Let’s face it people hate emails in their inbox, so why is it that emails are still so powerful and we can’t seem to ignore them. I’ll tell you it’s personal! However, before you suck at email marketing you might want to read through the following. So you can refresh on the styles of emails you need to consider for your next marketing campaign and make sure you have clear email objective in place.
Now, I’ll be honest. I’m not the most consistence user of email marketing anymore. Yes, I should do better. As there really is no excuse now there are so many affordable tools to help manage your email marketing for your business. Though I’m a major fan of email if done right.
I guess email marketing really took a place on the backbench when Social media starting nudging it off the table. This doesn’t mean its invaluable. In fact, if done right it can have more effect then social media in driving direct traffic to your website. This is because the Social media gods will do it what it takes to keep your users on their channel. Whereas email marketing you can easily direct the reader back to your website with little resistance – unless you get stuck in the spam box (more on that in another post)
How can you use email marketing to help put your website in the centre of your marketing efforts?
Firstly, let’s take a look at the type of emails there are and the way you can use them. We like to think there are three key types of emails you can be used with your small business. Standard newsletter style, transactional emails and profiling based emails.
Standard newsletter-style for email marketing
These are the emails which tend to get sent on frequency base (daily, weekly, monthly). These emails are often put in the general bucket and can be used to provide value to your readers help with solving a problem or sharing service or product you have to fix the problem. What they should not be is an email about Jenny in Accounts had a baby this week.
How would we use a standard email? Funny you ask! As of the next coming weeks, we will be setting a frequency of 10-day emails. We are will be sharing the content we have created throughout the site, though will be only sharing relevant material that helps solve or answer our clients and customers questions when it comes to getting better performance from your website in relation to your their business needs. All the information we share will lead readers back the website to learn more if is of interest. The intention is to provide value and remind our customers of the great content we are producing to help them get the most out their website after we have built the site.
Transactional or Triggered emails
The transactional style of email is often used for now based emails, ie thank you emails, confirmation emails, etc. Emails which are triggered by some type of action. They certainly have a place in your business, and if used wisely can be used to drive traffic to your website and increase sales or enquiries.
How would we use a transactional email? Let’s say I had a thank you email for purchasing or signing up to something. On the email, I send I would have a time-sensitive promotion or offer which leads people to a hidden page on my website to learn more about the offer. This way we using the functionality of the email to get more value out of the email.
Behavioural and Profiling emails
Stalking emails! I’m not going to stalk you via email. What the behavioural email is, is often an email sequence emails that are based on profiling or ways you have read or clicked on things on website or email. Simply they are the if this then that style of communication. Sometimes they can be very complex, but they are actually pretty easy to set up these days thanks to the email management programs. What they allow you to do is target your customers and readers based on things they like types of products or services they are using in your business. Done right they can be very powerful and rewarding. Another way to think about these emails is like a road system your in the CBD of Sydney but there are three ways to get to our office in Mona Vale, each provides a different experience. However a couple of the routes you can swap and move to the other routes if you are interested in seeing something else. The destination is the same for all routes but the journey is different. Basically you can create the same type of sequences with your email campaigns.
How would we use a behavioural email? Let’s say I owned a Yoga Studio, you could have email sequence set up which provides helpful information for those beginning Yoga, with the email you may have information about certain exercises for different areas of the body, this information is available on your website. If the reader views the area about best stretched for backs, you could tag and place the visitor into another email sequence which deals with back stretching, then you could offer them to join you in one of your special classes for back stretches.
81% of Small Businesses rely on Email for Customer Aquistions according to Emarsy 2019
Whats you email strategy
Now before you start just sending emails to your customers and users. You should create a plan and set some objectives around your emails. Below are some helpful questions which you ask yourself when planning your email strategy.
- What is the overall objective of the emails?
- What is the value for our readers and customers?
- What is the value and goals for our business is doing these emails?
- How are we going to report and measure the success of the emails?
- What role does our website have with the emails?
- How can we use the website to leverage our email campaigns?
- What are the frequencies of the email?
- Who is going to be responsible for managing the emails and content?
- Do we have allocated time to manage the emails?
- What role will the email play with other marketing channels (social media, advertising etc)
Flashy HTML email or keep it simple.
When it comes to the style of the email this really is a matter of choice and what represents your brand and business. Sometimes just simple text-based email is just as good as a crafted HTML email with colour. What you can do very easily with your emails is to test them to work out what gets the best response by having A/B testing set up.
What would we use? – Personally I like to use simple style HTML email which looks good on all devices and inboxes. I would and often test my email campaigns from subject lines to the format to work out what works, what doesn’t. Remember the goal is to try and ensure you are always improving the numbers of open rates and click-through rates (CTR) to your website.
Still confused
If you need help or guidance or not sure how your website can help build leads and drive enquiries for your business. Book a free session with us to discuss leave your details below and we will get in contact.
