Free Marketing Tips
Getting Started with Email Marketing
Email is a proven marketing channel for small businesses and online retailers. For good reason: it’s easy to implement, inexpensive to run, and has a HUGE ROI (according to the DMA, email returns $44.25 for every $1 spent!). You know this and are eager to achieve a similar ROI for your business.
What you want to know is: Where do I begin? How do I get started with email marketing? What are the best practices for email marketing that I need to follow?
If "crafting an email marketing strategy" sounds too intimidating to touch, you’re not alone. But remember, email works because it’s personal and relevant. Let that guide you as you build a plan around four simple questions.
Who Is Your Audience?
You have visions of email marketing success in your head. But whom do you envision reading your messages?
If you don’t have a current email list, consider who you want to attract. How do you envision using email marketing to grow leads and build your business? You’re starting fresh—that’s a great position.
If you do have a current subscriber list, who are these subscribers, and how did they opt-in? Are they past customers? Or are they new leads who provided an email in exchange for a downloadable resource or contest entry?
If your email subscribers match up with real customers, start by uploading your current prospect or email list to SL360™ to better understand your audience. To get started, all you need are the names and addresses of your prospects. This will allow you to craft more targeted messaging.
For example, the Portrait Reports within SL360™ are designed to analyze hundreds of different variables and elements, giving you the demographics and psychographics of your target audience while appending new data. This provides a whole new understanding of the consumers you’re trying to reach!
Below are some of the reports small businesses have at their disposal:
Look-A-Like Report:
This report considers approximately 20 important demographic elements, including age, gender, race, education, income, marital status, family size, presence of children, and home ownership.
Enhanced Look-Alike Report:
Building on the traditional Look-Alike report, this report also shows the sectors in which you have a strong or weak market presence, applying more than 170 demographic and interest elements.
Personicx Portrait Report:
This report uses SL360™’s 21 Personicx groups and 70 Personicx clusters to break your audience into identifiable segments, putting names like Rural Parents, Thrifty, and Active to behavior patterns.
Data Portrait Analysis:
This workbook provides a detailed view to help you learn about the demographic and lifestyle elements that best contrast, define, and describe your customers.
By identifying who your audience members are, you also identify their motivations for subscribing and the type of messages that will keep them engaged.
What Content Types Will You Use?
Once you’ve identified your audience, how will you use email marketing to engage them? You’ll want to send emails about new offers and content that inspires past customers to return. But what else can you send?
Types of content may include:
Customer success stories
Press mentions
Event recaps
New product information
Product hacks (fun ways to use old products better)
Content published on your blog
"How To" articles
Branded videos
Trend reports
Founder/employee profiles
Deals, discounts, promotions!
The opportunities for content types are endless, but don’t pick just one! Keep your subscribers interested by rotating content types during your email cycle. Maybe it’s a video every month or a trend report every quarter. Give them something to look forward to and something fresh to read.
How Often Will Emails Go Out?
You know "who" and "what," but how about "when"?
There’s no perfect frequency for email marketing. Instead, you’ll want to test what works best for your audience and focus on providing value. You may find you can comfortably share a weekly Friday message to send subscribers into the weekend with hot deals. Or, you may find the opposite is accurate, and opt to send a monthly email that touches on industry news or presents your promotions for the next month. Or, you may still fall somewhere in between.
That’s okay!
Generally, aim to send something at least once per month to maintain top-of-mind awareness. Strive to be the always-helpful, always-informative friend in their inbox. Be the email they can’t wait to read.
What Is Your Voice?
Is your brand happy or serious?
Are you conservative or do you live on the edge?
Do customers find you warm and personable, or authoritative and reserved?
Just like people, businesses have distinct voices and personalities. These elements help brands to become recognizable and familiar to customers. Think of your favorite song. How many notes do you need before you can identify it? Not many, right? Close your eyes and imagine your grandmother’s apple pie. Can you smell it?
This "emotional DNA" is essential to your brand and should be maintained through all customer touchpoints. You can’t expect to write a quirky email newsletter if your website is super corporate and straight-laced. You’ll send mixed messages to your audience and fragment your brand persona in their mind.
We understand that getting started in email marketing can sound intimidating. However, by following email marketing best practices – understanding your audience, your messaging, your frequency and your voice – you’ll begin building the framework for email marketing success.
Contact us at 800-399-8611 or learn more at USADATA Omni-Channel Digital Marketing.
