Republished with Permission from RDT Content Marketing, LLC
Are you sending regular emails to your contacts? Do you think no one pays attention to bulk emails anymore? While we all get lots of emails, studies still show a high return on investment for email marketing. When done right, email can be a cost-effective way to connect with clients, nurture leads and grow your business.
Benefits of Email Marketing
Most professionals get the bulk of their business through referrals. The key to getting more referrals is to stay top of mind with contacts. Email provides a perfect platform to do that. Contacts can be regularly reminded of what you do and the value you bring to relationships. When email is used to educate readers (rather than trying to sell your services), it helps you build trust, highlight your expertise and establish authority to drive new business.
While everyone won’t open and read your email, you can still benefit from sending it. Every email has your name as the sender to remind recipients who you are. It’s like being at a networking event and seeing people you know in the room. You remember them even if you don’t get to speak to them. Of course, that shouldn’t be your goal. You want people to read your material.
Maximize Results
To get the most out of your emails, here are a few tactics:
1. Have a plan. Pull together your email list and decide who you want to send emails to and your marketing objectives. Consider what type of content will help you achieve your goals. Sign up with an email marketing platform (Constant Contact, Mailchimp, etc.). Then, set up a schedule and allocate resources to getting the work done.
2. Segment your list to target your emails. Segmentation involves dividing your email list into distinct groups based on various criteria such as industry, job role, client status, or past interactions. You can also target individuals based on their area of interest. This allows you to send more personalized and relevant content, which can increase how many people engage with your emails.
For example, you can send current clients information relevant to their situation (ex. explanation of a new law that affects their business). Share educational content and case studies with prospects to build trust and interest in your firm. Invite industry/professional contacts to programs of interest.
3. Create valuable content. To be successful, you must deliver the right content. Provide your audience with insightful, informative, and actionable content that addresses their pain points and interests. You can share relevant news, industry trends, case studies, articles, blog posts, eBooks, invitations to upcoming speaking engagements, etc.
4. Send it consistently. Monthly emails are a good choice because they are frequent enough to be remembered but not so often they annoy people and take up too much of your time. You can send it more often than monthly, but make sure you have quality content to fill it and you should keep a close eye on your results. Always test the frequency of your emails to find out what works best for your audience.
5. Use automation to nurture leads. Email automation allows you to send timely and relevant messages to your audience without manual intervention. For example, new subscribers to your email newsletter can get a series of welcome emails about your firm and key content (articles, videos, etc.). Individuals who register for a webinar or download an eBook can get regular emails with related content.
6. Promote your email newsletter. Include a signup form on your website. Add a link to the signup page in your email signature and social media pages.
7. Optimize your design. Your emails should have a responsive design to ensure they look good on desktops, phones, laptops and tablets. Generally, it’s best to have a clean look with large fonts, buttons and short headings. Your emails should also have the same branding as your website (logos, colors, fonts).
8. Test and track results. To continually improve your emails, track key metrics such as open, click-through, unsubscribe and conversion rates. You can test different email subject lines, day and time sent, types of content, length and design. As you experiment, you can gauge results based on your metrics.
9. Keep email lists up to date. Check your email bounces regularly to identify bad email addresses. Make sure you’re adding new contacts and updating old ones.
10. Have acall to action. Every email should have a clear call to action (CTA) that encourages readers to take a desired action, whether it’s to go to your website and read a blog post, sign up for a webinar, contact you for a consultation or another step. Make sure you include links in your email so readers can engage with your content and you can track those clicks. The more time they spend interacting with your content, the better they will remember you.
Don’t discount email. Use it to help you stay top of mind with your contacts so they remember you when they need to hire or refer a professional like you.
If you need help with email marketing, contact us for a consultation.
