Does your business use Email Marketing? If not, should it? The
answer is probably yes, as email marketing is regularly cited as one of, if not
the best marketing channel for consistently delivering the highest ROI.
More than half of the world’s population use email worldwide, with
this number set to rise up to more than 4.3 billion people by 2023 (Radicati
Group) – Before we get into how to get the
most out of email marketing, it is important to understand why it is such a
beneficial marketing tool. Email Marketing Is an old yet extremely reliable and
effective form of marketing, it’s a cost-effective solution to reach customers
where they visit every day — their inbox.
Benefits of Email
Marketing
Unrivaled return on investment: In the world of business, results are arguably the only thing that matters. With this being said, the reason Email marketing is highly invested in is because of the fantastic ROI. According to DMA in 2017, the return on investment for every £1 spent was £32.28 (DMA, 2017).
Low costs: The most obvious advantage of using email marketing is the fact it’s one of the lowest costing marketing channels in relation to the ROI. It is worth investing in specialist software that allows you to automate, track, and evaluate the emails that have been sent – other than this subscription fee there are very little costs.
Targeted and Personalized: Many marketers spend large
amounts of expenditure on trying to reach an audience who are interested in
their brand. Email Marketing allows you to go a step further, and only target
subscribers who meet a specific criterion.
Email Marketing tips
Good email marketing means that
you are sending emails to people who want to hear from you – However, often
your emails end up getting lost in an overcrowded inbox or even a customer’s
spam.
Perfect your subject line: Writing an effective subject line is key in ensuring your audience
engage with your email – This can be the difference recipients opening your
email or deleting it. People open emails if they feel there is some form of
benefit in doing so – so make this benefit clear in the title.
Get personal: Personalisation is key in the success of an email campaign – Using
people’s names catches their attention. However, there is more to
personalisation than this. Segmentation is a great way of engaging with a
specific audience, allowing you to send emails depending on someone’s age,
gender, location etc.
Call to action: Aside from an effective subject line, The CTA is the most important part
of the email as this what will get your subscribers to convert. Make the CTA’s
simple and easy to locate.
Growing
your email list
Now you understand how to put together an effective email – You need to understand how to grow your audience and reach a wider population. This is not a simple task and can often be frustrating for a business owner. In order to do this, you need to regularly promote your Newsletter, including all the benefits of being a subscribed member. You need to give individuals a reason to sign up to your newsletter else it will become stale – This can be done by promoting your email sub subscription down a number of different channels on a regular basis.
Once you begin to build your subscription list it is crucial to keep a database with all of your client’s contact information. We have heard a number of horror stories of businesses losing thousands of customers contact details that they have built up over a period of years – This can leave a business in a very difficult position and almost feels like they are starting from scratch.
Conclusion
During these difficult times, it is important for businesses to look for new ways of generating leads – I hope this article sheds some light on the effects email marketing can have. Whilst all the advantages and tips mentioned are well documented and realistically achievable, it’s important to remember to have a clear execution plan in place for your email marketing. Having patience is key – this is not something that will happen overnight!
If you need any help and support during this difficult period, then please get in touch – 0115 8 376 260
As the Covid-19 pandemic
continuous to evolve – it has become apparent that it has affected all
businesses in some way. Start-ups and small businesses, which often run on a
reduced budget, have experienced supply disruption and reduced demand for
products/services as a result of the outbreak.
If you are an SME who is
feeling the effects of the global pandemic, think about ramping up your
blogging efforts to get your business moving during these troubled times. Before
you start writing, make a list of all the questions your clients normally ask
you – could these be made into blogs?
Within this article, I will
discuss the various reasons as to why your business should continue to write
blogs during today’s current climate.
A Blog
Will Increase Traffic To Your Website
Businesses that blog on a regular basis have a 55% increase in website traffic compared to that of a business that doesn’t (Websolution). A large proportion of your blog readers will come from your current customer base; however, a blog is a great way of attracting new visitors to your website. With this increased traffic to your site, you can act accordingly and target this new reader with relevant marketing, with the end goal of converting this reader into a customer.
This is where you need to think about your blog title – 5
Ways, How To and Benefits of are all great ways to start your blog.
It Will
Improve Your Websites SEO
Covid-19 has speeded up the shift to the digital world.
