Email isn't dead. It's simply evolving. Not only do 73% of millennials prefer to receive communication from a business via email, but it's also still the top tactic for generating leads, beating out social media. If you've neglected to tend to your email marketing efforts, it could be hurting your business. Whether you want to build your brand, promote a new product or service, or drive some last-minute holiday sales, email marketing serves as a powerful tool to boost your business. Here are 10 ways to up your email marketing game without breaking the bank.
Not sure where to start? Ask yourself the "why," and reverse engineer your efforts from there. For instance, if you want to get more clients for your services or recently started offering logo design, what kind of email marketing campaign could help drive sales? Check out the fundamentals of creating a kickass campaign (and much more) in our new Learn from Fiverr email marketing course.
Without a proper strategy, you may feel like a chicken running around with its head cut off. Figure out the proper email sequence, as well as when you'd like to send out emails before a launch or special event. Tonya Rapley, founder of My Fab Finance – who has an email subscriber base of 25,000 –implemented email campaigns to promote workshops, speaking engagements, and, more recently, the launch of her book The Money Manual: A Practical Money Guide to Help You Succeed on Your Financial Journey. Rapley and her team devised an email campaign to reach out to her audience before, during, and after her book launch. The interesting part? Her emails helped her book reach Amazon Best Seller status within 48 hours.
You can't measure ROI if you don't have a clear objective. Make sure you have a crystal-clear goal for each individual email. Ask yourself what the point is of *each* email you send. Is the third email providing something that the first and second didn't? If you were on the receiving end, how likely would you open and read it? If the answer is no, then it's time to go back to the drawing board. You don't want to risk unsubscribes by spamming potential customers. Let's say you are planning an email sequence made up of three messages. The first one in the sequence can be a heads-up to let people know about an upcoming webinar you're putting together, the second can encourage subscribers to RSVP, and the third can be to thank them for their support.
How you say it is almost as important as what you say. When you're trying to create a company, it's crucial that you communicate with your potential customers using your brand voice Are you an e-commerce company with a socially conscious bent? Or a chatbot creator targeting companies in healthcare and tech? One does not sound like their other. Make sure the overall tone of your emails fits with the brand persona you want to create, or you risk losing your target audience. Unclear on how to say what you mean? Hire a Fiverr Pro email copywriter to find the right—or should we say write—words for your message.
We've all received those clunky emails that resemble the aesthetics of Yahoo! GeoCities from the '90s. Put some thought into making sure the branding of your emails matches that of your freelancing business. When Rapley was starting her email campaign efforts, she hired a graphic designer to create an email header that shared the same color palette, font, and imagery as her website and social media platforms. When in doubt, ask a Fiverr Pro branding expert to define your brand persona.
Which metrics are the most important to track for email marketing campaigns? You'll want to check for engagement, open rates, and click-throughs. These will help you gauge the type of content your audience best responds to and will give you metrics to guide your interaction. "While you won't get it right the first time, you can use those metrics to help tweak things and see what kind of content resonates with your audience," says Rapley, who, after trial and error, settled on an easy-to-digest newsletter. Master metrics in the Learn from Fiverr Google Analytics course.
Depending on the goal of your emails, you may want to send different emails to different audiences within your base of subscribers. After all, there's a risk involved in bombarding recipients with a litany of emails that don't pertain to them. For instance, you can segment your emails so they include subscribers based on location, age, or industry. Prefer to leave it to the professionals? Work with a Fiverr Pro email marketing specialist to do some audience analysis.
The best time to deliver emails depends on a host of different factors, such as your location, industry, and the end goals of your efforts. So you'll need to do a bit of testing to figure out when the open and click-through rates are highest for each type of email. Put your email to the (A/B) test by sending it out at different times, with different subject lines, and with different images. Let the results inform you about when certain audiences will open what kind of emails.
Efforts at growing and maintaining an email marketing list could become an expense or an investment, depending on how you use it, explains Rapley. "It's all about how effective you are in communicating with your audience, and how comfortable you are asking for the sale or directing them to ways that they can support you." Bottom line: It's about how the email can deliver value, both to your subscribers and your freelancing business.
The sooner you start, the better. Otherwise, you may be missing out on a key opportunity to deliver value to your audience. Rapley regrets not focusing on email marketing efforts until two years into her business. And when she did, she didn't have a clue on where to start, she laughs. So don't be afraid use your emails as a communication tool to reach out to your existing subscribers and see what they'd want from you. Email marketing can be an impactful tool to help your business thrive – knowing how to make the most of it is a worthwhile investment. So what are you waiting for? Get started with an email marketing campaign, today. What's one thing you can do today to boost your email marketing game? Sound off in the comments below!
