Show of hands, who has questions about email marketing?
Email can seem outdated and boring with social media messaging now. Sometimes it feels like you’re totally utilizing your email for marketing, but your audience doesn’t seem to interact with it. You should know that email is one of your most important digital assets and it’s a direct line of communication to your clients.
Recently, I was asked a few questions about email marketing and was thinking more about it myself. I thought this information could be of benefit to anyone who’s been wondering about it! So if you’re just starting out or want to make your email marketing game stronger, here’s some email marketing knowledge to get your wheels turning!
1) What tactic should I try to grow an email list?
It used to be effective enough to advise someone to create a Lead Magnet to grow their list. (For inquiring minds, a Lead Magnet is something you can offer the user for free and deliver instantaneously – in exchange for the user providing his or her information.) Lead Magnets are also occasionally referred to as free gifts or freebies in the marketing world. The hitch is that, like I began to explain, it used to be enough to simply have one – because not every business was offering something for free. Now, though – it’s more important to have a lead magnet that’s 3 things:
– High in value
– Solves the user’s problem (or at least begins to)
– Is placed optimally on your website and/or on a lead page or landing page. (You want to make the process of downloading it as EASY as possible.)
2) What software do you use and why?
I use MailChimp – but there is no lack of email marketing software out there. You just need to decide what’s right for your company. MailChimp is incredibly intuitive, but only offers phone support on their large plans – which makes it a no-go for entrepreneurs who like to pick up the phone and ask a question. If you’d like phone support, I recommend AWeber which isn’t quite as easy to use as MailChimp, but still has wonderful customer service available in the US by phone.
If you need something more robust than those two platforms, you’re looking at a larger investment every month – so I usually say people can graduate from MailChimp to ConvertKit, and ConvertKit to Ontraport, and so on – my recommendation varying based on the business and its unique needs.
3) If I’m starting from scratch, what advice do you have for me?
Please do not be discouraged because you have to start somewhere and growth doesn’t happen unless you set a goal and take action to get where you want to be. Measure your efforts so you can determine what tactics are most effective for you – so you know how to best spend your time. I would say make your goals attainable – don’t expect high numbers in your first year. It’s simply not likely and doesn’t happen for most businesses.
Hopefully what I’ve said here has put your mind more at ease and answered some of the questions you may have had. Email marketing has some pretty serious perks! Use these tips and explore some of the perks for yourself – you seriously won’t regret it!
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