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Why do I need an email marketing strategy?
Do you sometimes feel you might be winging it?
Perhaps you are working all hours to get your newsletters out the door but you are frustrated because so far, you’ve seen little-zero sales.
It’s very likely that you don't have a strategy in place.
Without a strategy, you are hoping for sales based on a wing and a prayer. It’s like expecting to get a job offer without an interview, while this does happen, it’s incredibly rare.
In order to achieve your goals, it’s important to have a strategy.
Here's a useful reminder from Forbes:
"A goal is a broad primary outcome.
A strategy is the approach you take to achieve a goal.
An objective is a measurable step you take to achieve a strategy.
A tactic is a tool you use in pursuing an objective associated with a strategy"
Why is this important?
Perhaps you don't have the right strategy for the goals you want to achieve? What this looks like is launching a membership and hoping your regular newsletter is enough to not only build awareness of your membership, create excitement and also generate sign-ups, leading to sales. Yes, your newsletter will play a role in building your membership but it's not enough, you need a well thought through strategy to support your goals.
Using an email marketing as a story-telling tool helps to build trust with your audience. Too much information crammed into one email is likely to be overwhelming for your audience and you could lose their interest.
So rather, use email marketing as stepping stones from the moment someone signs up all the way through to the action you would like your audience to take. This doesn’t happen in one or two emails but rather over a carefully thought out email sequence based on the actions your audience takes, with each email carefully building on the next - a clear strategy.
A strategy for your email marketing will, not only help you build trust, it will help you showcase how you can help solve your client’s problems without being salesy, if done correctly, this will lead to sales.
Email marketing has evolved
It's no longer as simple as sending the same email to all - the spray and pray strategy, that so many business owners do.
It's time to update your email marketing strategy.
Trends change quickly and what worked 12 months ago may not be successful today.
So be open to testing and when you understand what works, find ways to automate it.
Without a clear strategy, it will be difficult to achieve sustainable growth.
By implementing a clearly considered email marketing strategy, your customers will be more responsive and engaged, your campaign performance will improve and your business will continue grow. You also save yourself a lot of precious and money.
Have you got the right strategy in place for your business?
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Can Chat GPT be used to create your email marketing?
Well firstly what is Chat GPT?
Chat GPT is a new type of AI that can be used to create personalised content for email marketing. You may have heard of Chat Bots already, which is basically a digital assistant that offers you help or answers questions. Chat GPT takes this one step further by creating campaigns on your behalf; this could be a big savings in time & money when compared with sending out an email newsletter or other form of digital marketing campaign
How would you feel about creating your email marketing campaigns, with Chat GPT?
You can use Chat GPT to create your emails, which means you'll be able to:
Save time and money. You won't have to hire a writer or designer, since Chat GPT is designed for exactly this purpose. All of the tools you need are right there in one place!
Create better campaigns. Having a team of people working on your email marketing will help ensure that every campaign meets its goals and it will look nice while doing so too!
Create more personalised campaigns. With all that extra help available, there's no reason not to make sure each person gets something tailored specifically towards them (or at least as much as possible).
Create more targeted campaigns based on user behaviour or preferences rather than just guessing what might work best based on previous sales figures alone."
It can be trained to help you write your emails, curated newsletter content and even create the segments for you to send them to.
Chat GPT is a powerful tool that can be trained to help you write your emails, curated newsletter content and even create the segments for you to send them to.
It's like having an AI assistant who knows exactly what your subscribers want. And over time it will get better at understanding their preferences and writing more complex content with them in mind.
It'll even learn from past campaigns!
This could result in big savings for your business, in time & money
Time is money, and in this case it's also the other way around. Saving time can save you money and free up resources to do other things - like getting more sleep or eating healthier food. That's not just a good thing for your health; it's also great for productivity! If your staff are more rested and well-nourished, they'll be able to work more effectively and efficiently.
Chat GPT has been used in email marketing campaigns by many businesses around the world who want to increase their customer base without having to spend on hiring new staff members or buying expensive equipment like computers/laptops etc...
The Chat GPT AI would have access to all prior campaigns, past customer data and insights - then recommend the best segments and the content.
Chat GPT AI would have access to all prior campaigns, past customer data and insights - then recommend the best segments and the content.
The AI would be able to pull up data on what worked well for similar audiences in the past, giving you a better idea of what your audience wants to read about. It could also suggest certain topics based on what they've been talking about lately.
It will likely not be perfect in its first iteration, but it will get better each time it does it's job.
