Here at The Social Brand we are constantly talking about how to get your business in front of the right people, your people. You might think that once you have someone’s email, it’s game over and you’ve won! But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 

After you’ve reached the milestone of acquiring an email address, you’ve now entered into a new world of strengthening a relationship with that person. It’s called, how to continue providing valuable content that will be successfully delivered to your audience and give them a desire to open your emails.

Your email lists subscribed to you for a reason, they want your knowledge and expertise to help them. 

But first thing’s first, you need to make sure that your communication lines are open and your email doesn’t get lost in their inbox. 

1. Hitting the Inbox

Without realizing it, your emails can be flagged as spam. There are various reasons for this but a few are done innocently without any intention of acting “spammy” and you would never be aware of it without a professional’s help. Let’s address some of them. 

Try to avoid using spam “trigger” words in your subject line such as, amazing, click here, free, guarantee, and order now.

Sometimes email providers have built in tools that check for spam trigger words and will automatically list your email as spam. 

Not verifying your domain can also play a key role in getting your emails sent to someone’s junk or spam folder. If your email is hosted somewhere, you’ll need to verify your domain (@abc123.com) so that your email list’s email provider will trust where your email is coming from, knowing it isn’t spam. If your domain has not been verified in your email marketing software (Mailchimp, Hubspot...etc.), this could be a reason why you don’t have a high open-rate among your email list. 

2. Keep it short and sweet

Are we talking about the subject line or the body of the email? Both, actually.

If your subject line is too long, the reader won’t be able to see the entire line since it will get cut off. There’s only so much space in a subject line. The shorter it is, the better your chances are at your reader understanding the subject of your email and ultimately opening it. 

What is an example of a short and engaging subject line that won’t mislead people?

“What you need to know about ________”

“Here we go”

“We thought you might like this”

“Your last chance”

“One day left”

Each title is focused on the reader. Using words like “you,” “we,” “your” and “I” will personalize the email and will help the reader to feel as you are talking “with” them and not “at” them. 

Maintaining a shorter length in the body is also a good idea. Think about how many emails your audience receives on a daily basis. How long are those emails typically? 

If you have multiple announcements and updates that need to be made in your email blast, try to shorten those announcements in snippets with a link that will send the reader to your website or social media pages. Or you can break up the email blast into an email sequence so your readers will be updated every few days or weeks about different topics, to avoid reader fatigue. 

The longer you require your reader to scroll down your email, the higher the chance they will exit out of your email without reading or clicking on anything. The less engagement your readers have with your emails, and the higher the chance an email provider will think your email is spam or junk and might send your email to the wrong inbox.

Finding the sweet spot on a good length to maintain the attention of your reader will help your open rates, increase your engagement within the email, and show your reader that you respect their time. 

3. Value over promotions

When you lead your emails with how your reader can spend their hard earned money, this will only look as though that you want something from your reader. 

Instead, you’ll want to lead with value. Serve your audience first, then ask for the sale later. 

We all do business with people we like, right? So what is it about your business that your audience would like? What are some values that you want to share with them? 

What information do you have that would benefit your audience in some way? 

Oftentimes, a company newsletter or update is what readers enjoy most because they aren’t being asked to do anything. You are the one doing something for them. 

Only after providing value is when you should offer promotions. 

4. Target the right people in your audience 

Congratulations on building up your audience! Now you need to put that audience into different categorized groups so you can make sure each group receives the most relevant content that would interest them. 

These categories will depend on your type of business. What are your different customer personas? Which buckets would they fall under? Are they interested in different things? Do they live in different types of areas? Are they different demographics?

You’ll need to evaluate who you are talking to and cater your emails to each category. 

If you run a medical office serving different age groups but you have an update about pediatric care, you’ll want to include that email to parents associated with your pediatric patients. You probably wouldn’t send that same email to your elderly demographic because it wouldn’t be relevant to their needs.

Having this targeted approach will improve your open rate since you’ll be sending specific types of emails to certain types of people. Those people are more likely to open the email, versus someone ignoring it because the topic doesn’t pertain to them. 

5. Mobile optimization 

It’s 2021 and our smartphones are used for just about everything that a computer can do. To follow the theme of serving your audience, you’ll want to make it very easy for your audience to find and access your content.

Because of this increase in technology without phones, the majority of emails are opened via a mobile device.

Since 2011, open rates from mobile devices have increased by more than 100% and it is continuing to grow every year. (Campaignmonitor.com)

In 2020, 81% of emails were opened on a mobile device. This means your emails will need to be optimized for mobile devices so they can be read with ease. If emails are not optimized well for a mobile device, you will risk having a very low open-rate of your emails and may even increase the chances of your audience unsubscribing from your email list because they aren’t receiving any value from you since they can’t see it.  

