Email Marketing is Too Easy to Get Wrong

It’s time to let the world know your company exists.

What better way to do that than by email marketing?

In a few minutes, your sales email is ready and waiting to be unleashed on the world. You click send and stand back preparing yourself for when the phones start ringing.

Hold on a minute, you’re going about it all wrong.

The list

For starters, if you’ve bought a list you’re heading nowhere fast.

Think about it for a moment.

You’re about to send an email selling your products and services to a bunch of people who have never heard of you before and haven’t asked you to get in touch.

That’s a big problem.

If you’re not sure why let me ask you something – what do you do when you sift through your emails in the morning?

What happens when you come across one from a company you’ve never heard of before that’s trying to sell you something you haven’t asked for?

You delete it, right?

So why do you think the recipients of your email are going to do anything different?

That’s why buying in a list is never going to work.

Building your own opt-in list is a much better idea. For starters, the people on it would have heard of you and, secondly, they have given you their email because they are interested in what you have to offer, so your email is going to be relevant to them.

Yes, it takes time to build a list, but use every opportunity to get people to sign up: at trade fairs, during phone enquiries, when people visit your shop or showroom.

Your message

What is your email saying?

Is it telling them about your products and services?

Does it have a call to action directing them to your website or your phone ordering line?

Is it asking them to buy from you?

Stop right there. You’ve just committed the second most deadly email marketing sin.

The chances are, you’re fairly early on in your relationship with your email marketing list. If you dive in asking them to buy from you, you’re likely to be met with a lukewarm-bordering-on-frosty reception.

Why?

You’re asking them to buy without having gained their trust first.

You’re a new company to them (potentially a new supplier) so it’s important you spend time introducing yourself to them and offering them great information that will be of benefit to them.

Over time, they will get to recognise that your emails are packed with great insights, tips and hints and general warm and fuzziness.

The advice you offer them (completely free of charge) reflects well on you making you the go-to authority in your field.

Therefore, when they are ready to buy, whom do you think they’ll get in touch with first?

• The company that bombards them with sales or emails?
• Or, you who has been putting their needs first, giving them great information and advice without wanting anything in return?

I know who I’d put my money on.

Yes, you can include any offers or new products/service in your email, but make sure you also offer them useful information and advice first. The reference to your products should almost be an after thought.

Think like a customer

The best way to gauge how your email will be received is to think like a customer.

If it landed in your in box, what would you do?

Think about how it would come across to someone who doesn’t know your company that well – is it too salesy, too pushy?

Email marketing, although a fast way to reach thousands of customers in one hit, isn’t a ‘get rich quick’ marketing solution.

It’s all about building trusting relationships with your list.

Author – Sally Ormond, Briar Copywriting Ltd