Master the Basics of Email Marketing and Launch Winning Campaigns

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Let’s take a look at the subject of email marketing. There are a few essential terms worth defining at the start. Once you understand the basics, you’ll be in a position to start your first email marketing campaign. Marketing specialists hold this type in the highest regards. Email is a quick way to find conversions and to boost your current sales channels.

Lead magnet

You need to have a way to entice people to give up their email address. The most common way is to use a “lead magnet.” This keepsake is a giveaway (or bribe) that relates to the company’s primary product line. For example, a company that sells mortgage loans could give away a free informational report on getting a great deal. Or they could provide an incentive on a specific product.

Once a subscriber opts in, the company knows they have a marketing asset. The person has an interest in their product. At this point, they’ll add the customer to an Autoresponder to send timed messages.

Autoresponder – A series of timed messages make up an Autoresponder. These messages go out when you schedule them. Using this tool in your email marketing as a convenient way to follow up with prospects and warm them up.

Newsletter

Newsletters contain information about your organization’s products and services. They are similar in format to the old school offline newsletters of decades past. They’re a solid way to keep in touch with customers. When you have a new product or service to announce, building it into your email marketing is easy. Links to specific landing pages help clients take action.

Maintaining is a decent amount of work, but it’s worth the effort. You’ll find yours is a reliable source of conversions, especially when you make announcements. You can build subscriptions online and off. Many organizations use incentives to get people to subscribe. If you have walk-in traffic, a banner could tell them to sign up. What matters most is that you continually attempt to induce people to receive further updates. If you don’t, you lose out the most powerful tactic available to digital marketers.

Email Service Provider (ESP)

This entity is the actual specialist provider that helps you send the email in your email marketing campaign. MailChimp, Aweber, GetResponse, Constant Contact and many others allow businesses to maintain email lists. They handle the heavy lifting that goes into successful deliverability. The software from ESPs is simple to use. You’ll be able to dig in and create beautiful autoresponders and newsletters that get results. The interface also handles all of the scheduling and marketing automation. Detailed reports are available that show every aspect of your email marketing campaigns.

Managing your email marketing campaigns at an ESP is straightforward. Take the steps necessary to quantify key marketing metrics. Take corrective action to improve deliverability, open rates, and click-throughs. Even tiny changes have enormous consequences. Track all your changes until you get a good feel for how things work. Managing your list is time-consuming, but it’s also the best source of sales you can find.

Triggers

You get to specify whatever email triggers you want. They are a series of automation rules that have marketing outcomes. You may set a particular trigger when a visitor visits a web page. Perhaps you’ll send them a link to a free, downloadable PDF. You may send a discount coupon to someone who abandons a cart.

The basic idea is that you automatically message someone based on their actions. Marketers find this feature to be compelling because it allows them to send an email when it has the most impact!

Sequences

These emails serve a different purpose. They are a series of emails sent in increments to subscribers. On day one the marketer will probably introduce herself and cover basics. On day three she may unveil an exclusive offer. On day seven she may offer a discount. Marketers construct the series in a way to increase sales every step of the way. There are various schools of thoughts on the best way to proceed, but it’s up to you. You know your clients better than anyone else. Structure your series in a way that gets people who are on the fence to opt in.

It takes a bit of effort to get an email marketing series right. You can follow existing suggestions, but you’ll still need to tweak it yourself. Like most things in marketing, it takes a lot of testing to gain reliable results.

Email List

At its core, your email list is merely a database of the email addresses you collect. You’ll need to maintain your list to keep it fresh and deliverable. Most ESPs suggest that you have your subscribers double opt-in. The reason they do this is to ensure the email is legit. Any list that has lots of bad addresses on it suffers from poor deliverability. If the people on your list aren’t responsive, you also have a problem. If your open rates are very low, most mail providers will automatically mark your messages as spam. If this happens too much, you’ll end up in the Bulk, Promotional, or Spam folders. That means your prospects will rarely see your messages!

Avoid all of this by pruning the people who don’t open after a certain number of mailings. They’re just not that into you so letting them go should be no problem! Lists with no hard or soft bounces that you clean often will have open rates higher than the industry average. Many marketers aren’t ruthless enough about cutting the uninterested. They think that more is better, even though the opposite is true in email marketing.

Email marketing is not as easy as most people think. If you decide on hiring a third party, there are many freelancers or digital marketing agencies that can do the work. The choice is yours and is simply a matter of what will get you the most bang for the buck. If you decide to do it yourself, start with the basics and work your way up. You’ll get the hang of sending winning email campaigns soon enough.

