Email marketing is the most powerful marketing system on the internet today. It’s been around seemingly since the beginning of the internet. And, I suspect, it will sustain supremacy well past the likes of Facebook and Twitter; marching smoothly into the late twentieth century. What makes this ancient messaging platform so iconic? Everybody understands it, it’s adaptable, and nobody, in particular, owns it. It is like the internet itself.
Except for spam filters and spam laws, it remains the wild west of creativity. It’s a system, which I believe is much like our vast oceans of the earth, yet to be fully explored. Since I started blogging online around the 2008 – 2009 era, I have always heard about the power of email marketing. In my first blog, I did start list building, but the list never got very big. The group I was targeting was very niche, and many of them weren’t very computer savvy. I got emails from them asking me if they could sign up using their wife’s email because they didn’t have their own.
Then around 2014 -2015, I started helping a couple of restaurants with their email marketing campaigns. It went well. We had 50% to 60% open rates and could trigger sales on certain dishes right through the campaign. On one occasion, one of the owners got stopped by a random person in the grocery store to talk about how much he enjoyed the emails. The owner was wearing a jacket with the restaurant’s name on the back.
Another lady told me she enjoyed the emails so much; that she couldn’t wait until she got home to read them on Thursday night. At one point, she got dropped off the email list through a technical glitch in the software, and she made me sign her back up myself to make sure everything was okay. So, what did we do differently than everyone else to get that type of response? (typical open rates for the restaurant industry in our area were about 20% – 30%. I don’t know exactly, but I can tell you certain things I did make sure I did every week when I wrote the emails.
Email Marketing Tip #1; Tell a story at the beginning of every email
I love stories. I was told everyone loves stories. I started using stories at the beginning of every email and people started responding. That story I told about a patron stopping the restaurant owners at a grocery store, he said he loved the story I used in the email. Stories are key. They help form a bond with the reader and give them a little insight into our lives. We want to form a bond with our readers. This is how we get followers instead of just getting readers.
If there is any writing skill I recommend above all others, is storytelling. Storytelling is a skill in itself. For some people, it comes somewhat naturally. Others it takes a little practice, but don’t worry if you are not a natural, it is entirely possible to learn.
Email Marketing Tip #2; Schedule the email to go at noon on the eve of a big promotion
Scheduling email is sometimes circumstantially specific, but It seemed to hold every time I used it. If you have an event coming up, schedule an email to go out at noon the day before the promotion. I used this method to promote music venues at a bar and fish fry events at a restaurant. It worked great every time. My original thinking was that, at lunch, people begin thinking of what to do at night or for the weekend.
Especially on Thursdays and Fridays, people are thinking about the weekend. I say to start promoting the day before because it takes a day to organize with friends and plan a night out. I think if you have a more significant event you will want to start promoting earlier. I suggest thinking about your event and its scale.
Then think about yourself finding out about it. How early would you call your friends or family, and set a plan to go? When would start to plan? How long would you need to pull together a group to enjoy it? If the event would be something that only your immediate family would attend, you might need a little less lead time. If it’s the type of event in which you would want to get a group of friends together, maybe a little more lead time would be appropriate.
Email Marketing Tip #3; Save the sales pitch to the end and always have a call to action
I always used the bulk of the email to bond with the reader. Tell them stories. Fill them in on what is going on. Then in a brief area at the bottom of the story, I send in the sales pitch or the pitch to go to the event. And, I always have a call to action. The typical ‘Call Now,’ ‘Space is limited, so make your reservations.’ actually do work. Use them in every email.
Email Marketing Tip #4; Speak to them like you are sitting there talking to them
This is similar to the bonding experience with a story. When people are relaxing reading your email, they want something easy to read. They want an easy read that speaks to them like a friend. This is why you need a rough avatar to envision as you write. I’ve learned to love to write like this. It’s fun. As the voice in my head just rolls off what I want to say, I just copy it down. Often it is horrible English, and It needs a little more editing than other times. It’s all meant to connect with the reader.
The strength of email marketing is why most top internet gurus and business owners continually recommend starting your email list-building activities early. Some marketers only have lists. They don’t even have a website. I was on the list of a wine seller for years who crafted beautiful email conversations with his list every week to sell his weekly pick.
He was rumored to be nomadic and traveled from winery to winery mailing his list along the way. He had an assistant at his home base; I never knew where to process the orders which came in as email replies on the emails he sent. With all the emphasis on social media, he sat quietly in the background, carving out his niche of email marketing; which remains the most powerful marketing platform on the internet.
Do you have a cool experience with email marketing? Are you currently involved in creating email campaigns for yourself or your job? Tell me about them in the comments below. If you would like to sign up for my mailing list, you’ll find an area to the right where you can do so.
Be safe,
Kevin