Email marketing works for any business, even an offline business like a hairdressing salon – as long as it’s done correctly! In a nutshell, email marketing is a time based, proven ‘tool’ for ultimately generating profits. This is achieved through building a positive relationship with your customers over time.
In email marketing, content is key. A professional looking email with banners and dynamic content is more likely to get read than something that was generated with a simple web mail program. Many email marketing programs include mechanisms which allow you to include autoresponders so you can include surveys and other tools which will guarantee a high response rate. Surveys are a good marketing tool and can help you learn about your customer’s needs and opinions on your products, your marketing message and even what your competitor has to offer. Integrating surveys into your email is a smart way for you to gauge the response rate and collect valuable demographic information on the customers to whom you have sent out the email. Survey responses can help you craft follow-up emails and help you plan future email marketing efforts. They can also help close the deal by asking questions that are designed to make the customer want to buy the product or service that you are offering.
Trust is critical in email marketing. If your prospect Customer, who opt-in and become your ‘subscribers’, believe in you, they will respond positively to your product offers, provided you are selling something of value and not trash! Most marketers agree that a prospect must receive a pitch on average 7 times before they actually respond.
Did you know that whether your business is offline or online, 60% of your sales will come from your existing customer base – this is a fact! So the greatest value in marketing is that of repeat customers. You can market different products to your email ‘subscribers’ over a period of time. However, this will only work if you’re able to identify your ‘target market’s’ problems and create products or services with their answers and solutions. Failing to do this, will result in unhappy subscribers and a cold list of unresponsive subscribers.
Building a relationship with your list takes time, effort and maintenance involving regularly providing information that your subscribers are likely to want. This is the cardinal rule of marketing – the ‘I want’ factor, not what I need!
Tip: Even though it’s not a good idea to ‘sell’ too soon in your campaign, there’s no harm in subliminally promoting your product in your signature at the end of each email by inserting a link back to your pitch page that answers or solves the problem!
Here are 14 ideas for email promotions:
- Announce weekly “specials”
- Host “Customer Only” events
- Send appointment reminders
- Follow-up with your hottest leads eg word-of-mouth referrals
- Offer electronic “loyalty coupons”
- Send follow-up offers
- Develop relationships by offering free information eg newsletters, reports, downloads, trial versions of software
- Encourage referrals eg send to a friend
- Deliver your product electronically
- Sell your knowledge
- Promote an ‘educational’ course
- Survey your subscribers or customers
- Offer a bonus
- Give away free tips, reviews, reports or audio recording