A ride along with a plumbing contractor friend today inspired this post. How many of you contractors use your email as a marketing tool? Probably not many, because of the time it takes to develop and execute a good email marketing campaign when you are running a business.
That is a shame, because dollar for dollar it is one of the most effective ways to market your business. It works 24/7/365 if set up and done properly.
Don’t be so quick to blame email marketing for your woes. It may not be email itself, but rather, how you send email. Email open-rates may be underwhelming, but email has a ROI of 3800%, higher than any other digital form of marketing.
In order for your campaigns to be successful, they need to be clearly targeted. Ask these questions when producing your emails.
- What is your ideal subscriber like? Think demographics. Are they male or female? How old are they? Are they married or single? Do they have kids?
- What are their interests?
- What is their industry?
- What are their goals?
- What are their problems?
- What could prevent them from buying your product/service?
- What type of content do they consume?
Once you’ve identified who you’re targeting, it’s time to create some goals.
Some common goals include:
- Growing an email list
- Increase open rates
- Improve click-through
- Decrease unsubscriptions or spam complaints
- Improve response rate
- Gain customer feedback
- Keep your name in front of customers
- Get reviews or referrals
- Say thank you
When deciding your goals, be sure to keep it SMART.
Specific: Vague goals will prove to be ineffective. Decide specifically what your company wants to accomplish and a plan on how to achieve this goal.
Measurable: In order to ensure your company is on the right track, goals will need to be measurable. Identify means of measurement, specific checkpoints, and what numbers coincide with accomplishment.
Attainable: Your goal needs to be within budget and time
Realistic: Although it’s important to strive for your company’s best, don’t select a goal that is unachievable. Use some historic data to determine how realistic your goal is.
Time-Bound: Choose a date that you want a goal achieved by.
Important Email Tips
There’s a number of ways you can make your campaigns stand out. Some potential ideas:
Mobile-Optimize
63% of emails are deleted immediately if they are not mobile-optimized. With the increased use of smartphones, more and more consumers are using mobile for routine tasks, like opening email. If your email isn’t optimized, many readers won’t be able to view it.
Gain Customer Permission
Before sending any email, it’s important to get the consent of the customer first. Otherwise, your brand may appear spammy and turn off the customer to your business, something you don’t want to happen. Permission-based email starts the relationship with the customer off right.
Personalize
Personalization, using the customer’s name or demographics to something more targeted – identifying the customers personal interests or preferences. Mass, generic emails are quickly losing the interest of consumers. They don’t want to receive the same message as everyone else. So creating different forms of emails for different types of customer’s acts as a better way to gain attention. Trigger emails (emails triggered by a certain action) are one great way to personalize, and despite making up only 2.6% of all emails, these types of emails earn 20% of total email revenue.
Automate
You can automate anything from the types of personalized messages you send to preset re-engagement emails at specified intervals. This keeps you in the customers’ mind without a lot of effort on your part. Your time will be freed up for other tasks.
Ensure that your strategy is focused
Make sure that your construction email marketing strategy is focused. Who are you targeting? What are your goals, how can you measure them, and what are other important specifics? Are you mobile optimized and are you aware of their interests? All of these are important questions to ask when creating your email marketing strategy.
Need help with your email marketing?
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