Connect with Leads: How to do Email Marketing

Published on March 11, 2020
3 min read
Sales
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3 min read
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The first e-mail was sent around the 1970s. The E-mail was invented to expedite the communication process and get a word around without being bound to physical limitations. Before e-mail was invented, the flow of information was very slow and sluggish. Messages took time to be delivered and they can be costly too! Messages were very limited due to the physical constraints of paper and ink, and technology like fax, charge customers per letter.

Fast forward 50 years, e-mail is now being used as a platform for promoting products and services. It is widely used by people all over the world and is also largely contributory to the success of thousands of businesses worldwide. It gave birth to new sales and marketing techniques and has made it possible for consumers worldwide to be notified of new products and services and promotional materials as well.

This article will focus on guiding you on connecting with potential customers (otherwise known as leads) through the power of e-mail. This process of establishing long-term, profitable relationships with customers through e-mail is called e-mail marketing. And there are tools available to make it easier for you to implement your e-mail marketing plan.

So let’s break down the concepts first.

What is e-mail marketing?

E-mail marketing is the art and science of sending curated content to target readers for the purpose of establishing profitable relationships with these readers over time. This content can be crafted for brand awareness, lead generation, or even sales generation.

E-mail marketing is as simple as sending a curated email with the goal of having the recipient open the email and buy something from you. Email marketing keeps your potential and existing customers engaged––new products, promotional activities, and other things from your business to encourage purchase behavior.

Notice those spammy messages you are getting that often include “X amount % discount on X item?” Most of them are designed to entice the buyer to click on the message, check what product is on sale, and get the product delivered to them as soon as possible. Most companies can only achieve this if they can successfully convince buyers that now is the time to get this product or you will save a huge amount of money if you buy this product now. 

The greatest challenge to those behind the launch of an e-mail marketing campaign is standing out from potentially hundreds of e-mails that a target reader is getting every day. 

How do you craft an enticing subject line? 

How do you design the e-mail that makes the reader read more? 

What should be your Call to Action (CTA) so that the reader will do what you want them to do? 

These are only a few of the hundreds of really important questions and challenges that e-mail marketers have to answer and address. So how should you launch your e-mail marketing campaign? What are some of the strategies that you should follow to increase the chances of its success? 

Connect with your leads: How to launch your e-mail marketing campaign

1. SUBJECT LINE: Craft an irresistible subject line and preview text for your target market

Ever read a subject line so punchy you just had to click on it and see what the email is about? The art of creating irresistible subject lines and preview texts requires a lot of creativity – and careful assessment to check whether something is working or not.

Companies like BuzzFeed, for example, take this to heart. By writing excellent subject lines, your target readers have a higher chance of opening your email and actually reading it. This leads to higher chances of sales conversion happening, thus growing your business.

Examples of good subject lines:

Free *insert item* Alert!

*Don’t Open This E-mail!*

Hot Freebie Alert! Giveaways You Can Get This Week!

This is the Best *Insert Subject* You’ll Ever See

2.BUYER PERSONA: Segment your customers according to criteria

Just like the real world, not all customers are the same. Your target customers have varying degrees of interaction with you and they have varying preferences as well. 

Some customers would love to open an email of yours if it’s about discounts. Others may not fall for the same trap but would love to check new items that they might need. These differences are difficult to identify and monitor. And often you will need a tool for this. 

Some CRM programs are designed to track and monitor customer behavior when it comes to emails. Getting data and information regarding your potential and existing customers using CRM tools can help you craft a better marketing strategy. It becomes more responsive to real-world behavior and becomes more measurable as a result. Speaking of tools…

3. TOOLS: Use CRM tools that make it easy for you to do e-mail marketing

Customer Relationship Management or CRM is an approach to managing potential and existing customer relationships with the goal of improving customer retention and boosting sales. 

CRM software often have multiple tools that give you greater flexibility to perform the tasks needed to satisfy your customer requirements. As a centralized platform, the software can allow syncing of mobile phones, calendars, in-app reporting tools, and other tools needed for customer interaction.

This interconnection removes duplicate data and allows real-time updating of data, making data entry accurate, secure, and convenient for you. And when you got all of these tools synced together, it allows you to send the right message to your customers at the right time – creating a timely response to each of your customer’s interactions with your system.

Knowing what to do with the right tools allows you to adjust and adapt to changing customer preferences. It also allows you to keep your e-mail marketing campaign updated and working. If you launch the appropriate action towards the right customer, it only increases the chances of sales conversion happening which helps your business in the long run. Only a good, working CRM can show you real-time data about your customers so make sure to find this feature in your CRM.

4. MAKE IT EXCITING: Include Interactive Content in Your E-mail

Capturing the attention of your recipient within the first eight seconds is crucial. With the exposure to millions of information every day, it comes as no surprise that the average customer attention span only lasts until 8 seconds.

To get your recipients’ attention and ensure it will last, make your content interactive. Include Infographics, videos, surveys, polls, quizzes, calculators, and images so you can sustain your readers’ attention until they reach your CTA button.

Interactive content can break the monotone that is usually associated with e-mails. When your newsletter gives a breath of fresh air, it will surely stand out in your recipient’s inbox and may even encourage your target reader to open your e-mails in the future.

Conclusion

So that is how you connect with your leads through e-mail marketing. Remember that not all leads are the same, so you have to know who you are dealing with, who you want to deal with, how to deal with them in the easiest and most accurate way possible, and how to keep them engaged so your sales will skyrocket in no time.

March 18, 2020