When it comes to marketing your business, you can’t create content in isolation and stay with one marketing platform.
That is so boring, and lead generation does not work that way.
From my experience marketing and sales nirvana needs to be supported by a powerful email marketing strategy.
Especially if you are selling a high ticket product or service.
Why?
Because email marketing is all of these things:
Global – Email marketing works across nations and industries, allowing you to build a database, target, and reach multiple different audiences around the world.
Scalable
Budgets vary between different businesses, within a business, and even between segments, so scalability is important.
Cost-effective
When you send emails in volume, the cost per eyeball is still the best value I’ve ever seen and you’re not competing for clicks from Google.
Segmented
There are many options for segmenting your audience so they take unique journeys and only receive content relevant to them – this is particularly important when you move higher up the value chain in service or product.
Measurable
Success on email marketing is measurable e.g. open rates, click-throughs, and at a more granular level, you can track goals including website traffic, conversions, or sales.
Ownership
Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, you own your email database and will never be held ransom to these platforms ever-increasing price rises.
I love email marketing and here are my 7 key steps to creating a banging strategy that actually converts.
1. Goals that align with lead generation
Your email marketing strategy must go hand in hand with your lead generation efforts because, at the end of the day, that’s the only measurable outcome.
Email marketing’s main job is to educate, entertain, and engage, and it is fuelled by your content. Look at your content marketing goals, whether they’re brand awareness, leads, sales, or web traffic; then make sure your email marketing is supporting those, and that you’re using it to exploit the full opportunity to generate leads.
2. Content pillars for your email
To guide the emails you produce, it’s imperative to establish clear content pillars that enhance your business’s strengths, values, capabilities, and perspective on the market. Every outlet you have, every platform that’s out there promoting your business needs to be saying something consistently, helping to strengthen your brand and ROI.
3. Consistency
Your email marketing needs to be consistent. You need to have something to say, every week, every month, and compete with other publishers in your niche. You need to be covering the important issues of the day and be seen as a credible publisher.
When our clients are embarking on email marketing, we go back to basics and ask what value can they bring to their audience that ensures nobody unsubscribes? How are you going to articulate their brand story?
Because without asking these critical questions, you can’t ensure the quality of content and frequency of promotion.
4. User journey
Imagine your email hits the nail of pain with one particular reader this week. They’ve clicked through, ended up on an appropriate landing page, and now they’re reading your thought leadership article… Where are they going now? Have you signposted the next steps to push them onto related articles? Or better yet, have you asked them to take action and engage in conversation either through email, zoom, or with a phone call?
5. Platform
When it comes to using which particular program, there isn’t a “one size fits all”, but having the ability to integrate with automation is essential. McKinsey has projected 800 million jobs being lost to technological automation by 2030.
Choosing the right platform comes down to the nuances of your brand as well as the needs and behaviours of your audience. Again, the higher value services or products you are selling, you will need a platform that has an inbuilt CRM.
The majority of our clients prefer Mailchimp as it is vanilla and easy to operate, but we are currently shifting towards Campaign Monitor, Active Campaign, and Get A Response.
Why? Because integration, aesthetics, responsiveness, and automation matter. Think Toyota vs Lexus. Big difference.
6. Frequency
As an overarching guide, it must be quality, regular, and consistent. We strongly recommend you start emailing organically, regularly, for at least a month before starting any paid promotions to build an email list as it establishes a bank of content for your audience to engage with. The majority of our clients with a stable loyal database email once a week with a combination of content which is educational and promotional.
7. The end game of email marketing that crushes it
Consistent and relevant emails that are published regularly can build momentum for your business and lift your profile as a credible publisher. This, in turn, strengthens your relationship with your audience and visitors to your website, with the ultimate end game being high-quality lead generation.
If you agree with me and you need a little bit of guidance, be sure to check out my Elite Email Marketing Course.
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