Customer’s behaviour has changed, and they are no longer visiting stores to buy
products without conducting prior research about the products/services. Due to
this, when customers are looking for a specific product/service, your company
needs to rank on the top of search results.
Publishing blogs on a regular basis will dramatically improve your website’s search engine optimisation, keeping your site current and fresh. Think about the keywords your clients use, they may be different from what you think, and make sure you use them all in the correct way – don’t over spam!
Helps To
Grow Your Email List
Email marketing is an old yet reliable and effective way of reaching your target audience. Nearly 70% of people between the age of 18-34 prefer companies to communicate with them through email (MarketingSherpa research). However, in order for an email campaign to be effective there is a need for a long list of subscribers. Blogging is a fantastic way of growing this list. If you are able to ensure your blogs are interesting and insightful your readers are likely to subscribe and as a result, provide their email.
Make sure you give your readers an opportunity to sign up to
your mailing list or download a free guide on every blog.
Blogs
Demonstrate Leadership Within an Industry
A well-structured, insightful and regularly updated blog
that addresses the issues that affect the industry is a great way of gaining
trust from your customers. When you share useful content on a regular basis,
people are going to begin to notice you. If you are able to continue producing
this content and stay a reliable source of information, you are going to be
perceived as an expert in your particular field. During these troubling times
there are a vast number of opportunities to produce intriguing content to win
the trust of your audience.
A Blog
Will Keep Your Current Audience Engaged
A blog is a great way of keeping your current customer base
engaged with your brand. Once an individual has made a purchase it is important
to try and retain this customer and ensure you make them feel valued. A blog is
a great way of doing this by sharing value, it can be used as a tool to keep
them interested by offering content including offerings, helpful tips and
company news to give them an insight into the brand.
An extra Tip
– Blogs Make Great Social Media Content
Your latest blog post is an ideal piece of content to share
on social media. Most people will share their blog once on social media – think
about sharing it at different times & different days of the week on
different platforms and don’t forget Pinterest (that’s another blog)
In conclusion, when supply becomes expensive and demand
becomes uncertain, it is important to look for new methods of generating leads
to ensure your business stays afloat. With these uncertain times, blogging can
be a cost-free method of ensuring your business stays current and in the mind
of the consumer.
Take 30 minutes today and see what topics you could write about for your business.
Please get in touch if we can help you on 0115 8376 260 or email info@creationzmarketing.co.uk
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Every social media platform has different image dimensions, whether this is a profile picture, cover photo, or an image you are wanting to upload. Therefore it is always important to make sure your images fit to scale, this is especially important for businesses as you want to have a professional look to your social media platforms.
When scrolling on Facebook, we have recently found a lot of business’s logos do not fit to scale of their profile picture, and this doesn’t give a good impression, as half of it is missing.
We have put together a FREE guide for you to download your copy of all the dimensions of various images on different social platforms. This simple to use guide will help you with the correct sizing for your social platforms, from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Youtube.
As businesses slowly continue to open, it is especially
important you are Marketing correctly to keep your customers updated with what
is going on within your business.
It is important your business puts in the rules and restrictions necessary for your business – this will vary for each business. It is important to inform your customers of these restrictions so that your staff and your customers feel safe and will they continue to purchase your service.
Things your customers need to be aware of:
How you are changing your business to make sure everyone is safe
Limiting the number of customers in your premises/face to face meetings
Creating one-way systems and distance between customers
Your business working hours
Offering no contact alternatives – paying contactless rather than cash.
As everyone is in the same boat, it is important to be as
open & honest to your customers as this will make them understand more your
reasons for restrictions.
5 Ways to Get Your Business Building for the Future
Here are our top 5 ways to market your business for the
future:
Social Media
Make sure you are using all your social media platforms to
communicate with your customers such as promotions, offers, new ways of working
etc. You may have reduced working hours, therefore letting your customers know
when you are open is key as they may be a regular customer and think you are
open as normal when you maybe be working flexibly.
It is important to crank up your social media activity if
you have been a little quiet over the past few months to ensure you are seen
and clients start seeing your posts again. You need to think about the types of
content to use as it has all changed – less sales, more support. Our top tips
are:
Ask Questions
Behind the Scenes Photos
Thank you messages for Staff and Customers
Sharing your News Content – Blogs. Webinar etc
Like,
Comment and Share – it is vital you engage with others!
