Email marketing does not have to be as complex as some people make out. Yes, some rules apply to who you can email, how you can email, and what you are allowed to send. However, those rules are quite easy to follow if you are legitimately collecting email addresses.
Collecting emails addresses for qualifying customers is a simple matter of adding the right areas to your website that allow people to sign up to an email newsletter. Another tactic is to get people to sign up for a free account which will require them to provide their email. Once the interested party has agreed to the terms and conditions, you have a fully qualified lead that you can legally send emails to.
The first obstacle you need to overcome is getting the traffic to your website or wherever it is people can sign up to your newsletter. Once you have traffic and the opportunity to sign up has been made available, your next obstacle is to pursued people to hand over their email address.
There are tons of strategies out there that can help you achieve this, and once your email list gets going, this is when the advantages of email marketing start to kick into action.
Here they are:
1. Get That First Sale
Getting the first sale out of a customer that has signed up to your newsletter but has never made an order is far easier than trying to capture a site visitor. You may see that your ‘unique visitors’ to your website is just 40% meaning that 60% are returning, yet out of that 60% only half show positive acquisitions that have turned into sales. The only way to get those people’s attention is a promo which you would have to offer to everyone visiting your website.
On the other hand, if you have an email address for someone that has signed up to your newsletter or signed up for an account, then you have a qualified lead. This person must be interested in your services in one way or another, so you now have the chance to persuade them to try your services.
What you can do is this. Single out all email from people that have not purchased from you. Start to send them ‘first’ time buyer promotions. These email deals will not be public promotions, but promos only sent via an email especially created for a group of people whose emails or accounts do not show up as having made a purchase.
20% first-time buyer discounts, free delivery, buy one get one, or any other deal that you can offer can be sent to these email addresses to try and get them to make the first purchase.
2. Repeat Sales
One of the main reasons email marketing is so useful is because you can always foster repeat sales if you are selling a product or service that can be repeatably used, upgraded, or if you have a wide range of products.
Here are several tactics you can use to encourage repeat sales:
· Create Awareness: Send a weekly or monthly email of all new products/services
· Promo Deals: Make people aware of discount offers available right now
· Educate: Send educational emails explaining how certain products solve problems and how the product is useful
· Comparisons: Make product comparisons. For example, a gadget website can compare how their gadgets are better than alternatives
· Seasonal: The email can contain products useful for the particular time of year
There are so many ways to come up with at least 3 or 4 emails per month to keep your customers aware that your brand is still there waiting to serve them.
You can also use a similar approach to number 1 above to ‘Get That First Sale’. For people that only purchased once or for those that have not purchased in a while, you can also group them and send out a special promo not available on the website. The idea is to get this group of people to continue purchasing from your eComm site again.
Secret Pages
A successful tactic used by many businesses that use email marketing is to not only mention promo deals on the email but also give this group of people a special ‘secret promo page’.
Create the secret page for the different groups you are targeting. It does not have to index so you can set it to ‘no-index’ as it will likely be an orphaned page anyway with no links from pages on the website to these custom-made promotions.
Enter the URL for further reading into the promo email sent out and the result should be that you not only get these people to visit the page, but it could pique their curiosity into looking at the main website and browsing through other products while they are.