Never Done Email Marketing ? Here is the Why and the Where of It. #BlogchatterA2Z Challenge 2019

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We’ve all received newsletters, in fact they’ve been around for ages. They started when email addresses became popular some decades ago. But despite chatbots and blogs and other effective marketing strategies, email marketing is still going strong. It remains ever-green, probably because most people use email, even if we don’t do anything else online.

You need to build an email campaign to reach people, here’s how:

• Get them to sign-up with their email address.

• The best way to do this is to offer an incentive, a ‘must-have’, a valuable piece of info. For example, you can offer a “Cheat Sheet to Successful Social Media” or an eBook with some value that tempts them to sign up.

• Another method would be to use a quiz, a give-away, etc.; the important thing being the sign-up form has to have a place for the email address. You can find out more in my previous article here: Ways To Grow Your Email List

Common incentives to get people to sign up are:

• A valuable info email series
• A free download
• Free white-paper or ebook
• Info about new releases and product updates

EU GDPR Compliance:

It’s important to have one more step in the sign-up, which is to have permission to send subscription emails. There is a regulation when you invite subscriptions to email newsletters to people in European Union countries; EU GDPR compliant emails is a must there. That means, you will need to follow some guidelines about data and data privacy. Read more at https://eugdprcompliant.com/ or you can do your own research and find a simple blog explaining it. Another thing to be aware of is when you send an email newsletter it should have a physical address. And it is expected to have an ‘unsubscribe’ option. This is especially true in the US. There are a lot of rules to follow, read up on them so you do not land in trouble.

Email Content:

Now that we have the emails and are EU GDPR complaint, (if sending to Europe) what next?

• Have great content in your emails
• It should have enough value that the subscriber wants to open it up every time it comes.
• Be consistent, when you say you are going to send an email daily, weekly or monthly – then do it that way. Though bombarding email accounts with emails daily is a turnoff for most people.
• Have a Call-to-action planned out. for example, your email could be an update of your new blog post, in which case the CTA should be to click on a link to go to the blog post.
• Have a welcome email sent out as soon as they sign up. So they are aware where and from whom it will come hereinafter.
• If you plan to sell something through the email, remember to have something of value in it before you pitch your product.
• Don’t expect to send an email every so often without a routine and to get a response. Send emails regularly and sales pitches along with the email once in a while.

Using an auto-responder is the best way to keep track as your list gets longer. Most people have a set of emails that go out when they get sign-ups or other responses. This way even if you are busy your subscriber doesn’t just face a blank wall of silence.

Sounds complicated? It does not have to be, if you are organized! Be polite, be regular and provide value. The CTA should be placed clearly so the readers understand what you want them to do.