Nowadays, it’s very rare to find a company that does not use email marketing. The majority use platforms like Dotmailer, Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor, however, have you ever questioned whether you’re using the right tactics to maximise your return on investment?
Email marketing isn’t complicated, but many companies get it so wrong. If you get it right though, you’re bound to reap the rewards. VB Insight recently published a report that found that 80% of marketing automation users saw their number of leads increase, and 77% saw an improvement to conversions.
It’s a common tendency for companies to forget about who they’re emailing as part of their campaign. Generic, uninteresting, half-soaked emails are no different to a large red escape button for customers and prospects – it can turn them away instantly. If you get it right though, you will have established a strong relationship from the start which puts you in a great position to nurture, convert and delight your customers.
Depending on your business, there are a few different models to explore to engage your customers and prospects, get them to convert, delight them and get them to become brand advocates:
1. The Welcome Email Campaign
When customers subscribe to services nowadays, they expect some acknowledgement. More and more companies are ensuring that the customer receives a welcome/thank you email for subscribing to their service, but is this enough? Don’t just meet a customer’s expectations; exceed them with a series of welcome emails, but ensure the content is relevant. Don’t just send emails for the sake of it – it will cost you a fortune and the only thing you’ll get in return is a high level of unsubscribes.
You should consider the following emails:
- Thank the user for subscribing/signing up to your service. Reiterate to them what they’ve signed up for as this will help manage their expectations and reassure them that they haven’t signed up to anything dodgy. If you’ve captured their name, personalise this email – make the user feel special and excited for the journey they’re going to take with your company.
- Your unique selling points (USPs) – let the prospect/customer know what makes your company stand out from the competitors – reassure them that they’ve made the right decision to subscribe to your services and no one else’s.
- Setting the scene – what is the subscriber going to receive? Instead of just bombarding your prospect/customer with a load of emails, let them know what they can expect, get them excited for the next email they’re going to receive. By hooking them in, you should expect higher open rates and greater engagement.
- Incentives – encourage the user to engage with you again, perhaps with a discount off their next purchase or agreement of service. Give them a reason to come back.
2. The Reminder Email Campaign
Do you sell something that expires? Or even some kind of subscription, whether that be a hosting package for a website or motor insurance. By creating a reminder campaign, you could considerably cut down all the internal admin that goes into chasing customers. Utilise your CRM and your email platform to automatically trigger personalised emails to your customers to remind them when something’s due.
We all skim through emails now and then and sometimes delete the ones we want to see the most, so set up a series of emails, reminding your customer of the deadline they need to meet before their product/service expires. You could even ask your customers if they’re thinking about renewing with you or not. That way, you can forecast returning sales and have time to work on your customers who are considering moving elsewhere – be proactive.
3. The Event Email Campaign
If you’re a company that’s running events and you’re not using email marketing automation, you’ve been missing out – as well as creating so much additional work for yourself and your team. The best events have the greatest planning, and it should be the same with your event email campaigns. The difference is, you’ll be taking some of the stress away by scheduling in advance the pre and post event emails. It’s worth considering the following emails:
- A thank you email to those who have registered to attend your event. This will start off the automation so it’s worth mentioning what the delegate can expect to receive in the coming days/weeks.
- Event details email – here you can recap to the delegate the crucial information like venue details, time of arrival, what to expect. You could even put an ‘add to calendar’ button on this email so the delegate can transfer this information into their calendar to reduce the number of ‘no shows’ to your event.
- Follow up emails – thank your delegates for attending your event and gauge some feedback so you can keep on improving your events. The better the event, the more the delegates will shout about it. It’s also worth considering an event recap email. From past experience, delegates always ask for a copy of the presentation. Instead of waiting for the request, be proactive and schedule an email that allows the delegate to download the resources they require. A happy customer is usually a returning customer.
4. The Re-engagement Campaign
Ever wanted to re-engage with old customers or contacts in your database but not sure how?
A re-engagement campaign could be the perfect solution. The key is in the content, including the subject line. You need to stand out from your competitors so think carefully about the words you’re going to use. It’s worth undertaking some research first to see what’s going to make your unengaged contacts curious again – tease them, make them feel wanted and see your volume of engagement grow.
5. The Feedback Campaign
Companies spend so long in chasing a sale but forget to ask for feedback. For a company to evolve and grow, it’s crucial to listen to your customers. After a purchase has been made, a service has been undertaken or an event has occurred, trigger a feedback email. Find out what your customers liked and what you can improve.
Let’s be honest, not many people enjoy nor make the time to provide feedback unless they’re extremely satisfied or completely dissatisfied with your product or service. You need to create an incentive. By offering something that will resonate with your customers, you should expect to see more customers participating in your surveys, creating valuable insight for driving your company forward.
You might be reading this thinking, “well, that sounds pretty straight forward”. If so, give it a go and see how you can increase your return on investment. Remember though, different businesses will require different tactics. It’s not a ‘one size fits all’ strategy with email marketing.
If you’re still not convinced though, get in touch and we’ll show you how you and your business can benefit from email marketing automation!