EMAIL CAMPAIGNS: WHY & HOW IT WORKS FOR YOU
We recently talked about the stepping stones needed to make an email marketing campaign happen. Now that you’ve had some time to play around with the idea, let’s get serious and talk a bit more extensively on implementing an email marketing campaign that serves you in more ways than one.
Email marketing: defined
An email marketing campaign is an email sent from a business to one or more customers or prospects. A successful email marketing campaign will get the recipients to take action, engage with your business, and help you to get more leads and sales. - optinmonster.com
Why Do it
One might wonder “why even bother?” Let’s talk about why.
Boost sales
Email campaigns are perfect opportunities to target a specific audience, as well as a specific sales goal. If you are looking to make extra income and fast, an email campaign offering a discount or bundled product can clear that path for you.
Engage new customers
If you’re able to acquire an email address from new customers, sending a follow-up ‘’thank you” email along with their receipt is a great way to engage and bond with new customers. Provide them with a special coupon code or set a discount to be used on their next purchase. You’ll create an environment of closeness that keeps the customer engaged.
Clear out old inventory
For our retail clients, the phrase “out with the old, in with the new” hangs out pretty consistently around the shop. They are always looking for ways to move out a few final inventory pieces before investing in the next season’s line of products. Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to work your email campaigns go. From flash sales to clearance campaigns, there are plenty of ways to get creative and clear out that inventory with a few clicks.
Support a cause you love
As we enter the 2020s, the buyer demographic continues to shift to a primarily Millennial/Gen X/Zoomer audience. With that comes the rise of the importance of brands meeting the triple bottom line. Meaning the ultimate goal is no longer a bottom line of making profits, but how you use those profits to make a lasting impact on your employees and the community in which you operate. Be a part of the conversation and choose to support nonprofits and related organizations in need with your dollars, starting with email-specific sales and discounts to support said organization of choice. This action speaks volumes about your company culture and ethics, while also maintaining the course for your sales.
How To Get It Done
Now that you have reasons to get started, let’s talk about how to get it done.
Pick a platform
Your platform is your greatest first investment in the campaign process. It’s where you’ll store email addresses, build your newsletters, and push out your content. Of course, we recommend using the Squarespace newsletter feature if your website is hosted on Squarespace. It is a one-stop-shop with easy-to-use features and templates that will help you build a perfect newsletter. If you’re hosted elsewhere, we recommend platforms like MailChimp, Constant Contact, or Active Campaign.
Establish a plan
It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operations - they are demanding and require your individual attention. In order to support your already busy schedule, plan at least one day a year to sit down with your marketing team, or marketing buff friends, and plot out the year. This includes holidays relevant to your audience, any giving campaigns, and special anniversaries like your store’s opening day or staff birthdays. This should be an easily accessible calendar that can be shared with your social media manager, which will help keep you and your campaigns on track.
Review, test, repeat.
It’s integral to the success of your campaigns that you test and retest your newsletters before releasing them to the public. This means clicking on links to make sure they work and take you to the right place, viewing the email from your phone or other smart devices and different browsers to make sure your intended design displays well and doesn’t create anything funky, like overlapping text or disappearing images. This will ensure that all of your customers, no matter their accessibility, are able to view and interact with your content. Recruit a few employees or friends with an eye for detail to be your third, fourth, and fifth pair of eyes on each and every newsletter prior to publishing. You’ll thank yourself later.
Execute it
The greatest step of all - executing the plan! Hold yourself and your team accountable by adhering to the plan you’ve worked hard to cultivate in the name of supporting your business. Once you’ve reviewed, tested, and retested your newsletter, pick the time of day you feel works best for your audience and release it for all to read. If your selected time didn’t produce much buzz, then keep trying at different times until you discover what sticks.
Your Go-To Tools
We’ve made some recommendations on tools you’ll need to get started, but we want to ensure you have these available for yourself as well prior to launch.
Freemium online applications like Canva allow users to create unique, engaging marketing images with Photoshop-like quality at affordable prices and with easy to use tools.
Lists, Lists, Lists (birthdays, new customers, fellow biz owners, customers who spend frequently, customers who haven’t spent in a while)
Lists are a campaigner’s best friend. These consist of email addresses categorized by priority or goal, accountholders on your website including their birth date information to send out birthday discounts, etc. This process will support your Segmentation Marketing, meaning using these newsletter campaigns to specifically target subsets of your customers in ways that are mutually beneficial.
Canva, or graphics editor
Having a way to develop creative designs and graphics to fill out your newsletters is important. If you are unfamiliar with programs like Photoshop, we highly recommend using freemium programs like Canva, PicMonkey, or Vectr. These programs will give you enough control and resources to create graphics that are eye-catching and deliver your calls to action effectively.
Canned Responses (follow up emails, customer support for angry spammers, etc.)
Finding the words and patience to say the same words to different customers throughout the day or week can be frustrating and taxing. Practice developing canned responses, or previously written responses meant to answer frequently asked questions. While an FAQ section of your website might answer several questions, having responses at the ready to respond to customers on social media or via email can help keep things on the right track from start to finish.
Planning for the Future
We have our tools, we have our plan, we’ve implemented, now let’s keep the conversation going.
Set Goals, short and long term
To operate as a goal-oriented business is to care for the future of your business. It’s important to set goals, both long and short term, in each department, including your campaigns. Without goals, it’s difficult to maintain drive and direction. These goals can be as specific as alerting customers of near-empty inventory, or as broad as raising awareness about your new lines as they release with each season. Your newsletters are meant to be strategic and profitable—make it happen with every step.
Use Your Calendar Wisely and Often
Your calendar is your guiding light. Plot any and all possible goals, dates, etc. to keep you and your team on target. It will keep planning meetings on course, your content consistent, and overall sustainable.
Revisit and Reassess often
Make sure you’re tracking your progress with each newsletter campaign. Take note of starting points and when you experience drops in engagement, and use that information to plan better for future implementations. In doing so, you’re innovating and growing with each day.
Executive Summary
We hope that our musings around email campaign marketing have helped steer you in a more informed direction than before. Email marketing, though time-consuming, has proven to our clients time and time again to be beneficial. Use this platform to engage with your customers day and night, in ways they can revisit. If you need help getting started, don’t hesitate to contact us.
