Email Marketing is my favorite marketing channel for growing a business quickly and effortlessly. Unfortunately, far too many small business owners let their Email Marketing slip by the wayside while they get lost in a sea of “to do lists” and other low priority tasks. If that’s the case for you, here are some quick tips for breathing new life back into your Email Marketing today…
How To Overcome Your Email Marketing Fears
First, let’s address something very important: are you AFRAID of Email Marketing? Let me put that another way — does sending out Email Marketing messages send chills down your spine? Do you go hiding in the corner praying that nobody hits the “unsubscribe” button immediately after sending out your latest Email Marketing campaign?
If so, let’s get something straight right now: You are in business to make money. Period. End of story. Full stop.
If “marketing” in any form gives you the heebie-jeebies, you need therapy and you need it fast. In all seriousness, you simply cannot succeed at business if you have an aversion to marketing. Marketing is the life-blood of your business, and you should respect it as such.
Sure, some people definitely WILL hit the “spam” button and/or the “unsubscribe” button. That’s just numbers, and there’s no avoiding it. But don’t take it personally. People should be coming and going from your list all the time. So, straighten up and get clear about this very important point before you move on.
How To Revive An Old, Stale List
The most common problem with Email Marketing I see is people let their list go “cold.” In other words, you don’t send an email to your contacts for 3 months or longer. Personally, I would describe a “cold list” as one that hasn’t received some form of email communication from your business within 45 days. There’s simply no reason to wait longer than that for even the least engaged prospects on your list.
The best way to solve this problem is to send out an email. Stop procrastinating and put something together — anything will do! The longer you wait, the harder it will be to reach your prospects and the colder your list will become.
How To Clean & Prune Your List
It’s also important to keep your list clean. When people unsubscribe, remove them (if your system doesn’t do so automatically). When people stop responding, engaging, or opening your emails, you should have a way of tracking that behavior and slowly moving people OFF your list to keep it nice and clean and filled with active contacts. At the very least, you should have separate marketing channels based on the level of engagement each prospect currently has.
I use Infusionsoft for this type of Email Marketing list segmentation, and I love it.
How To Make Your Future Email Marketing Consistent
Finally, you need to make a schedule for all of the Email Marketing messages you’ll be sending out to your list. The key to list engagement is to be consistent and regular. Create a sense of expectation in your subscribers by sending emails around the same days & times.
It’s really not hard to breathe new life into your Email Marketing. But first you need to snap out of your procrastination and get to work!
What other ideas do you have for Email Marketing? Please leave your comment below.
