Using Email Marketing to Your Advantage
Email marketing is pretty tricky; after all, you want to send your clients and customers an appropriate amount of information and content, but if you overdo it, your meticulously-crafted messages could end up in the dreaded spam folder.
How you can make the most of your email marketing campaign to generate new leads, promote brand awareness, and hook new customers? One of the ways to solve this quandary is a drip campaign, a variety of automated email marketing that sends messages on a schedule that you can customize according to various behaviors.
It might seem like a lot of trouble, but it’s actually pretty simple. We’ll break it down for you…
Running a Successful Drip Campaign
The most successful email campaigns that utilize the drip method are those based on specific behaviors. For example, you should have a tailored email message for new subscribers, helpful emails to nurture leads, email reminders for people who need to renew a subscription, or just about any situation you can imagine.
By working with your web designer, marketer, or learning these techniques on your own, you’ll soon become a master at creating the right message for the right moment.
Why is it Worth the Time?
While email campaign management like this might seem like a big time and monetary investment, when used properly they can provide a huge increase in traffic and leads. Automating your emails takes time up front but after it is set up you will save time knowing emails are being sent out without you even clicking a button.
One of the most important benefits of this type of pre-written, scheduled email interactions is removing the need for you as the business owner to manually write and send individual emails. However, personal touches and updated information (such as the ability to personalize messages with the customer’s name or relevant information) elevates this form of email marketing a step above your standard “form letter”.
Email Marketing Tips
In addition to greeting emails and basic communications, you should consider using some form of drip email to target customers who might be interested in upgraded or premium memberships. You can also use these emails to contact customers who may have abandoned a shopping cart, or someone who seems to be on the verge of making a big purchase.
It’s easy to become a little “gung-ho” when it comes to this type of marketing. Remember:
don’t overdo it. You’re trying to generate leads and high quality traffic, not just “traffic for the sake of traffic”.
If you’re interested in finding out what some successful drip marketers have to say, there are many excellent resources that give more insight.
As trite as this might seem, you should really try to “think outside the box” when it comes to these emails. For example, if somebody has recently purchased a product, you could send them an email with recommendations of similar products, with the subject line “If You Love (the product they’ve purchased), You’ll Love (recommended product) Too”, or something along those lines.
Taking it Even Further…
Effective and successful drip marketing is based on providing a tailored piece of information precisely when a specific customer needs the information most. For a new subscriber, this could include a welcome email, then a series of follow-ups or surveys. However, for an established customer, this might mean satisfaction surveys, special offers, or discounts on premium services.
You should also measure the success of your drip campaigns, so you can start tweaking your techniques to find the strategy that will best serve your business and increase the effectiveness of your campaign.
Once you’ve perfected drip email marketing, you’ll have the satisfaction of an automated system, but the customization and personal touch of a personally-written message that fits your customer’s’ needs and yours. The real limit is that of your own creativity and outside-the-box thinking. Once you get started, you’ll be able to think of emails that you can send for different behaviors.