It's true that chatbots aren't new. They haven't been around long enough for us to know exactly how they will perform over time, but there are some things we can be sure of:
The AI will get better with each iteration. The more times a chatbot is used, the more data it has on its users' preferences and behaviors--and the more likely it is to learn from those preferences and behaviors. This means that as your company grows in size (or if you change your product offerings), your email marketing campaign can continue to adapt accordingly so that it continues reaching out effectively with relevant content at appropriate times in order to convert leads into customers or retain existing ones as loyal buyers.
It also means that if one type of message performs poorly with certain segments of people (e.g., women), then you have an opportunity here not just because these people are less likely than others who do respond positively but because this knowledge might lead somewhere else down line - maybe something about gender roles within society or even just general communication style differences between genders would help explain why this particular message didn't go over well with women; either way though both parties would benefit by learning something valuable together!
Chat GPT is a great new tool that can help you create better emails, faster. It's not perfect, but it will get better each time it does its job. The Chat GPT AI would have access to all prior campaigns, past customer data and insights - then recommend the best segments and the content. This could be a big savings in time & money for small businesses who don't have dedicated marketing staff on hand at all times.
It's certainly worth checking out. AI technology is rapidly expanding as an area and the possibilities of how it can help your business growth are far-reaching, not all of which we fully yet understand but it's exciting times!
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Does sending email marketing feels "icky"?
If you send the right mix of content and find the right tone of voice, it’s one of the most effective ways to keep in touch with your audience
Though often overlooked, email marketing is one of the most effective channels for reaching users who are either just beginning to consider purchasing your product or service, or who may be interested in your product or service.
By not sending email marketing, you miss out on a chance to serve your audience
Email Marketing is a fantastic way to connect with your audience and demonstrate how you can help them.
It's an important distinction to make; a subscriber is someone who has chosen to opt into your email marketing by providing their email address. They have given you permission to contact them about your services or products.
So rather than feeling icky or salesy, see email marketing as an opportunity to serve your audience, to help them solve a problem they have.
Remember why you started your business in the first place, I would imagine it is to help people solve a problem in their lives in some way so email marketing provides you with the perfect opportunity to help your audience.
It's like having an AI assistant who knows exactly what your subscribers want. And over time it will get better at understanding their preferences and writing more complex content with them in mind.
It'll even learn from past campaigns!
One of the reasons you may feel the ick is that you are sending too many salesy type emails, slow right down! There is no need to send promotional email after promotional email. Mix it up, share useful content that isn't all geared towards a purchase e.g. share content about your mission or a day in the life of your business or useful tips. Remember each customer is in a different stage of the buying journey so may need to get to know you a bit more first, ultimately the content you share is building brand awareness of your business, which will ultimately lead to sales.
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Remember, people have chosen to subscribe to your email marketing - they want to hear from you
Balance a mix of promotional emails with other types of content
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Why building an email list will help grow your business
No matter what your business is, you can't build an audience without first building an email list.
Email marketing is an essential part of any online business. The key to email marketing success is growing your email list so that you can reach more potential customers and help them take the next step in their journey towards making a purchase.
Gaining trust: Once someone subscribes to your email marketing, they’ll be more likely to buy from you because they know they’re getting information directly from you.
Getting people to take action: If someone is on your email list it means that you've captured their attention at some point (and hopefully given them value) so when it comes time for them to make a decision about something—like buying your products or services —you have a better chance at selling to them than if they weren't on the list at all.
In order to achieve your goals, it’s important to have a strategy.
An email list is a powerful tool for any business. It has the power to turn strangers into fans, turn fans into customers and turn customers into ambassadors. But if you don’t have an email list? You can’t harness its full potential.
People will subscribe because they want the information that's being offered--and once they've subscribed they'll be more likely to take action on whatever products or services were mentioned in the course/email series/newsletter!
So let’s talk about how you can grow your email list using these 10 powerful ways! Download my free guide to find out more.
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Your email list is a powerful tool for building an audience, gaining trust, and making sales.
Did you know that up to 65% of sales can come from repeat customers that are on your email list?*
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How often should I email my audience?
Are you wondering how frequently to email your audience?
I think we can agree that email marketing is a powerful tool to help you grow your business. However, there's a lot of debate about how often you should be sending emails to your email list. Should you send daily? Weekly? Monthly? Never?! This blog will clear up any confusion and give you some actionable tips for how often to send your next email campaign.
