Will 2018 be a big year for your business? That’s probably what you’re hoping for. You likely want to grow your business by expanding your customer base and maybe even targeting new markets. If you’re putting together a marketing plan for the new year, email marketing absolutely needs to be part of it. In fact, according to a recent study by the DMA (Direct Marketing Association), marketers believe email has never been more important and is constantly evolving. And no, you can’t just recycle your old email marketing plan from a few years ago, or even from last year. Email is a marketing channel that never stops evolving. If you want to succeed, your strategies and tactics need to evolve too. Email is like the Coldplay of marketing: it’s been around since the ’90s, it’s far from the latest thing, but it keeps reinventing itself and staying popular. So here are a few tips to help your email marketing strategy evolve and stay effective for 2018 and beyond.
Email marketing isn’t just newsletters!
For many people, email marketing is synonymous with newsletters. To make sure we’re on the same page, here’s a simple definition adapted from linternaute.com (in French): “A newsletter is an email sent at regular intervals to a mailing list to inform recipients of news about a website.” Newsletters are often sent monthly and usually contain several news items. They may include industry news, company news or excerpts from recent blog posts. They’re often sent to the entire mailing list. Newsletters are still relevant and effective when they’re done well, but it’s important to include only content that’s relevant and useful to your subscribers. At Cyberimpact, we send a newsletter once or twice a month that includes our new blog posts (educational content) and our app’s new features (useful, relevant content). But in 2018, you need to go beyond the newsletter. Here are two other types of email I recommend including in your strategy. One-off emails that drive action This type of email announces a one-time event or offer. For example, if you’re organizing a conference, a networking event or a special promotion that only lasts a few days, you’ll send an email to your list (or a segment of it). The goal of this kind of email is to get people to take action, like registering or buying. You’ll have more success sending a dedicated email than hiding the invitation in your newsletter among other information. Automated emails This is an email (or a series of emails) sent automatically after a subscriber takes an action (signing up through a form, buying a product, clicking a link, etc.). We’ll talk about it in more detail a little further down. For now, remember that the newsletter is the foundation, and you need to go further to stand out and succeed in 2018.
More than ever, content is key
If you sell directly to consumers (B2C), email is the ideal communication channel for nurturing your relationship with customers after the sale, encouraging additional purchases and increasing purchase frequency (building loyalty). If you sell to businesses (B2B), email marketing is ideal for nurturing your leads and turning them into customers. Either way, you need content for all those emails, and that’s often where many small businesses get stuck. Having an email marketing strategy therefore means having a content strategy. Here are a few types of content you can include in your emails:
- Educational content (tips and tricks, answers to frequently asked questions, how to use your product, etc.)
- Inspiring content (success stories, case studies, testimonials, etc.)
- Entertaining content (behind-the-scenes videos, comedy sketches, etc.)
- Promotional content (promotions, discount coupons, events, etc.)
The most common approach is to publish this content as articles on your blog. But get creative! You can also create videos. In that case, you can post your videos on YouTube and add them to your website (again, in a blog post, for example). The widespread use of smartphones and tablets tends to make emails shorter. So opt for short emails that get straight to the point and contain links to your website. For example, instead of writing a long text directly in your email, include a title, an excerpt, an image and a link to the full article on your site. You can also browse a few templates to help you write your emails.
Automation is within your reach
Marketing automation is a very trendy term right now. It’s a trend that has been well established among marketing professionals for a few years. But automation is now within reach of businesses of all sizes, even sole proprietorships. Most email marketing tools, even the most affordable ones, now let you automate email sending based on certain triggers. For example, at Cyberimpact, we offer a free email marketing course. When someone signs up for the course (by filling out a form on our website), they receive 5 automated emails, 2 days apart. Think of ways to better welcome your new subscribers, better train your new customers or simply automate the distribution of your best content. Get started with automated emails. You’ll get better results while saving time!
Come on, let’s get organized!
There’s no point talking strategy if you don’t give yourself the means to act. So here’s a very simple table you can use to organize and visualize your email marketing. What’s in this table is just an example. Of course, replace it with your own strategy.
Email type
Audience
Content
Frequency
Customer newsletter
Customers
New blog posts New features Exclusive promotions
2 times a month
Prospect newsletter
Prospects
New blog posts Incentives to become a customer
2 times a month
One-off
All subscribers
Events Training Surveys
As needed
Automated sequence
People who create a free account
Our best tips and tricks
1 email a week for 5 weeks
I wish you every success in 2018, and I hope email helps you reach your goals! Looking for the ideal tool to carry out your email marketing strategy? Cyberimpact is for you! Create your free account now.