While email seems to be outdated and traditional media in our world of rapidly evolving technology, it still needs to play a key role in every marketer's toolset. I oftentimes talk about the importance of building relationships quickly with your visitors, especially if you spend any time, effort or money trying to drive people to your website.
So how does one establish a relationship with a website visitor?
1. Don't frustrate the user.
That's rule number one. Your site needs to be easy to navigate, so please don't try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to user experience. The quickest way to ruin a relationship is to frustrate them with a confusing site.
2. Great content.
Easy navigation + great content = the right combo. Content is what gets people to spend more time on your site, and increases the chance that they'll come back. Content can be anything from blog posts, articles to videos.
3. A reason to come back.
Sometimes great content isn't enough to get people to come back. There's simply too much information out there that you're competing with. So you need to get people to opt-in to receive "even more great content" from you. That's where email comes in. But don't just offer special deals and weekly updates - offer people premium content in return for giving you permission to stay in touch. Here at Scrappy Marketing, I offer a free guide. At Quillion, we do the same. Adam Wall offers a free 7 day email course that you can opt in to.
Here is what a good email strategy looks like - in my humble opinion:
Find a quality email provider and set-up sign-up forms
I have worked with aWeber, Vertical Response and Campaign Builder. They all do the basics and will work for you. Technology is only a small part of a successful email campaign, as the most important facet is actually doing it.
Give something away for free to get people to tune in
A free guide, an email course, exclusive video content, deep discounts, etc. You need to give away something. The way it works is that people will be sent a link where they can download whatever you're giving away for free, once they've double-opted in to your email list. You should also place some tracking code on that page as that will allow you to see where your email subscribers are coming from.
Whether it's quarterly, monthly or weekly - meet whatever expectations you have set. What makes a great email newsletter? Two things.
1. Make sure people can read it. Email is a tricky tool, so follow standards to ensure that it will be compatible with people's browsers and email programs.
2. Great content. If you don't offer great content, people will unsubscribe. It's that simple.
That's it. Do you have an email strategy?