Reaping the Rewards of Winning Email Campaigns

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Email campaigns and email marketing in general have long been the workhorse of digital efforts. Sure, other methods may seem more exciting, but emails create conversions. In fact, a robust program is crucial to reaching out to people at the perfect moment.

Reach People at the Right Times with the Best Message

There are two primary types of email marketing that most organizations use. Newsletters are periodic updates about a range of subjects and products. Autoresponders are custom-crafted email series, which warm up prospects until they’re ready to buy. Both tactics are effective and are in use by millions of enterprises daily. If you’re building a digital marketing strategy, incorporating email funnels from your first day is a smart move!

Close More Sales with Well-Crafted, Timed Messages

Email is useful anytime a prospect is close to becoming a customer. Many people who visit your website won’t remember to come back. That’s why it’s worth enticing them to subscribe by offering some gift. Depending on the nature of your site, it could be a coupon or an informational brochure. What matters most is that you remain in contact with your prospect. Those who are not ready to buy can receive messages in a “drip” fashion that will answer their questions and objections.

In fact, the entire basis of marketing automation relies on this ability to send targeted messages when needed. Think of an abandoned cart reminder email to understand why this tactic works. A customer who was interrupted while making a purchase has a convenient link sent to them. That triggers their memory, and they complete the order. The same concept works for other industries too. Converting the people who are on the fence is a quick way to increase sales and raise your conversion rates instantly.

Experience Impressive ROI with Winning Email Campaigns

Year after year email marketing tops the charts for ROI. Even better news is that people are not abandoning email because of using mobile. In fact, mobile email usage continues to grow. Marketers who use responsive designs in their email continue to thrive. There’s no indication that this revered form of marketing will slow down anytime soon. That’s why developing your winning email marketing program is essential to your success.

The success of your program relies on several factors, including:

  • Adherence to relevant technical details.
  • Crafting messages that your subscribers want.
  • Using compelling call-to-action links to induce the proper response.
  • Well-written copy that answers questions and makes sales.

Monitor and Tweak Your Email Campaigns to Achieve the Best Results

If that sounds like a lot of work, keep in mind that’s just the beginning. You’ll also need to track and monitor your results to make adjustments when necessary. Like many other elements of marketing, tweaking your email campaigns is the most crucial piece of the puzzle. It’s easy to analyze data using most email list management programs. Once you get a knack for the type of content that gets opened, you’ll have no problem extending your program. Never forget that you’re attempting to convince and persuade people to do business with your organization. Once you give them a reason to buy, they’ll become long-term clients.

Decide on Doing It Yourself or Delegating

If you feel that you don’t have the time to do a fantastic job of your email marketing, you can outsource it. Digital marketing agencies, or freelancers, can handle every aspect of your email campaigns for you. There’s no right or wrong answer on whether to do the work yourself or not. If you have more time than money, a DIY approach may be possible. If you have more money than time, choose to hire professionals instead. Anytime you work on a project yourself, keep track of the time spent. You may cost yourself more money than you’d pay to someone else.

Professionals also have the training and tools to get the job done. Factor in how much it would cost to learn how to use and purchase the tools you need for the job.

There Are Lots of Steps to Configure Successful Email Campaigns

You’ll need to setup and configure direct emails, transactional emails, and triggers to complete your sales funnel. Each type of message will have a different set of requirements. That’s where experience comes into play. Email marketers who have been emailing for years begin to get a knack for what works and what’s not useful.

It’s important that your project manager understands how to use various email marketing tools. They’ll also need to learn current best practices for list building. Perhaps most importantly, they have to know advanced strategies that are up to date! Experts will be able to improve your opt-in rates quickly, while also maximizing both your open and click through rates! While they do this, they will also have to pay strict attention to technical details to keep your deliverability as high as possible.

Implementing This Strategy Is One Detail You Have to Get Right

Sure, all of this will require massive effort! That’s why you either have to devote your own time to doing it or hire a team to handle it all for you. You cannot simply skip building an email marketing program if you plan on succeeding with digital marketing. In a sense, it’s the glue that holds all of your efforts together. No matter what you sell, from small items to high-end big-ticket products or services, you benefit from sending emails. Your customers are busy people. They will forget all about you if you let them. Timely reminders can help jar their memories and push them back towards your organization. Failing to do that is like allowing them all to find new vendors. They aren’t mad at you; they simply haven’t thought about you in a long time.

