Email marketing is still one of the most effective forms of digital marketing, even though it has some negative public perception. Most people who are in this business think that email marketing has been overdone and that now everything happens on social networks. People think that emails are sent only by some old-fashioned organisations that have not yet learned to use social networks.
However, in practice, a huge number of successful and modern businesses today rely primarily on email marketing. There are people who earn millions of dollars every year, who earn their dollars just through email marketing.
Example
For a complete understanding of these principles we will take an example, which you can apply to any offline business. Imagine that your product is a bowl of fruit.
Suppose now that we have a list of email addresses of people who sign up on your website because they are interested in the fruit. For example, 10,000 people.
What is the most common mistake that people make? Simply start sending emails with contents such as:
“NEW! TOP Bowl of fruit! ORDER NOW! SALE! DISCOUNTS! ACTION! ”
What Happens Next?
The competition will then begin to send similar emails to them. “OUR bowl of fruit is the best. SALE, SALE, DISCOUNT, seize the opportunity!!”
After a very short time, people will see both the emails from you and from your competition as the boring spam.
People generally do not like vendors and messages that are selling something. If you think it is enough that you write a “discount” you are in the wrong. The problem still remains – you are constantly looking for people to buy something from you, but they perceive it as boring, blatant and repulsive.
If you go this way, your email marketing story will end. Most people will quickly sign off to your mailing list or put your message in spam.
In the long term, your brand will become perceived extremely negatively. Wherever people hear your company’s name they will say, “Alas, there are those boring people!”
How to Do Email Marketing Properly?
Now, let’s see how to do it like experienced Internet marketing professionals.
Let us go from a list of people who have signed up to your mailing list because they are interested in the product. Now, instead of bothering them to buy your bowl, you should send them an email containing the following:
“We reveal a fantastic recipe for apple pie with very few calories – ready in just 20 minutes! This pie is a hit on the Internet among fruit fans. Look at this video link how to make this pie – we recorded just for you, the members of our list. ”
In the mail there is not a mention of any sale, or your product – you should pretend as if it does not exist.
Now, some people will click on the link in the email and they will see a fantastic tutorial to make the pie.
At the end of this recipe, you should mention the bowl of fruit. But even after all of this, it doesn’t need to act like a commercial. It now needs to act more as a natural and logical sequence of events. For example: “This apple pie is fantastic, but otherwise, you can make it faster and tastier if you use our bowl of fruit.”
Once you get people interested in your emails, you can hope to interest them in your product as well.
Building Authority of the Brand
This approach is excellent for several reasons. First and foremost, people perceive you positively. Pay attention: What do people see, the ones who have never in life clicked on one of your emails? They see a bunch of emails in which you send helpful tips, and not in one of these emails are you calling for something to buy. In this way you position yourself as an authority and brand in your area. “Hey, there’s that guy who sent a recipe for apple pie last week, it’s totally cool.” Will someone unsubscribe from your mailing list? Hardly.
How people perceive you in this case? If we introduce a scale from 1 to 10, and if 1 is extremely negative, 5 neutral and 10 extremely positive, people should perceive you as 7. The aim of this approach to email marketing is that people always stay at number 7, or higher.
The Difference in This Kind of Approach
The difference is this: in this approach, the likelihood that someone will buy something from you increases by time. In another approach, “spamming people and asking them to buy the product” it is just the opposite.
But not only that – when you position yourself as a brand in its field, you can sell much more than the initial product, because you gain their trust. Once you sell bowl of fruit, you can sell them juice or blender for fruit or many other relevant things.
Which Software to Use?
For dealing with email marketing, today is mainly used web-based software. Some of the most famous are MailChimp, AWeber, Get Response, and others. When choosing the service provider, avoid any suspiciously cheap, because it is likely that a large part of emails sent with those programs will end up in the spam folder.
The email newsletter providers such as MailChimp actually price their reputation. Gmail and other providers will rarely put in the spam folder an email that is sent via MailChimp.
This would shortly be the most important things to understand about email marketing. And now, go to work!
September 13, 2023
