One of the reasons why email marketing is such a strong platform for small businesses is because its extremely easy to use. You simply write out your message and send it to your audience at mass scale. But is it really that simple? Here are 3 things you should do before you hit send
When you prep your list you are tagging and segmenting subscribers based on interest and activities. Not everyone on your email list is interested in the same topics and content. Tags and segments allows you to get specific about what content is going to each one of your subscribers. It’s a way to make your emails more personal.
Let’s say you're a makeup artist with your own cosmetic line and you have an email list for those who are interested in makeup tips and tricks. You create content related to different elements of doing makeup: skincare, foundation routine, makeup tools, eyeshadow products and more. Because you have many different types of content that subscribers could be interested in, it would be helpful to identify and group subscribers based on those interests.
For example, you have a new email subscriber who is interested in your foundation routine. You can create a tag named ‘foundation’, which lets you know that this subscriber is interested in all content related to foundation. You'd do the same for eyeshadow, skincare, makeup tools, etc. The great thing about tagging is subscribers can have multiple tags attached to their profile. Let’s say that same subscriber who was interested in foundation recently purchased lipstick from your cosmetic line. You can assign another tag named ‘lipstick’, which lets you know that they may also be interested in all content related to lipstick.
Segmenting helps you send the right content to the right group of people. Let’s say you’re running a sale on foundation and lipstick from your cosmetic line. While everyone on your email list might be interested in this sale, you have a group of subscribers who are definitely interested in this sale: subscribers who have the ‘foundation’ and ‘lipstick’ tags. Segments allow you to put subscribers who may have different or opposing characteristics in the same group so they receive the same content. For the foundation and eyeshadow sale, you’d create a segment that includes all subscribers with ‘foundation’ and ‘eyeshadow’ tags and send them that email offer.
Prepping your list through tagging and segmenting helps you fine tune and personalize messages to your email subscribers, which leads to higher engagement, better metrics and increased chances of sales.
Imagine this: You've written the perfect email and sent it to the right people on your list. But you get no clicks in your emails, no visits to your website, and you make no sales.
Its probably because you didn’t add a call to action!
A call-to-action (CTA) is a statement that tells your audience exactly what to do after they read your work or listen to you. A CTA is the perfect way to close and seal a great email and here’s why: your marketing emails should be packed with valuable information about your zone of genius, your business and your offers. When you give information that helps or inspires your audience they want to take action, and telling them what action to take helps to streamline that energy.
CTAs directly correlate to achieving your goals. If you want to get more Youtube subscribers, when you have to tell subscribers to visit your Youtube page and subscribe. If you want to make your sales goal, then you have to tell subscribers to visit your website and buy the items.
In addition to telling subscribers what you want them to do, you need to provide a link! Make it easy for the subscribers to take the action you just told them to take and spend their money. If I have to leave your email, go to my browser, search for your website, then search for the item on your website you mentioned in your email, I'm definitely not going to buy thet item. I'm lazy and your subscribers are lazy too. Give them a link directly to the page or item that you are talking about.
There is nothing worse than realizing that you sent an email with a glaring typo. It sticks out like a huge sore thumb!
Don’t get me wrong, we ALL make mistakes. But when it comes to email marketing, you want to make sure you’re presenting your best work, which means no spelling or grammatical errors. These types of mistakes diminish your credibility as an expert and professional and can be a reason why subscribers leave your email list.
Before you hit send, take a few minutes to proofread your email, checking for those glaring mistakes. If you have the time, send a test email to yourself so you can also check deliverability (checking if your email went to your inbox or to spam), formatting and design.
If copywriting and editing is not your strength, try sending your emails to a friend to check for mistakes and give you notes on your message. If you have someone on your team that is great with copywriting, it may benefit you to have them write the email and send it to you for proofreading!
In addition to checking your content for errors, you want to double check your links! A broken link is the second worst thing that can happen in your emails. So ensure your links actually work and they send your subscribers where you actually want them to go. Don’t send your subscribers to your eyeshadows page when you’re running a sale on lipstick.
Email marketing is a simple marketing platform to use but there are a few steps you need to follow before you send that email