 

Do you have any questions about digital marketing? We are always here to help and answer questions for entrepreneurs and small businesses about how you can find your people.

There’s a common misconception that email is dead. Contrary to this belief, email is one of the best ways you can reach your ideal audience and grow your business. 

We are past the days of “you’ve got mail” and only receiving spam emails. Now, your email inbox probably has much more value in it than it did 10-15 years ago. Marketers are honing in on the craft of email marketing simply because well, it works. 

Oftentimes, a small business owner will assume that their optimal reach or top priority is or should be their social media presence. While social media presence is indeed crucial, it should not be your top priority. Your email marketing should actually be at the top of your list, after you have nailed down a stellar website of course, ahem--we’d love to help you with that, by the way. 

In this blog, we will cover five ways to use email marketing to boost your business, specifically for small businesses and contractors. 

1. Lead magnet - lead with FREE

This may sound counterintuitive, but leading with free resources shows the client and prospective client that you are already invested in them whether or not money is involved. 

This builds trust and does it quickly! Do you have a free download or free consultation? Maybe you have a helpful checklist or an audit that would give people insight into your knowledge. 

A lead magnet will not only build rapport and trust, but it will help build your email list! 

If you are starting at the ground floor without anyone in your email list, a lead magnet is where you start. 

Like we mentioned in the beginning of this blog, social media is not the priority, your email is. But why?

When you are sending emails to your email list, you own that list. Typically, you are paying for an email service that allows you to host those emails, craft and email and distribute an email campaign. Think--Mailchimp, Hubspot, Flodesk...etc. You have authority and autonomy over those contacts in that list and can essentially connect with them when you choose. 

On social media, this is not the case. 

You may have hundreds or thousands of followers, but you don’t own those followers or the algorithm on that platform. This means that your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter can all be manipulated. Your account could be shut down for any reason at any time without any notice. Crazy, huh?

In a moment’s notice, you could lose all of those followers and never be able to contact them again. 

Don’t worry though! Because, email marketing is here to save the day. You own those contacts. 

After you have done the hard work of creating a “freebie” or lead magnet, offer people so much value that it’s impossible for them to resist the offer...then BAM! You’ve achieved trust, and have gained that name and email. 

It’s yours. Now, you have the ethical responsibility to treat that email with respect and serve them with what they actually need. 

2. Boost your social media engagement 

This is why email marketing is pretty cool. It can send your peeps to where you post content and provide additional value. 

In your email blast, you can remind your email list of some things you recently posted with a link to your social media platforms. 

Don’t repost the entire post in the email though. Don’t give away the farm. All you do is post the picture with a line or two from the description and then a “read more” button linked to the original post. 

This will not only help your engagement on those platforms, but if some of your email list is not already following you, there’s a high chance they will once on that platform! Increasing your following at the same time. Two birds, one stone. 

3. Gain exposure and registrants for events and promotions

Do you have an upcoming event or promotion? Of course you should be marketing that event and promotion on other platforms with a solid strategy in mind, but you should definitely include it in an email to your email list. 

Whether they are customers or not, you want to let them know about that sale or promotion. 

This is providing value to that email list. People love saving money! Let them know!

Your event could be providing value to them with socializing with the right network, or a chance to win a cool prize. You won’t be “spamming” them if you are giving them something of value. 

To piggie-back off the social media algorithm comment above, if you were only relying on posting about your event or promotion on social media to “let the masses know,” you are doing your business a disservice because it will be missed by the majority of your followers. It won’t hit every single account that follows you. 

Verses, your email blast. You can have the peace of mind knowing that each of your email contacts received that email. We can’t ensure that they will open the email, but it landed in their hands! Just make sure you have a killer subject line so your contacts will feel compelled to open the email 😉 

4. Increase your website SEO 

Have you posted a blog recently? Send your email list to it!

Link a graphic, a title and a description of what the blog entails and send them to your website to read the entire post. 

The more external links pointing people to your site, will help your SEO and let Google know that people are interested in what your website has to say. Trust us, you want Google on your side!

5. Educate 

Give a tip of the month, or insight on why certain parts of your business are more intricate or important. 

Create an email series on How-To’s that will bring value to your audience.

Your email list is not there for you, you are there for them. Telling them something they don’t know already or solving a problem for them, this makes you valuable to them. 

You are just a click away from being unsubscribed to, so make sure that it’s worthwhile for your email list to keep you around! 

Serve your audience

What’s next? You’ve created your lead magnet, started growing your email list, have been sending out awesome emails...what do you do now? 

Keep doing it. Keep serving. 

Come up with a strategy to continue to serve with value. Who is your audience? What behaviors do they have when they read your emails? What links are they clicking? 

Go over the analytics in your email marketing tool and figure out what you should do more of, and less of!

The more you continue to serve your email list, the more they will be interested in what you actually sell and you will see your business grow naturally.