Pandemic Provides Opportunity to Embrace Email Marketing

Your customers are on their devices now more than ever, so email is a great way to get your business some exposure

Pandemic Provides Opportunity to Embrace Email Marketing

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, internet usage has skyrocketed across the U.S. People are turning to their devices and computers even more for news updates, shopping and entertainment. For businesses, this presents a great opportunity to employ an email marketing strategy if you haven’t already. 

Email marketing is a way to send marketing promotions directly to a specific audience via email. That could take the form of discount promotions, newsletters, business news, new product or service offerings, or adjusted business hours. Getting messages like these out to as many customers as possible is always helpful, and even more important during situations like the one we face during this pandemic.

If you are new to email marketing, it can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Getting started can be simple, and it can offer great short- and long-term profit for your business. To start, you will need an audience.

Building an email list 

 When asking people to sign up, try to recall the email lists you have signed up for and what made them appealing. If you’re like me, you often make sure the “receive email offers” check box is empty at the end of an order confirmation so your inbox isn’t filled with dozens of emails every week. That’s important to keep in mind throughout your entire strategy. Make it worth your customers’ time and effort to sign up by offering something. This could be a number of things depending on the products or services your business provides.

Once you create a reason for people to sign up, let people know about the offer. Don’t wait for the check box at the end of an order summary. Promote the subscription throughout your website’s homepage, in sidebars or using pop-ups. Make it so even casual browsers notice it and have a chance to sign up.

“Subscribe Now for a Free Consultation,” “Free Webinars and Demonstration Videos With Email Subscription” or “Sign up Now for 10% Off Products and Services!” are a few examples that create a sense of urgency and will make readers realize there is a reward for signing up.

Creating an email

As soon as people sign up, let them know your appreciation by sending a welcome email. The first emails received have the highest open rates — up to 82% — so make it a good one.

The subject line should be short and concise and use attention-grabbing words without being too generic. Using the person's name in the subject line can be a great way to make it sound personal and not like just another spam email. Avoid using words and symbols like free, win, cheap or $. Using these types of words, excessive punctuation and emojis will trigger accounts to send the email to spam. 

Follow that with a message that introduces your company and explains why people should work with you and how you can help them. Don’t be afraid to tell a short story about your company, such as why you started your business and what it means to you. This is another way for your business to get personal and develop a relationship with the reader. Relating to your audience is proven to reflect in sales.

And finally, don’t overdo it. Limit the number of emails you’re sending. Getting multiple emails every day or every other day about the same things will only annoy readers and make them disregard your emails. Make sure that when you send an email, it contains important updates and useful information. Emails should be helpful to the reader and to your business. Include links to the best content on your website, or share events and links to webinars — anything to get readers back on your website and spending money. The more links you send, the more clicks you will get, so don’t be afraid to use a lot of them.

There is help

You don’t have to become an instant expert in email marketing to be successful. There are a handful of websites that have experts for you to use. Sites like Constant Contact and ContactMonkey specialize in internal email tracking and ways to boost business online using email marketing strategies. Some are even offering separate support packages during the COVID-19 crisis to help businesses get a plan in place.



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