Join the club. Aren't we all busy?
One of the coolest things about emails marketing tools today is that you can connect and engage with your audience over a period of months without ever clicking send.
First off – get a plan. That is the hardest thing you have to do. Really! How often should I reach out to my audience? What do I say? What can I offer? Will they get annoyed from hearing from too much? Should I have one master list, or break them down into sub-lists? Should I collect address info?
These are some of the things you really need to think about before you launch your campaign. As far as frequency, it all depends on your business and who your audience is. Is the content you will be sending timely? If so, maybe more often makes sense. But if it is not, good and valuable content maybe once a week, or every other is sufficient. I believe less than that might not be good idea because the fact is, we get many emails if I only hear from you once a month or less, I might forget about who you are and that is not the goal here.
So we have our plan in place, next is the start the start by mapping out a communication strategy.
Let's say you have a retail establishment, a restaurant (or plug in your business here). What is the goal we are targeting for our campaign? You want to get people to come in for all your great food and ambiance. Here are the steps you need to make this happen?
Build a list by having your staff ask if the guests would like to join and get something off the dinner they are enjoying right now (yes, we customers are selfish so give them a reason you join). Think of it as an investment in your business, not just a giveaway. Always think of your customers from a Lifetime perspective, as opposed to the one-off sale. If you are able to bring them back month after month, would that discount today matter down the road?
But now what? You say, “Sending something out every week or two sounds great, but the reality is that I get busy, don't really have time, can't always think of enticing offers, sometimes I'm just not that motivated with all the other day-to-day distractions I'm always faced with.”
At least your honest. Too often we create these marketing campaigns only to let them fizzle out because of other needs in our daily business lives. Remember the distractions you are faced with everyday, are also bombarding your customers, so a steady plan to keep your message in front of them is the goal and key to long term success.
The Tip to beat those distractions: Auto-Responders or Auto-Followup Sequence.
If you use an email marketing tool like Aweber, you can sit down and map out a series of emails that will do out to your list every time someone new joins.
Let's say you put together a series of 12 email offers. don't just offer discount like a free appetizer, a BOGO (buy-one-get-one), or a Wednesday special…Yes those can be incorporated maybe as an after thought, but what you really want to do is engage with your customers. Maybe ask them what they like or suggestions on improvements. Tell them your story, why you are in business and what you hope to accomplish. What about that great staffer they should get to know. We have great stories around us everyday, if we can provide value to our audience and really connect, we can always offer a discount at the end. Then you can set them up to launches every week or two. Now you have a process where you are communicating with your audience for 3 or 6 months without ever having to create a new one each week. This is called batching.
The beauty is you can always do that for that special event, sports game night, or holiday.
The opportunities are endless, so get started today!
Lets' review:
1. Map of 12 emails you can send out to your new subscribers
2. Build the emails in a tool that will let you schedule them
3. Set them to launch in a strategic manner so you are connecting weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, however it makes sense for your business.
4. Start the process of building your list with an offer to get them to engage. A special, an industry white paper, something that has value for them and will show you are a leader in your industry.
5. Before the 12 emails run out, set aside time to take those subscribers in a different campaign, so you can connect with the for another series of content.
6. TRA – Track, Revise, and Adjust. It's a never ending process.
Marketing is never simple and it's always time consuming, but it has never been easier to use technology to help you stay in touch. So use them.
If you have any questions, let's connect and talk about it.