2. Contact Details – Building Those Databases
Make sure all contact details/databases are updated as many of us have been working from home and contact details like telephone numbers may have changed therefore they need to be changed back to make sure your customers can get in touch with you.
There are many mays to inform your customers from social media to emails, and on your website. It is important you are communicating, and you cannot do this is if you don’t have the data you need.
Take a few minutes today to assess your data needs and ask
yourself:
If social media was unavailable, could you reach clients
& potential clients?
If you connect online, do you have a mechanism to build the
data off-line in line with GDPR?
How effectively do you use your CRM system, and can you
automate some of the processes?
What plans do you have to build your audience?
3. Email Marketing
Now is the time to start making your email marketing campaigns regular and consistent. A monthly newsletter to Clients showcasing what you can offer keeps you in the front and center of clients. Ensure you are linking back to your website. Our top tips:
Think of the subject line – how can you make
clients open the email?
Are you telling a story – make it sound human!
Interesting graphics and images
Make sure there are clear calls to action
Have a plan!
4. Marketing Materials
Take a few minutes to look at your leaflets and brochures – are they promoting
your business in the right way and if not, what do you need going forward.
Emails are brilliant and necessary, but we are helping
clients to take the next step in producing printed articles and news pieces
that can be sent through the post. Being visible is what will help your
business start out from the crowd.
Could you create a suite of marketing materials to cover the
range of services you offer? Even better, could you create a piece of lumpy
mail – look out for our next article on the power of lumpy mail?
5. Google My Business
We still cannot understand how businesses are not utilising Google My Business – it is FREE. If you have a profile then make sure you add weekly posts promoting your services and offers. Great way to enhance your shop window, get found on the Google Map and share your news. The stats are brilliant and will show you keywords, actions, and much more – well worth 10-15 minutes of effort each week – if it is used properly!
We are working through everything we have mentioned above for our business and already starting to see the rewards. We are happy to help & support businesses to get the most out of their marketing activity – please get in touch if we can help you on 0115 8376 260 or email info@creationzmarketing.co.uk
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Jasmin Saimbi joined Creationz Marketing in September 2019 as part of a placement scheme through Nottingham Trent University. She is going to talk about her experience partaking in an Internship for the first time.
About Jasmin:
I study Business Management and Marketing and Nottingham Trent University which is a 4-year course and requires a placement year after 2nd year. I was very unsure in what area of career I wanted to go down therefore I changed my course which required a placement, to gain some experience, and for it to hopefully give me an idea of what I enjoy. When applying for a placement, I left it quite broad to Management/Marketing roles.
I have only previously had experience in retail, therefore I decided I needed to start somewhere. I carried out a lot of research and came across Creationz Marketing. This company really stood out to me as it is an independent business, and I thought instead of going for a big company I would be able to get more involved in a smaller company. I also wanted to support a local business and see how things work when starting up a business.
The placement
During my placement, I was provided with a fantastic opportunity to experience working first hand with a variety of different types of clients who all operate in different sectors ranging from Professional Services, Education, Manufacturing, Trades, Charities, Hobbies & Interests, new business start-ups, and businesses looking to grow.
This placement has also required a lot of communication, from Networking to meeting up with clients, and answering phone calls, these have all have built my confidence more and more on a daily basis. I have had a number of calls and meetings with clients regarding enquires, this has been a key learning experience for me as I have had to deal with a number of different scenarios and I know how to take control of the situation.
A big skill I have picked up is how to use new/different software. This is especially important as in this role I am using different software regularly in order to carry out tasks outside of the usual packages.
A major key learning experience for me is dealing with the Coronavirus. Unlike most businesses that may have shut or employees have been furloughed, we are still business as usual as our services are all online. This has taught me how to make the most out of working from home and not getting distracted, I have had to take on a lot of responsibility on my own with only online communication with my manager.
The placement has not only helped me decide what direction I want my career to go in after I graduate, but it has also helped enhance my CV. I have had the opportunity to have a year’s experience in marketing which future employers will see value to and therefore put me at an advantage over other candidates. I feel I have benefited the most as I have had experience from a small company, therefore I have experienced everything first hand, being able to be part of decision making and involved within meetings which I would not have the opportunity if I was working for a large firm.
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