If you’ve been sending out e-mails to your list, soliciting them over and over again and receiving little to no feedback, then you definitely need to rethink your communication strategy.
In fact, a RainToday study shows that:
– only 25% of new leads are sales-ready
– 25% are immediately disqualified
– the remaining 50% requires nurturing
Email marketing campaigns cost pennies on the dollar and have a faster return on investment. The problem is that for every great email sent out, there are at least another dozen appalling, boring, vague and uninspiring ones.
The best way to make email marketing work for you is through Lead Nurturing.
In a nutshell, lead nurturing:
– focuses on people, not emails
– builds relationships
– engages people in conversations
– costs 61% less / lead than traditional marketing
Lead nurturing means that you need to bring your audience into a “sales-ready” mode and turn them into repeat customers.
Never Be Afraid To Test
Statistics show that targeted emails have a higher open rate, which means you should send more emails to already tested groups, as these users are more receptive to your communications.
A/B testing allows you to analyze which of your email campaigns performs better. The key variables that should be tested are:
– Email Subject Line
– Calls-to-Action
– Frequency
Use Crowdbooster to discover when your audience is online so you can maximize exposure for your communications.
Split Test Checker calculates the statistical meaning of your split tests results. Download the tool and enter the number of impressions and actions for each variation and you will get the results.
How Much Is Too Much?
Does sending more emails make you a spammer? Or sending fewer emails cuts down potential profits?
The answer is it depends.
You want to create a healthy buzz, not a load of noise. If you send boring, untargeted content, then even one email is too much. The rule: The more often people are likely to buy from you, the more frequent you can email them.
For online shopping sites, your best customers are likely to visit several times a week, so daily updates are acceptable. But if you are selling expensive items that are purchased once or twice a year, it’s best to send out a monthly or quarterly newsletter.
Making your emails interesting is the best way to get your emails opened. This way, even if you do send more emails, people may open them because they know that you send them something valuable.
Another thing: be extremely upfront about how often you’re going to email your list and offer multiple subscription options (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) – you’ll have a much happier and engaged list of customers.
Bottom Line
Like any other marketing strategy, email can be used to educate, convince or sell. A regular flow of targeted emails will bring you a constant flow of orders or inquiries about your offers. Short blasts of information sent regularly will help keep your business in their minds, too.
Schedule your emails so they won’t get lost in people’s already jammed inboxes. Send them on the same time every week and your open rates will soar. If you want to make a quick sale, a more random schedule where you surprise people with special offers may prove to yield better results.
The takeaway is this: never forget that on the other side of the screen is another person waiting for you to solve their problem, alleviate their fears and show them that you care. Any other type of business is just not worth it.