How often you should email your list depends on a few factors. The most important one is the size of your list, followed by the type of audience you have.
If you have a small list (less than 10,000 subscribers), then sending an email once per week or every fortnight works well. If you have a mid-sized list (around 50,000 subscribers) then sending twice per week would be fine. If you are a new business starting out for the first time, try sending 1 or 2 times a month and monitor your results. What does the data tell you?
The type of content you send also has a part to play in deciding how often to email your audience, more on this later.
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Too little and you risk your audience becoming disengaged with your business, too much and you risk increased unsubscribes. So what is the right frequency?
What's the right frequency?
The number of emails you send will depend on your specific audience.
The number of emails you send to your list will depend on the specific needs and interests of your audience.
For example, if they're more likely to open an email when it's "Tuesday Tips" day or when they get a coupon for 10% off their next purchase, then sending another email during any other time of the week would be pointless.
Groupon and Just Eat follow this approach however it becomes hard to break free from consistent promotion-led email marketing.
Similarly, finding out how often someone opens an email isn't enough information for you to make accurate predictions about how often you should send new ones. You also need data about whether or not that person engages with those emails (e.g., purchases from you or registers interest with you).
While all this might sound complicated at first glance, once you've collected all this data from your own campaigns, in your CRM platform, you'll be able to make better decisions about when exactly is best for each individual subscriber on your list!
How does my content make a difference to frequency?
Is your content engaging, relevant and timely? Are you an expert in your field looking to solve a problem for your ideal client or are you a product-based business who wants to share new product launches or seasonal offers?
If you are the kind of business that has new, fresh, engaging content AND your audience are engaging with your content then you could take your frequency up to 3 times per week.
This is based on what your data insights are telling you, I would expect to see high engagement from your existing email marketing campaigns before you decide to up your frequency. Keep your content fresh, create content that solves problems for your customers.
So, now you know! The answer to the question is: it depends on your audience, the type of business you have and how engaged your audience are. Either way, start off with low frequency e.g. 1 or 2 times per month and monitor your customer insights.
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What is email segmentation?
And why does my business need it?
* Are taking a spray and pray approach to your email marketing?
* Are you sending relevant content to your customer base?
* Have you asked your customers what they would like to hear more about from you?
Did you know that segmented campaigns account for 58% of all email ROI?
If you are not already segmenting your base you have a great opportunity to provide content that is relevant to the specific needs of your customer and provides a positive return on investment.
It's essentially categorisation of your email list based on set criteria, in other words it helps you be more relevant to your customer base. So for instance, if an email subscriber has purchased a dress from you in the past, sending menswear content to them is going to be of little or no interest.
Email segmentation enables you to be much more relevant to your customer base.
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First of all what is email segmentation?
Why is email segmentation important?
- You are more likely to see better email performance
- It's good for deliverability, getting into inboxes!
- You get to learn more about your customer base
- Segmentation increases your email marketing ROI
Here are a few ways you can segment your base:
1) Purchase history, what have they bought from you previously and what would be the next best product or service?
2) Engagement levels, how engaged are your audience, this can be a great way to segment your base
3) Location, you can send relevant content according to location
And there are many more ways to segment according to your business.
Are you struggling with how to segment your customer base?
Have you spent hours, days, weeks trying to figure out how to make more sales from your marketing emails?
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What is email automation?
It's simply an email campaign or sequence of campaigns that send pre-defined content to your email subscribers in an automated manner.
By automating your Email Marketing activity you can scale and have a much broader reach, giving you opportunities to increase your sales.
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Are you spending hours trying to figure out email marketing?
Wouldn't you rather be spending more time on what you do best?
Email automations can provide so many benefits to your business.
So what is email automation?
What are the benefits of email automation?
By getting automation set up for your business you can generate revenue while you sleep. Reaching customers anytime, anywhere. Think of automations as the store assistant to your website, who happens to work 24/7.
1) Time-saving
2) Generate revenue while you sleep
Did you know that 63% of companies using marketing automation outperformed competitors?*
3) Lead generation
By having automations set up on your website, you can collect data on prospective clients/customers who may be perusing and what to find out more but not yet ready to book a call with you.
4) Personalised content at scale
One of the big misconceptions about automations is that they aren't able to personalise content - this is completely untrue. Automation enables you to personalise content based on a customer's interaction with you, therefore offering truly personalised customer experiences that does not compromise on quality as you grow.
