"No one reads emails anymore. "
"It takes too much time."
"It sucks."
"I love lamp."
These are some typical responses we get when we talk to business owners about their email marketing. While it may be true that fewer people are reading emails now than 10 years ago, every business NEEDS to be building an email list and NURTURING it like a newborn puppy. Relying on Social Media to be the conduit for communicating with you customers is a bad idea, because Facebook can and has cutoff access for businesses it dislikes and left those companies scrambling to continue operating. Check out our PSA on email marketing
If your business doesn’t have an email list yet, here is what you need to do:
SIGNUP FOR MAILCHIMP
Are there other more robust CRM programs out there? YES! But we put 90% of our clients onto mailchimp because it has the most simple interface, has enough reporting to be effective and it’s FREE up to 2,000 contacts. Bulk marketing customers will also benefit from high deliverability and cost effective pricing. So just sign up for an account and get started.
START COLLECTING EMAIL ADDRESSES
If you already have customer email addresses, import them into your mailchimp account to start building your list. You can also download your contacts from your phone or email program and upload them to mailchimp to make sure you don’t miss any potential leads. CAUTION: This may get awkward when your Grandmother gets emails from your “adult toy” company, so make sure to screen the contacts before sending your first message.
CREATE AN AUTORESPONDER SERIES
Once you add a new contact into your list, they need to receive a welcome email right away. This way they don’t forget about you and you look like you have your crap together. Your email series should have at least 3 emails sent to a new subscriber within the first week to give the impression that you are working hard and not scrolling on Instagram all day long. Make sure these emails are well written, not too long, and filled with the sweet, sweet nectar of good content.
KEEP EMAILING THEM
Now that your list is growing, you MUST continue to feed it new content every week. If you are so delicate that your feelings will be hurt when someone unsubscribes, get over it. People will choose to get off your email list, that is partly your fault for writing lame emails, but mostly because the people you are emailing don’t understand the genius of (insert your name here) and how your message will change their life! Don’t take it personally.
WRITE GOOD STUFF
Finally, make sure your emails are good. If they have interesting subject lines, are well executed and relevant to your audience, they will get read and cause conversions (that’s the industry term for making money). Writing good content takes time and experience, and as you can tell from this blog, we are fully loaded with both.
JUST PAY US
If that all sounds like a lot of work (it is) just pay us to do it. Our FULL PATRIOT digital marketing plan includes weekly blog posts and email marketing. We will be more than happy to take your dollars, turn them into words, that then make you even more dollars (see included diagram)
