Don’t Believe The Email Haters
Don’t Believe The Email Haters
You’ve heard the story or seen the movie about Chicken Little crying the sky is falling or the little boy who cried wolf. It seems every few weeks I hear a ‘Chicken Little’ or ‘Little Boy’ shouting email marketing is dead.
And then I’ll hear things like millennials don’t use email or that everyone just uses social media instead of email. But the numbers and research don’t lie when it comes to how much people still use email and the impact that email marketing can have on you as an author and or speaker.
4.3 billion email accounts send 196 billion emails every day, and in the United States, 91% of consumers use email every day.
I would say email is far from dead.
Recently WebsiteBuilder.org (https://websitebuilder.org/resources/119-facts-you-dont-know-about-email-marketing/) reported on more than 100 current statistics and trends about email marketing. Here’s what you need to know to make email marketing work for you, to connect with your audience, increase your impact and grow your platform and sales.
The Foundation of a Successful Email Marketing Program
Email marketing can be used for branding, engagement, acquisition, retention, direct sales, reactivation, generating traffic, and getting referrals.
Out of all of the tools in your digital marketing tool belt, there aren’t many that compare to the diversity of email and what you can do with it.
No matter what you’re trying to do these four things should be your goal as part of every email :
- Making a meaningful and valuable connection
- Sharing relevant information
- Strengthen relationships
- Moving your audience towards the action you want them to take
Successful Email Marketing Programs Begin Here
It’s critical to be working with a reputable and reliable email marketing service provider. Depending on where you’re at with building your email marketing program, the size of your list, resources to manage your program, and your technical ability there are multiple options. Pricing ranges from free to hundreds to thousands of dollars per month. A short list of providers to consider are:
- Mailchimp
- Constant Contact
- Aweber
- Infusionsoft
- Hubspot
All of these mentioned will give you access to templates, analytics, automation and optimization for any type of device your email may be viewed on. In addition, they will help you comply with CAN-SPAM and GDPR laws.
Before you send any kind of email you need to have permission to send.
- Ensure 100% of your subscribers have opted-in to receive your emails – never rent or buy lists. It’s tempting to use a website like Fiverr to buy email addresses and build your list quickly but resist, it’s not worth it.
- Maintain an unsubscribed list of contacts so you don’t send them email. If you are sending email to people who have explicitly asked not to receive email from you, you are putting yourself at huge risk. The good news is that if you use a solid email service provider they are doing this for you. Remember though, if you ever change providers you would need to download this list and upload it to your new provider to be CAN-SPAM compliant.
- When you are asking someone to subscribe to your emails let them know what kind of emails to expect along with the frequency.
- Make your sign-up form short and simple, first name and email address.
- Create an automated response email which thanks people for subscribing to your email and encourages them to add your email address to their contact list so your emails aren’t flagged as spam or end up in a junk email folder.
Use It or Lose It
There’s power in email marketing but only if you use it and use it correctly.
Don’t let the opportunity to connect and communicate with your customers pass by. Your customers are happy and willing to have your emails arrive in their inbox but only if they are relevant and valuable.
Compose – Send – Convert – Repeat
by Chris Rainey