5) Customer retention and loyalty
Even if your audience aren't in the market right now, automations are a great way to keep them engaged and front of mind so that when they are ready to buy, they'll know to come back to you. You can create email sequences that focus on creating engagement and continuing to build a relationship that develops trust and loyalty.
How are you maximising automations for your business?
I create automated email sequences, personalised to every business and would be happy to chat through your goals.
Book a call and I will provide you with 1-2 top tips to share some ways you can generate more revenue from your email marketing without the effort.
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Email content ideas for service-based businesses
Here are some ideas to keep your content fresh and inspiring
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Are you a service-based business and looking for some content inspiration?
Email marketing is a powerful and effective way to drive traffic to your website.
1) Welcome email sequences
Video content is a fantastic way to showcase your service. Use short videos to educate your audience on what it is you offer and how others have benefitted from working with you. Create a short series of emails that you can send via your weekly or fortnightly newsletter.
2) Video content
3) Social proof
4) Limited-time offers
5) Create value through a blog
We love to social proof by hearing about other people's experiences before we buy. By sharing positive testimonials, you are building credibility around your brand. Email marketing is about building long lasting relationships and so by sharing testimonials you spark interest and curiosity for new prospective clients/customers to want to find out more!
Particularly if you are a new service-based business a blog is a useful way to share your knowledge, experience and experience. Remember that people need to know, like and trust you before they want to work with you. Think of 3-5 questions that you regularly get asked and create blog posts on these topics, then share via email marketing. Run out of ideas? Ask your audience what they would like to see more of through a poll. Blogs are a great way to keep your audience engaged.
Try any of these content ideas for your service-based business and see what resonates! The great thing about email marketing is you get to see results!
Need support bringing these ideas to life and guidance on how to implement?
How are you maximising automations for your business?
I create automated email sequences, personalised to every business and would be happy to chat through your goals.
Book a call and I will provide you with 1-2 top tips to share some ways you can generate more revenue from your email marketing without the effort.
As a service-based business time-limited offers are a great way to boost sales, particularly as they drive action through urgency. Time-limited offers could be for selected customer segments, making them feel special as they are exclusive in nature. Using email marketing to deliver these offers will keep your schedule full and a lot of repeat business comes from your existing clients/customers.
By creating a welcome sequence you can introduce your services over a series of emails, making it easier to digest. The welcome sequence is an important first impression and helps set the scene for what someone can expect by working with you. What's your story? Why did you set up your business, who are serving? If you already have a welcome email, it's not too late to create a full sequence for new clients/customers.
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Email content ideas for product-based businesses
Here are some ideas to keep your content fresh and inspiring
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Are you a product-based business and looking for some content inspiration?
Email marketing is a powerful and effective way to drive traffic to your website.
1) Behind the scenes
Providing exclusive early-bird access to a new product launch via email is a great way to build loyalty with your customers.
The launch raise awareness of your new product, create hype and to generate sales through pre-orders. Your customer base will feel rewarded and are more likely to repeat purchase in the future.
2) New product launches
3) Top 3-5 Best-sellers
4) Customer reviews
5) Share why you started your business
Sharing recent best-sellers to your customer base will help inspire them with their next purchase. My top tip for taking this one step further is to personalise based on what they last purchased to make the email content even more relevant. This depends on whether you know what your customer's interests/preferences are.
What inspired you to start your business? By sharing your story you can help build awareness and drive engagement to your brand. What is your vision for your business. We all have a story to tell, what's yours?
We tend to seek reassurance before we purchase a product or service. Customer reviews help us alleviate risk and provide reassurance. A round up of customers reviews via email can help show how you have helped others with your products and the benefit and impact your products have had. It's very powerful in attracting new customers.
What goes on behind the scenes in your business? Your customers are engaging with your brand and by sharing a 'day in the life' you are taking them on a journey with you. You could include the making of your product, your creative process or designs of new product ideas. Customers love seeing what goes on behind the scenes and this helps build an authentic way to connect with them and builds trust.
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Why your marketing emails aren't converting
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* Do you spend a lot of time on your email marketing but with little or no return?
* Have you a decent sized email-marketing list but it's generating minimal sales for your business?
* Are you getting little or no engagement from your email marketing?
The days of 'spray and pray' mass email sends are over. Sending content that is of no interest to your base will result in disengagement and even worse, an increase in unsubscribes. Segmenting your lists are crucial to help serve your customers with the most relevant, useful content for their needs.
