Carl Taylor

2 Comments

I Hate Newsletters - Email Marketing Tips for Small Business
The Email Newsletter Is Dead - You Need To Offer Value

 

With everyone getting too much email, is it time to give up on Email Marketing?

Ten years ago, if you had a form on your website that said “Subscribe to our newsletter” you were leading the way in online marketing for small business. But today if you have this same form it means you are straggling behind all the other small businesses who use direct email marketing as part of their online marketing strategy.

You see, no one ever subscribes to an email newsletter anymore, people get enough emails as it is – I know because hundreds of people have invested in my course Inbox Domination just to combat this exact problem.

Seriously, think about it… when was the last time you put your email address in on a website that said “Subscribe to our newsletter”

Does this mean Email as an Online Marketing Strategy is Dead?

Certainly not, Email is still a great online marketing strategy if you know how to use it. Email marketing has just evolved but too many businesses haven’t caught up with the changes yet. You see people don’t want more emails and special offers they want value, they want content.

I’m sure you’ve noticed the number of websites offering free e-books and special reports about “buying the right guinea pig” and “how to eat your way to a six pack with no exercise” are on the rise, this is because this is the type of enticement that your potential customers need in exchange for their name and email.

Your first sale online really should be in exchange for their Name and their email address – and nothing more.

This is because you want to build your database so you can follow them up and convert them to a sale later. Plus the size and the quality of your customer and prospect database is one of the key elements that make up the value of your business when it comes time to sell.

5 Email Marketing Tips for Small Business – How To Make Email Marketing Work

Step 1. Create your Money Magnet

Also called a Lead Magnet or Free Gift, this is your product of value (note I say value, it can’t be junk that has no substance) that you offer in exchange for an email address.

Many people write e-books, or special reports. Other people develop videos and free courses.

My suggestion is, as with all good marketing strategy, start by finding out what the most common question you are asked by your customers and find out if you can answer that in an interesting and valuable way.

For example, if you run a Personal Training Studio and you are commonly being asked “Do I have to change my diet as well or do we just exercise?”

You could create a 6 Part Free Video Series on “How to Lose Weight while Eating More” and you could cover specifically why you recommend eating more to activate the metabolism and recommend some great recipes and give some exercises your prospects can do at home.

This 6 Part Video Series would be an email sent to them every day or maybe every second day with the next video and the final video would include a call to action, so in this example it would probably be best to offer a free session in the gym.

You see what you’ve done here is shown that you are the expert, you know what you are talking about and have given then value that when you ask them to consider buying they feel they owe you something.

Step 2. Get a System to Send Emails On a Sequence

To be able to do this properly you need to automate it, and this mean you need whats known as an Autoresponder. I recommend SendPepper as the best system but there are others like the popular Aweber.

Both of these start from around $25 a month, its very affordable and they will let you set up a form on your website that your visitors can leave their name and email and it will then in exchange send them an email or a sequence of emails in an order and on a schedule.

I recommend a schedule along the lines of 4 emails of value for every one call to action or request to buy.

Follow a Sequence of Value Before Offer like…

Email #1: Your Money Magnet Delivery

Email #2: Link to a recent Interview you did

Email #3: Case Study or Success Story

Email #4: Powerful tip that really helps them

Email #5: Get a Free Consultation

Step 3. Put the Opt In Form On Your Website

Once you have your money magnet and your email delivery system in place, you need to make it easy for people to join your email list to “opt-in” as its called. The email systems like SendPepper and Aweber have Smart Form builders as part of the software that you can use and it will give you some code to put on your website, however there are some other cool tools that can dramatically increase the amount of people who actually subscribe to your email list.

Pop Up Domination is a tool I personally use to allow you to make a popup appear on the screen after a set period of time.

If you use wordpress for your website you can also get the free addin Opt In Domination to create a cool looking side bar opt in box.

Or if you want to create a dedicated website just for capturing names and email addresses, you can’t go past OptimizePress which lets you easily create what are known as Squeeze Pages that the designs look professional and have been tested for high conversions of visitors to opt ins.

Step 4. Promotion

Now you need to promote. If you have already got an email list, don’t just import them all into your new automated sequence. It will just annoy them, especially if they haven’t heard from you in a while. Instead send them an email suggesting they might like your Money Magnet (just don’t call it that) and send them to a page where they can put their name and email to get it.

Make your business card actually work for you and state on your business card that you have free stuff when you go to your website to get it.

Put updates on social media sites like Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, Google +. Send direct messages to some of your closest friends and ask if they can also promote it for you as well.

Step 5. Follow Up

Good email marketing needs to have good follow up. Meaning you need to stay in contact but don’t drown your customers and prospects with emails as they, just like I teach in my email management course Inbox Domination, will just unsubscribe and you’ll struggle to get them to join your database ever again.

Slow down the frequency of emails, aim to stay in contact about once a month and ensure you stick to the rule of 4 emails of value before you ask for something in return.

Has Email Marketing Worked For You?

Share your experiences below. If you have a cool tool you recommend or a success story around Email Marketing I’d love to hear about it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked

  1. Very interesting comment about the frequency of sending emails, I have always thought that better quality and less frequency was the better option. I have just written to 2 lists that I am on, about the excessive number of emails that they send out. One list I have received 138 emails from in 268 days, thats 3.6 emails per week and the other 53 emails over 191 days, about 2 per week. In both cases, I like the content, but just don’t get around to opening every one. So when it comes to culling the lists I am on, both will be a candidates.
    Ironicly, it was one of those that referred me to your site as an example of some great content. Maybe they should heed your advice not to overburden their lists with too many emails

    Regards,
    Mike.

    1. Hey Mike,

      Thanks for your comment, emailing can be tough, there are so many different opinions out there about how often to mail out to their email communities.

      Good for you and giving them feedback rather than just unsubscribing right away. They can’t change unless people tell them its too much 🙂

      — Carl

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}