There are lots of details to make your digital marketing work. Implementing a winning strategy for your email marketing is at the top of the list.

What You Need to Know About Digital Marketing

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Digital marketing offers businesses of all sizes the opportunity to advertise their products and services on the Internet. While the two words ‘digital marketing’ may seem relatively simple and straightforward, digital marketing campaigns are made up of multiple different marketing tactics to engage potential customers on their preferred platform.

A successful digital marketing campaign is effective at reaching your target market and increasing sales and conversions across the board.

Your Website

Before launching a Digital Marketing campaign, it’s important to note that your site serves as the ‘hub’ for all of your other marketing activities.

For this reason, you’ll want to be sure that you offer your site visitors a pleasant user experience when they browse your site. These days, more people access the Internet using mobile devices such as Smartphones and Tablet computers, so it’s critical that business owners offer these visitors a mobile-friendly version–commonly referred to as a “Responsive Design” that automatically formats to accommodate their screen size. By doing so, you’re making your site easier to navigate for an improved user experience.

In addition to being mobile-friendly, optimizing your site to meet other technical requirements such as faster response time, secure browsing sessions, E-mail Opt-In Forms, and E-Commerce integrations helps you derive more value and success from the investment you’ve made in your site.

Stay in Touch with E-mail Marketing Campaigns

E-mail marketing is a cost-effective way for companies to market to individuals who have signed up for their e-Mail list online or in person. E-mail marketing gives business owners the opportunity to connect with clients and potential customers directly in their E-mail inboxes. E-mail marketing isn’t’ reserved for major corporations. E-mail marketing companies including AWeber, Constant Contact, MailChimp, and others make it easy for businesses to send periodic newsletters and updates.

Additionally, e-mail marketing is the ideal way to follow up with people by setting up an Autoresponder series that’s designed to engage the reader with free information or to encourage them to take action by making an inquiry or buying the product or services offered

Stay Social and Get Connected!

In the last five years, the use of popular Social Media websites like Facebook and Twitter have skyrocketed! Companies that neglect the importance of representing their brands on these high traffic platforms are missing out on connecting with more people. Your potential customers are already there, so providing your audience with helpful and timely updates strengthens your overall branding message.

Most social media platforms have direct messaging available, so these outlets give small and medium businesses an additional way to communicate with both existing and potential new clients seamlessly. Instead of having to make a phone call to ask a quick question or two, they can send a secure message from their app to get an answer. Communications via these platforms help remove friction and time by connecting with your potential customer directly.

Your social media profile is a digital asset that works as an extension of your website. Furthermore, since these platforms are often easy to integrate with other widgets and apps, such as Live Chat support, appointment setting, and E-Commerce functionality, you can use these outlets as another way to market your goods or services. With over 2.3 Billion users, it’s easy to understand how having a presence on these platforms matters.

Content Marketing

Another critical aspect of every digital marketing campaign is putting a content marketing strategy in place. These days, content comes in many forms including text-based content, image-based content, and video content. If possible, it is always a smart idea to use a combination of content types to engage with your audience. Image and video content are appealing for making regular updates on both your website and your social media channels.

In most cases, text-based content focuses on updating business website blogs, often with image or video based content that complements the topic matter getting discussed. By creating compelling and informative content, that’s customized to speak to your audience you are making the right moves to build trust, to improve your customer relationships, and establish your brand effectively.

Additional Digital Marketing Assets

Creating a successful digital marketing campaign takes a great deal of careful planning and precise implementation. Additionally, the plan must be consistently monitored and tweaked to keep delivering the most favorable results.

Other digital marketing assets include Landing pages that are designed to encourage website visitors to take a very specific action on the web page they’re visiting, whether it is to sign up for a free newsletter or to take advantage of a free offer or another type of promotion. Landing pages work hand in hand with paid advertising campaigns to maximize the ROI of the ad campaign.

Since Landing Pages usually lack web site navigation, people who “land” on the page are left with very few options to click on other pages on the site, so they stay focused on the offer and can respond quickly. By removing a lot of the “noise” and unnecessary navigation, your website visitors have little choice but to decide whether or not they’re interested in your deal or promotion.

Companies that overlook the importance of having Landing Pages to help steer visitors into a sale, or a conversion can easily be squandering thousands of dollars of valuable traffic by sending them to pages that contain a lot of information, but just not the information that’s needed to convert that visit into a sale successfully.

The Devil Is In the Details!

