When you’re in the world of email marketing, you might sometimes ask something like, ‘What is the value of this email?’
It turns out that email marketing is worth a lot of money. How much? Well, according to recent estimates—email marketing is worth 40X more than Facebook & Twitter marketing, combined.
Even so, that question of value is really not as uncommon as you might think. With all of the talk of performance, KPIs, PPC, and the host of other important acronyms that we all know and love, it can be difficult to use this carefully collected and beautifully presented data to represent an actual dollar figure. And if you’ve ever been in a meeting before, you know it’s better to be the person who can explain exactly how much money they made the company than to be the person who can’t, no matter the reason.
So, what do we do about it? Analyze the email campaign again? Again?! Before you do that, let’s take a look at some tried and true techniques to make more money with email marketing and easily track performance. Most of these suggestions are easy additions and quick optimizations that you can pop into your current pipeline without a ton of creative overhaul—let’s dive in.
Cross-Sell Related Products
Identify a related product or service that provides value to existing customers.
If you have a product or service that will go well with a customer’s previous purchase, you can add value and plant the seeds for future engagements with new ads or even by adding some persuasive copy to your regular email communications. Unless you’re selling one single product or service, there’s always complementary product lines and services to make your customers aware of. Examples could include:
- Warranties & Maintenance Plans
- Different Variants of the Same/Similar Product (Color, Flavor, Material, etc.)
- Training/Certification Courses
- Software Upgrades
- Consultations
The possibilities are limitless! Take time to sit down with your team and discuss other products/services your different types of customers might want or need—you can even create a poll using email or social media to gauge interest and find inspiration.
After you come up with your action plan, start slowly. Identify one persona or one type of customer and run a test. If you find success, expand—if something goes wrong, try something else! This is a great way to familiarize your team with your customer and their preferences while making money for your brand.
Thank Your Customers
When customers are asked to spend their time & money with you, they deserve recognition.
Ask yourself just this one question, “Do you say thank you? Well…do ya, punk?” After you search for Dirty Harry on Youtube, really think about it seriously. Does your customer get a thank you email when they engage with your brand? Sending thank you emails can be a great touchpoint, sales opportunity, and added value, all-in-one. Subject lines could be variations of:
- “Thank You For Your Purchase!”
- “Your Purchase Is On The Way!”
- “Thank You For Subscribing!”
- “An Easy Guide To Using Your New Purchase”
- “A Free Gift To Go With Your New Purchase”
You don’t have to give away anything, but if you do have some sort of rewards program set up, this is a great place to incentivize new signups or display ads for specials. You can even build these into the headers of your emails as additions to your current automated sales emails for easy deployment.
Provide FREE Added Value
Don’t be afraid to often educate or reward your customers, and make sure it’s complimentary.
This is what I’m doing right now! This blog is the product of years of experience, trial/error, and tons and tons of reading about a subject that is both fascinating and complex. The information that I’m collecting and providing here is something that, while hard to quantify, is valuable. It can make you money if you understand and implement the suggestions properly. This is the type of thing your customer wants from your brand—free industry knowledge and expertise that will help them grow.
If you don’t have a blog, start a blog. If you have a blog, improve it with better writing, more resources, and valuable information. Send it to your email list and send it regularly.
If your team doesn’t have the resources to start a blog, add free information and tips directly to your emails.
Sell A Product Or Service
Sell something—it’s really that simple.
The most obvious of all suggestions, right? Sure, I’ll give you that one. But, as cliche as it might sound, the fundamentals are important. Businesses often spend entire sprint cycles hammering out and perfecting emails that, at the end of the day, don’t effectively sell a product or a service. They might have gotten caught up in current trends or emulating a competitor’s email they received, the reason doesn’t really matter, the outcome is the same—less money is made and performance is lackluster.
After reading this article, you’re going to do things differently. Quick audit suggestions include:
- Do we have a clear call to action?
- Do we have an attractive image included?
- Are we linking directly to the sales page?
- If it’s a service, do we include multiple links to contact us or schedule an appointment?
- Is our branding professional and front-and-center?
By making sure all of these housekeeping items are in order, you’re going to guarantee that your team has a clear metric for success and value.
Provide Support & Nurture Engagement
How does the customer know that we have the competence and authority to solve his/her problem?
At the end of the day, not every email can or should be a sales email. Some communications still need to be made regarding important announcements, changes to the business, or just simple brand awareness. No one likes being spammed, especially paying customers!
Make sure your email campaigns are complementary to one another and build from one to the next. These are investments you’re making and you’ll get multiple uses out of a well-crafted email.
Still Need Help?
Costello Creative Group can optimize your emails to make marketing easier & more profitable.
The fact is that most businesses are caught somewhere in the unhappy middle of no sales emails and too many—they haven’t sent enough effective sales emails to grow at the pace they want to, or they’ve not had the time to improve the ones they started with.
It all sounds daunting, but with the right guide and an easy-to-follow action plan, effective email marketing is not only possible, but it’s also easy—many business owners just don’t know who to ask! We are ready to hop on a call to discuss your business, your email marketing, and get your team the resources it needs to grow. Schedule a call and let us handle it for you.
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