forms is essential to growing your list. If the process is complex or requires too much thought, users will simply click away, and you’ll miss out on a potential repeat customer.
Send a Welcome Series
The best practice for introducing a new user to your email subscribers list is to send out a series of emails initiating them. The first email you send should welcome them to the subscriber list and ask them to confirm again that they are willingly providing permission to receive your emails. This practice of double-confirming consent puts the user in control of their inbox while establishing trust and mutual respect. After that, follow up with a few other emails.
Tell Them Who You Are
Start by welcoming them, thanking them for joining your email list, and then letting them know more about your brand. The first series should tell your customer who you are, what you do, and why you do it.
Outline your entire range of products or services. That user most likely signed up based on one category or one thing you offer, so they may not yet be aware of the range of other products you can provide.
Here are a few more things to send out in the second and third emails of your welcome series:
- The handles and links to any social media accounts that your business updates.
- Multiple ways for the user to connect with your company (phone number, customer service email, etc.).
- Your main categories and best-sellers.
- Education on all your offerings and where to get more information about them.
The last email in your welcome series should highlight your most popular offerings to ensure the customer understands what you can do and knows where to go for more information or to convert.
Set Up Automated Emails
Once you send out your welcome series, automated emails are a beneficial investment. These emails go out automatically to your customers’ emails in response to specific behaviors. Here are a few types of automated emails to consider sending:
- Browse abandonment
- Abandoned cart
- Thank you for your purchase
When sending abandoned cart or browse abandonment emails, it’s best to send multiple in a timely fashion. Testing is best practice, but start by sending one 4 hours after the abandonment and another 20 hours after the first. This window typically presents the best opportunity to win back a lost sale.
Start Slow and Test Along the Way
When you start sending manual emails, such as newsletters or other informational emails, it’s essential to begin slow and measure success as you go. Most companies find success starting conservatively with one manual send a month. Watch the open rates. The goal is to get an open rate of between 15 and 25 percent. If your rates are far below this range, consider looking at some of the following:
- Sender line: Is the email coming from a trustworthy-looking address?
- Subject line: Does it reflect the contents of the email and grab attention?
- Email list: Did everyone provide permission and actively choose to receive your emails?
- Spam: Is your email getting to the inboxes, or could a mail service provider be flagging it as spam?
Once you’re reaching higher open rates, you might benefit from testing more emails. Start segmenting your list and sending more emails every month to some subscribers. Measure the success of your new efforts. Email marketing is all about continuous testing and adjustment to achieve the best results.
Find a Partner To Guide Growth
Email marketing can set your business up for rapid growth. It takes time and expertise to analyze growth and ramp up as necessary to keep your business scaling to reach its full potential. Many companies find solace in bringing on a partner to help guide their email marketing efforts.
Logical Position is a professional digital marketing agency with experience running email marketing campaigns for hundreds of clients across multiple industries. If you’re looking for expert advice and affordable email marketing packages to help grow your business, contact us today for a free consultation. Getting started and learning how to build your business through email marketing begins with a call to Logical Position.