Here are some reasons why your marketing emails are not converting:
1) You're not segmenting your lists
2) Your content mix isn't right
4) Poor calls to action (CTA's)
If you are sending only sales-type emails then think about how you can introduce engaging content that adds value into your send plan without the hard-sell. If you are sending lots of engagement emails then think about how you can introduce your services/products that can help solve your customer's pain points. The key is getting the balance right.
Calls to action (CTA's) are key to any marketing campaign. What action do you want your customer to take? Make sure your CTA's are prominent, clear and simple so that the customer understands how to buy from you.
Perhaps your content isn't engaging and you are failing to deliver something of value that sparks interest and curiosity with your customer base. On average we receive 120 emails* per day so your email needs to have some stand out. If you find it hard to craft the words, hire someone who can help you write killer copy that converts!
3) Your copy is dull
5) You aren't looking at your insights
The great thing about digital marketing is that everything we do has a footprint and can be tracked. Insights about your email marketing performance can tell you a lot about where you are going wrong for example, if you are failing to get people to open your emails try testing different types of copy, be brave and try something different and take a look at what is working and what isn't. Continue to test, test, test.
*Email Statistics report 2015-2019
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What's your Value Proposition and why do you need one?
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Your value proposition summarises why a customer would choose your product or service
This is a simple statement that summarises what you offer that is different and better than your competitors. It should be clear and concise and easy to understand.
Firstly, why is it important to have a value proposition?
What are your customer pain points?
What makes you different vs your competitors?
Is your proposition credible?
Define your Unique Selling Point (USP) what sets you apart from your competitors and gives you that edge? Perhaps you are in a highly competitive market, in what ways can you stand out? e.g. your brand is all about sustainability and this is demonstrated through the type of products you sell? It's worth taking a look at your competitors and observing what sets them apart.
How can you communicate your proposition in a credible way? This could be achieved by demonstrating why you are the expert in your area or sharing your experiences. Perhaps you experienced the same challenges as your customer so you have walked in their shoes.
Are your customers clear on your offering and are you clearly communicating the benefits of your product or service? When thinking about the benefits of your offering, think about how it will specifically solve your customers' pain points, how does it make your customer's life better? Be descriptive here, you want to make this as clear as possible.
Is your proposition clear and easy to understand?
Validate your proposition
Ask your customers about your proposition, are they clear on what you offer and how it can solve their pain points? Could it be clearer? Customer feedback is useful insight and can be gained through surveys, focus groups and via your website.
Your value proposition is important as it informs the customer of what your product or service is and why it is better than your competitors.
Here are some considerations to make in creating your value proposition:
Think about what need or problem you are solving for your customers and how your product or services helps solve their problem. Get really clear on what your customers wants, needs and fears are.
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How well do you know your customers?
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We often start out with an idea of who we think our customers are however often we can be surprised about who our customers really are.
Why is it important to know who my customers are?
2) What analytics platforms do you have currently set up?
3) Create a persona of your best customer
Start to build up a picture of who your best customer is e.g. She's between 25-35, lives in a city, has a family and shops frequently on Etsy
Don't worry if you don't have much to go on, the gaps can be filled in as you get to know your customer base.
Your email platform is a good starting point to see who is interacting with your email content.
What data insights can you obtain from your social media platforms? This type of data can help you understand demographics, how they are interacting with your content e.g. mobile vs desktop and what content they are engaging with
By having this information, we can see what is working and what isn't working. You might find that 70% of your paid marketing is consumed on mobile so try adapting more of your content to suit mobile.
1. What do you know so far?
4) Run a focus group
Running a small focus group, either virtually or in real life, is a great way to get to know your customers
It doesn't have to be expensive, you can use a product or service giveaway or a discount to incentivise your audience for a 1-2 hour session with you
Use that time to validate your assumptions
Getting to know who our customers are is beneficial for your business and your customers. By better understanding your customers wants and needs, we can best serve them with the right products &/or services, this is likely to lead to increased customer satisfaction and a better likelihood of them returning to repeat purchase.
When we start a business, we have some of our own preconceptions of who our customers are however it's important to validate these assumptions. This can be done in a number of ways.
Here are some top tips:
The reality is we may know very little beyond a list of email addresses. There are lots of ways to collect customer data for example what do your customer reviews say? What sort of feedback are you receiving about your products and services?
5) Listen to customer feedback
Implement simple customer feedback mechanics across social media and your website
This is a great way to get to know your customers.
Are you struggling with any of these in your business? Have you spent hours, days, weeks trying to figure out how to make more sales from your marketing emails?