If you’re using social media today as part of your marketing plan, that’s great! Here’s a thought: if that platform goes down today, where does all that data you’ve collected go? All that engagement you’ve worked so hard to get just went poof! What is one audience that you’re guaranteed to keep if a platform goes down? Your email audience. This is why email marketing is so important.
Technically, when you use social media to gather leads, that data is not yours. However, when a lead signs up for your email newsletter, that data is yours. You now have exclusive permission to contact them to sell your product or service. Email marketing is a great way to build trust with your audience. You now have the power to drop important information right into their inbox. They don’t have to go looking for your organization’s updates anymore; it’s sent straight to them! Email marketing is where you can share all of your content, encourage people to visit your website, and announce new opportunities.
Here’s how you can start your email marketing today:
- 1. Pick your platform
These are my recommendations for platforms that all have a free option to save you some money. Of course, if you want more high-tech options, they all provide pricing to fit your budget.
- Sendinblue (sendinblue.com)
- Mailchimp (mailchimp.com)
- Benchmark (benchmarkemail.com)
- OmniSend (omnisend.com)
- Sender (sender.net)
- MailerLite (mailerlite.com)
I personally use Mailchimp for my email marketing and love it for the easy-to-use automations. Sign up for my newsletter here. You can’t go wrong with any of these platforms too!
2. Build your newsletter template
Start with the obvious parts of a newsletter: a banner at the top with a link to your homepage, a greeting, the body content you want to tell your audience, and one big call to action at the bottom. Customize your newsletter with your brand’s colors and logo.
3. Set up your automations
The first automation you should set up is a welcome email that gets sent to a new subscriber! Take that opportunity to say hello and thank them. You can then link to your website and encourage them to take an action. Keep it short, sweet, and to the point!
The next thing you should automate is a drip campaign:
“A drip campaign is a method used in direct marketing to acquire customers through lead nurture programs. It involves sending marketing information to prospects repeatedly over longer periods of time in order to nurture prospects or leads through the marketing funnel.” –Skyword
This is where you can direct subscribers to your website, sales pages, tell them about your organization, etc. These can be scheduled to send out automatically after a person signs up over a period of time.
4. Build your list
Start collecting emails through lead pages and linking to your subscribe page on social media. Ask for people to subscribe! I made free resources for organizations to download, but first, they have to submit an email address which subscribes them to my newsletter automatically.
Make sure that you’re obtaining them through GDPR Standards to ensure everyone’s privacy. Whatever email platform you chose, that platform will store all those emails for you and keep track of your analytics.
For more help on starting your email marketing, you can schedule a FREE consultation here.