Constructing a results-oriented digital marketing campaign involves a lot of technical details and fine-tuning to make sure you have everything just right. If you don’t have the time to learn how everything fits together when it comes to a digital marketing campaign, that’s OK! There are many well-qualified companies and individuals who specialize in this line of work so you can specialize in whatever it is that you do best!

An Effective Digital Marketing Campaign Requires Thought and Planning

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Regardless of whether you are just starting a new business or you have an existing business that has to modernize your approach to marketing, an effective digital marketing campaign is one of the best ways to launch and promote your business.

The one thing to keep in mind is that an effective Digital Marketing Campaign isn’t about doing one or two things right. It’s about getting everything right and fusing all of these things together to build a finely-tuned lead generation, conversion, and sales machine!

These days, this means that small and medium-sized business owners can’t afford to overlook the importance of representing their brand on numerous online platforms and channels.

Get Moving on Social Media!

Social networking sites provide people with a broad range of benefits. Businesses, no matter how big or small they are, have access to a platform to target their ideal audience and connect with them.

By establishing social profiles and keeping your business page updated with pertinent information, you have a direct way to sell products and introduce promotions quickly to your target market. It’s not surprising that so many small business owners love these platforms, merely for the fact that they can get their messages out to their audience with just a few keystrokes!

Further, most Social Media platforms also tend to offer affordable advertising to help extend the reach of these types of posts for increased engagement. With multiple types of advertising options available, business owners have the ability to customize their advertising specifically for the kind of results they want from the digital marketing campaign.

Why Hiring a Digital Marketing Company Makes a Lot of Sense

The issue that many small and medium-sized businesses have is that a truly successful digital marketing campaign isn’t about updating a time or two a month on one platform. For the best results, it is always a smart idea to maintain a presence on multiple platforms.

But this takes time and consistent effort every day. Even business owners with the best intentions can have a difficult time keeping up with the demands of making updates and managing ad campaigns, especially when you have multiple ad campaigns running across multiple social platforms.

When time is of the essence, and you need to focus on the side of the business that you do best, a digital advertising agency is better positioned to handle this aspect of your business. Because they specialize in this type of technical work and have employees that understand the complexity and consistency, that’s required to run a successful digital marketing campaign. This allows you to rest easy knowing this part of your job is getting done.

Digital Marketing Agencies Offer Keen Insights

Another advantage of working with an experienced digital marketing agency is the fact they use tools and technology to evaluate data and offer insight about your web presence and digital marketing campaign. By using tools, digital marketing companies can easily extract and sort information that most business owners don’t have the time to collect on their own.

A well-orchestrated digital strategy is a wise investment in your business. Results are measurable and available nearly in real-time. The best digital marketing agencies know how to identify trends in your analytics and make adjustments as needed for a maximum return on your marketing budget.

Stay Competitive and Build Your Brand Online

The most successful business owners know that marketing strategies are not an option; they are a necessity. Think about it. You wouldn’t know many of today’s famous companies had they not invested in branding and advertising campaigns to help with positioning in their market segment.

While you probably won’t be able to spend millions of dollars on your digital marketing campaigns like the big corporations do, you still have the opportunity to build brand awareness and recognition within your local or target market. Depending on the platform that your digital agency is using to advertise on your behalf, they can set tight parameters for targeting the ideal potential audience. In larger ad networks like Google, run of network and retargeted ads are helpful for display purposes and overall branding efforts.

Ads are shown on millions of websites, including properties such as YouTube, mobile devices, and favorite sites that participate in the Google ad program. If you want your brand name to get in front of people when they’re visiting high-profile sites, Google ads are one way to do it.

If you prefer to have your digital marketing agency run a campaign that is more finely-tuned, Facebook offers advertisers the ability to drill down and select who sees your ad based on demographics you choose. These demographics could include by Zip code, interests, age group, marital status, and even shopping habits.

As you can imagine, having this type of tight control over who sees your ad optimizes it for higher returns and better results. For instance, if you’re selling a product for women, such as a beauty cream or cosmetics, showing your ad to men who are unlikely to be interested in your offer is bad targeting. There is never a good excuse for bad targeting when you have all the controls you need to skip running a poorly targeted ad campaign.

Talk to a Professional!

If you have questions about what you need to do to strengthen your web presence and build your digital marketing campaign, don’t be afraid to talk with a professional digital marketer about your concerns.

Professional digital marketing companies are happy to answer any questions you have and offer solutions to help you get your business to where you want it to be.

