Why on earth would I bother with email marketing? That is a very good question and one I get asked a lot. Who reads them anyway?
The first thing you need to determine is your goal with the process. The obvious answer is to drum up new sales…der! But how is it going to do that for you?
Cold calls, online searches and the value of familiarity
When we first started Prodocom, we had a sales team who did nothing but pick up the phone and try to get through to the right people. The overseas call centres have certainly made that job more than a little difficult. How many times has someone called you out of the blue and you’ve just hung up, because you know it’s “another sales call”?
With the internet, we can find information on what we’re looking for so easily. We don’t want that cold call. We don’t want someone telling us what we want. We know what we want, and if we don’t, we’ll look it up! So cold call sales teams are kind of a thing of the past. But you still need new clients to grow your business.
The internet! Ah ha, so there’s the answer. Well, yes and no. Clearly yes, as we all do “Google searches”. Of course, AI now makes that easier, or at least we get fed the information AI thinks we want. So why did I also say no?
Because if there’s more than one company in your space, how do people decide it’s you? How do you decide? We all like to feel comfortable with our decisions, and nothing is more comfortable than something familiar. If you’re given a choice of options and they all look similar, chances are you’ll go with the one you know. This is why companies spend millions on advertising. They want you to be familiar with their brand, so when the time comes to choose in their space, you choose them.
So this is where email marketing comes into play. Is it the only piece of the jigsaw puzzle? Absolutely not. But it does play an important part in that familiarity, and if used correctly, it puts you front of mind when a prospective client needs a service or product like yours. Used alongside a website that works for you, social media marketing and search optimisation, you’re far better placed to get that sales call coming in.
As for how often you should send them? There’s no magic number, and Libby has covered how often you should send marketing emails in her own article.
Not every email has to make a sale
Not every email is trying to do the same job. There are three broad types of email marketing, authority, warm sell and cold sell, and I’ve broken down how each one works in the three types of email marketing.
The idea behind our regular articles is to share what we have learned and make sure that, when someone needs something in the communications space, they think Prodocom. See what I’m doing there… think Prodocom, think Prodocom! I’m not throwing a special offer at you. It’s about building familiarity over time.
The key to a successful email marketing campaign is first to get the emails delivered into an inbox, then to get them read. To get them read you need to be relevant and of some interest. If you expect a sale out of every email you send, then you are kidding yourself. If you are looking to keep yourself front of mind and grow your audience, who will turn to you when they need you, then you might just have cottoned on to why we share useful information regularly.
And if people aren’t replying, that isn’t necessarily a bad sign either. I’ve written about what to do when people don’t respond to your marketing emails.
It is worth thinking about the difference between an email that sells today and an email that makes a sale more likely six months from now. A customer might not need a new communications provider this week. But when their current setup starts causing headaches, who are they going to remember? The business that has been useful and familiar, or the one they have never heard of?
Of course, none of this means sending anything to anyone and calling it brand building. You still need an audience that has agreed to hear from you where the law requires it, a clear reason for writing and a way for people to opt out. Familiarity is helpful. Becoming an unwanted regular visitor to somebody’s inbox is not.
Prospective clients are looking for what you provide but may not yet be familiar with your business. Why bother with email marketing? Because your competitors may be becoming more familiar to your prospective and existing clients.