An email list of people interested in your organisation is one of the strongest assets you will ever hold in your marketing toolkit. A collection of individuals who have expressly chosen to have regular information from you delivered straight into their inbox is golden for your brand.
We’ve told you before about MailChimp, our preferred email provider and explained why you should and how you can start sending emails from MailChimp.
But what to put in those emails?
Once you’re set up and ready to go, here are 7 key things that you should be (and probably aren’t yet) doing in your email campaigns:
- Add social sharing buttons near the top of your emails to show subscribers where else they can find you.
- Use the MailChimp buttons widget to make clear calls to action.
- Send emails regularly to stay fresh in subscribers’ mind. You will always find something interesting to share (more on that below).
- Add your logo to the top of the email and make it a link to your website.
- Use images with links to encourage people to click on an item they love the look of.
- Keep your emails short and snappy. You’ll be surprised how little of your email will be read.
- Test out different times to send your emails. Your client / customer base will be different to everyone else’s. There is no magical best time to send a campaign so try a few different times and days to see which give you the best results.
Your emails are the best ways of getting a punter’s attention. People will interact with your organisation in different ways online but will rarely know about all the stuff you might assume they do.
If they are buying your products, do they know about the blog you write? If they’re following you on Instagram, how will they know about the competition you are running on Facebook? When you are tied up day-to-day in the marketing of your organisation, it’s easy to assume that people are seeing all your messages and are aware of all the latest happenings in your organisation.
Let us assure you, they’re not.
Your followers might be too busy to see everything, social media algorithms might keep your posts from newsfeeds, plus they’re being bombarded with dozens of other messages at the same time. It’s noisy out there and it might take a few interactions and reminders for your fans to take the action that you would like them to take.
An email campaign is the most powerful way of getting your messages across, giving you access to the inboxes of people who have expressed an interest in what you are doing. Rather than disappearing from their newsfeed over time, an email will stay sat in their inbox for them to stumble upon time and time again until they choose to delete it. So don’t make the mistake of assuming they know about everything you are doing just because you have posted it online.
All good marketers tell people their news by email, you should too:
- Tell them about new products you have recently launched
- Invite them to events you will be attending
- Get them involved in your charity initiatives and campaigns
- Share your recent blog posts
- Direct them to competitions you are running on social media
- Introduce them to partners and collaborators
- Advise them of any changes to your terms and conditions
- Remind them of important dates, such as last Christmas shipping dates, closes for staff training, monthly maintenance dates, etc.
- Announce when you have joined a new social media platform, a new governing body, or have a new sales channel.
And just watch your online traffic grow!