It’s worth noting that most digital strategies take time and consistent effort for them to unfold, so you should be willing to make a commitment of a minimum of 12 months for all of the foundational work to come together cohesively. By staying on course and following through on a long-term digital marketing campaign strategy, your business is certain to reap the rewards of sales and conversions.

Extraordinary Business Branding Is Easy!

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One of the greatest things about launching your business is having the opportunity to build your very own business branding from the ground up! For many entrepreneurs, this means that creativity plays a critical part, especially in the case when the new business is getting built on a bootstrap budget.

Despite what you might think, working within a bootstrap budget doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice any of the branding elements that the big companies have!

Custom Logos and Slogans

Once you have an idea, product, or a service offering in mind, one of the first steps in establishing your company brand is creating a custom logo and a supporting slogan. Your logo is the tie that represents your entire business entity, so getting a logo that’s clear, concise, and easy to read is essential to your overall success. It’s what makes your product or service offerings different from everyone else in your industry, so getting a print ready logo takes you on the road to success! Powerful branding does amazing things for your business operation, and your logo should get added to everything from your custom letterhead, business cards, website and social media assets, product packaging, and promotional items.

Your business Slogan helps reinforce your logo and may also get used in creating more brand clarity in your small business or startup. Typically, brand slogans tend to be relatively short with an aim for being memorable. Slogans that may ring a bell with you include “Eat Fresh!” (Subway) “I’m Lovin’ It” (McDonald’s) “Be Your Way” (Burger King.) All of these slogans are part of an overall larger marketing campaign to build brand loyalty and recognition.

By combining both your Logo and Slogan together in a cohesive design, you are taking the necessary steps to create a brand that’s destined for success!

Clever Business Branding No Matter Where You Are!

These days, entrepreneurs work more fluidly than ever before. Access to wireless Internet has enabled business owners, entrepreneurs, and freelancers with the ability to work from nearly anywhere, regardless of whether it’s their home office, their favorite coffee shop, a public library, or another preferred location. When working from these places, here are a few smart ways to help build your brand with the people who see you.

Put a Decal With Your Logo On Your Laptop Computer – If you are working in a public space where people are passing through or mingling, a custom Laptop Skin is an ideal way to turn your laptop workstation into a valuable piece of marketing material!

One thing that you can be sure of is that your notebook will stand out just because it looks nothing like all the run of the mill laptop computers that everyone else is using, and it couldn’t be easier to customize your laptop skin with your logo or other custom creative for your notebook computer. Don’t be surprised if you suddenly start gaining more clients and inquiries just by showing off your logo when working remotely from your home or office.

Turn Your Vehicle Into a Mobile Marketing Machine – If you’re like most people, the chances are good that you spend a significant amount of time driving to run errands, to meet with clients and for personal reasons.

Did you know that you could turn these trips into a valuable marketing campaign by investing in a customized vehicle wrap or a door magnet that boosts your brand name and your contact details? Both of these business branding options are cost-effective and offer tax incentives for their role in your business use.

Information that you should try to have printed on your vehicle wrap or marketing magnet include your business phone number, your website address, your company logo, and a QR code. Anytime that you’re out, you’ll have the opportunity to advertise your brand seamlessly, and the next traffic jam you’re stuck in could offer the chance for you to connect directly with potential clients while they, too, are stuck in traffic.

Embroidered Shirts – While the chances are good that you’ve put your days of wearing another company uniform to work behind you, as a small business owner or a startup company, there are a lot of advantages in investing in embroidered shirts or other types of apparel for yourself and others in your Organization. Depending on your product or service line, custom printed or embroidered shirts, hats, aprons, and other garments help identify your staff and help build brand awareness. For service oriented businesses, customized shirts help your clients recognize who your employees and staff members are which is of particular importance if your business entails you visiting or going into the homes of existing or potential customers.

Business Branding Done Right!

You and your employees are an extension of your brand. Leaving a positive business impression is one of the secrets to success. Several things must be done to put your best foot forward when it comes time to create the most effective branding strategies. Never before in history have consumers had to sort through endless offers, marketing messages, and other incentives to purchase products, for everything they need. Most people today value simplicity and information that’s easy to comprehend, so the more straightforward your marketing efforts are, generally the better your results are likely to be. People are always looking for products and services that make their life easier and better, so if you can deliver such products and services – and do it well – a creative and comprehensive branding and marketing campaign pays off in spades!

If you have more questions about setting up a business branding campaign for your new, existing, or startup business, discussing your project with a branding expert like Colleen Eakins puts your business on track for higher visibility and greater returns on the investment in your business. Fill out the form here to start the discussion today!