Email marketing is still one of the most under-utilized and misunderstood marketing tools ever invented. Nearly every day, there are articles in business publications and websites that share misinformation and misleading information in regards to email marketing.
Even with all of the technology and social media platforms in existence, email still plays an important role and acts as a gateway to most if not all of the social media sites. Without an email address, would-be users cannot gain access to certain sites or cannot use the full functions of sites.
Almost every transaction you make online requires that you share an email address in order to complete your transaction. Whether your goal is to make a purchase or download free software, most website owners will require you to share your email address with them.
Email is integrated into our lives. It's on our cell phones and most paper forms that we fill out these days. So, email is not going any where any time soon. We'll be using email for a long time to come. There hasn't been any technology to come along to replace it.
This gives businesses an advantage in that email still offers another medium or channel for them to reach their leads, prospects and customers.
So how should your business be using email in your day-to-day operations?
Here's 3 powerful ways to maximize your email marketing
1. Lead Generation: There are almost no businesses that can't use email in some capacity to generate leads. For example, if your business is a house painting contractor, you could offer a free report titled something like "Top 3 Reasons Why You Should Be a member of Our VIP Bowling Club." And, the only way your prospect could get the report is by signing up via email to receive the report. You could have the prospect either sign up via a form on your website or simply by sending an email to your email Autoresponder account.
2. Lead, Prospect and Customer Follow-Up: Studies have shown that it takes 7 to 12 follow-up contacts to convert a lead or prospect into a sale. Whether that contact is done via phone, mail, fax, in-person or email, the studies show that it will take up to 12 follow-up contacts to make the sale. This is especially true for high ticket products and items. Proper email follow-up is an art and a science in one. If writing effective sales copy isn't your expertise, it is much advised that you find a competent copy writer to follow up with your email leads. (If you need help with this, please call us. Its just one of the many tactical programs we are known for)
3. Cross Promoting: Getting your leads and prospects to sign up for your email list can be difficult. So, if you're going to go through the time, energy and effort to build an email list, you might as well get the most from your email list. One way to get a return on your investment from your efforts of building an email list is by cross promoting products and services that are closely related to what the prospect originally signed up to receive. If you have a good relationship with your email list, you could also sell advertising to other businesses where either do "solo" emails promoting the paying advertiser's product or service. Or, you could offer a 4-line advertising "blurb" placed inside one or more of your regular emails to your list.
Developing a relationship with your list of prospects should be the MOST important goal of your email.
What do you think?
