Email Marketing Guidelines To Generate New Customers
This blog article outlines email marketing guidelines to generate new customers. For an example to refer to I will use a promotional email I executed for a customer of mine who is targeting businesses in the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph. If you're looking to get into Email Marketing for the first time check out our FREE Email Marketing Guide.
Below is the email I will use as my example for this article.
****Email From Line****
Chris R. Keller
****Email Subject Line****
Gold Roast Coffee - Try Our New Espresso Coffee On Us
****Email Body****
Right now you can try Gold Roast's new Italian roast Illy espresso coffee free on us.
Below is a picture of our newest coffee machine. The Francis Francis Y1.
Gold Roast are your local espresso experts (they fix the espresso machines for the local Starbucks and Williams cafes), so why not give their espresso a try!
If you are interested in the free trial let me know. Have a great day "First Name",
If you wish to no longer receive these emails feel free to Unsubscribe.
****End Of Email Body****
P.S. If after reading the above you want a FREE one week trial of office Espresso in your office feel free to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The offer is still available.
The above email is structured the way it is for many reasons but lets start at the top. Using email marketing to generate new customers can be difficult but with the right strategy and proper tactics it can be done. The first thing to keep in mind is your audience (who is on your email list). This is assuming you already have a prospect email list. If you don't you will have to either buy one or start collecting emails to make one. Selecting what people to target and creating an email prospect list is a whole other topic. I will maybe blog on this some other time. Once you have your list it will be important to understand who the people on your list are (how old they are, if they are mostly men or women, what they do, what they enjoy etc) as this will help you create content for your email that they are interested in.
Assuming you have an appropriate list of emails the next step is to understand all of the possible actions that can come as a result of your email and which of those actions you desire. After sending an email the following possible outcomes and resulting benefits can occur.
Outcomes Resulting From Sending An Email
1. Email is not opened because it is not seen (it has went directly to a SPAM folder or the reader simply misses seeing it in their inbox)
Benefit: None
2. Email is seen but not opened
Benefit: If done properly this will help the reader associate your brand with whatever it is you provide for future purchase decisions (read more below)
3. Email is opened and read
Benefit: Reader becomes more likely to think of your company the next time they buy what you sell
4. Email is opened and reader goes to your website
Benefit: Reader will become very likely to think of your company the next time they buy what you sell
5. Email is opened, they either do or do not go to your website but they contact you
Benefit: You have an opportunity to make a sale, if the sale does not happen but you treat them well there is a very high chance they will think of you the next time they buy what you sell
6. Email is opened, they contact you and they become a customer.
Benefit: You make more money
Therefore keep in mind you are trying to get actions 2 through 6 to occur, with the ultimate goal being 6. Through these actions you will acheive the following marketing goals
Goals Of Email Marketing
1. Get People To Become Familiar With Your Companies Name
2. Have People Remember What Your Company Does And What Makes Your Company Different
3. Convince People They Want What Your Company Provides
These goals happen in the progression they are listed and happen at a different rate with each person you email. As with any marketing you need repetition to have it become effective. For the average B2B sale to occur it takes on average 5 contacts between buyer and seller.....that is right......F......I......V.......E. For the average marketing or advertising initiative to stick with a person they usually need to see it seven times. So your probably not going to get many customers from one email....it does and will happen but it will be a very small percentage. If you do..... consider yourself lucky. Instead you will need to send multiple emails to the same people getting them to first learn who you are, then learn and remember what you sell as well as what makes you different, then convince them that they want what you provide. As you send more and more emails you will slowly work prospective customers through these stages so long as you don't upset them and that you can keep your emails out of their spam folders. The key to this is to send emails at an appropriate pace and include things of value to the reader. This could be valuable offers, information, tips etc that are relevant to the people on your email list. As long as you keep your email out of the spam folder every time you send an email it has a chance to result in any of actions 2-6, all of which can benefit your business.
Lets take a look at an email I recently sent for one of my customers.
Email Example Explained (Refer To Example At Top Of This Page)
Who it was sent to
- office coffee decision makers in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph, males and females, mostly secretaries, executive assistants or purchasing managers and mostly between the ages of 30 and 55
Content
- providing an offer (one week free espresso trial) that relates directly to the people I am sending the message to and an offer which they would see value in
From Line
- I list a name, I have found that a name results in higher open rates then stating a company name (done in an attempt to achieve action #3 at a minimum)
Subject Line
- I list the company (in an attempt to achieve email marketing goal #1)
- I list what Gold Roast does by stating coffee and espresso (in an attempt to achieve goal #2 even if they don't open the email)
- I highlight something interesting of value to the people receiving the email (in an attempt to achieve action #3)
Email Body
- I include the person's first name twice using an auto-fill tool, this is done to make the note feel personal and increase the chance of the reader reading the entire note (in an attempt to achieve action #4 or #5 and goal #2)
- I restate the company's name in the first line (in an attempt to achieve goal #1)
- I immediately restate the offer to get the reader interested and desiring to read more (in an attempt to achieve action #4 and goal #2)
- it includes a picture as pictures grab more attention and make people read longer (in an attempt to achieve goal #2)
- I state that Gold Roast is the Espresso experts (in an attempt to achieve goal #2)
- I include a hyperlink to Facebook, a promotional video and the company's website (in an attempt to achieve action #4 and goal #2)
- I restate what it is that Gold Roast does (in an attempt to achieve goal #2)
- I conclude with "if you are interested let me know"... my call to action. I place this at the end because when they are done reading I want them to take action (in an attempt to achieve action #5)
- you will also notice I give the reader an option to unsubscribe if they wish (this is to ensure I remove people from the list that I will only frustrate by sending further emails....which will work against achieving goal #3)
You will notice no where do I try and achieve goal #3 in the email.....which is convince them they need what the company provides or make the sale. This is because for this particular product it is best to ask for the sale in person or on the phone as the prospects require too much information. It is not possible over email to convey enough information that will allow for a prospect to make a decision. For other products it may make sense to try and achieve the sale right from the email if the product or service, its benefits, and pricing are easy to communicate via email. Not every email should follow the exact same format but what you want to do is include as many triggers to each of actions 2 through 6 and to all 3 goals as much as possible.
Metric Statistics - Averages
Obviously what we are striving for is the #6 outcome. But the chance of this happening is low. Here are the average statistics for each of the possible outcomes.
1. Email is not opened because it is not seen (goes directly to SPAM or reader misses it) = 10-20%
2. Email is seen but not opened = 80-90% (Note: Therefore the subject line is key to ensure you get some benefit out of the 80-90% of people who will only see the subject line, refer to example)
3. Email is opened and read = about 10-20% depending on industry you are in
4. Email is opened and reader goes to your website = 1-2% usually (sometimes higher or lower, again it depends on what industry you are in)
5. Email is opened and they contact you = around 0.2%
6. Email is opened, they contact you and they become a customer = around 0.08%
If you use the above averages this means you will need to send about 1,250 emails to get a customer. This may sound like a lot but if you are doing regular emails to even a list of a few hundred this can quickly add up. In addition, if you create good emails and have a good sales team you can dramatically increase the percentages of actions 3 through 6 to out perform the averages. Again your key with email marketing or any marketing for that matter is repetition. So although your first email campaign may not result in hundreds of new customers what it will do is make people more aware of the company. Then when you do your next marketing email or any other marketing initiative they will be that much closer to becoming a potential customer. And in time if you continue with email marketing you will generate more and more customers that it will make it worth while.
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My name is Chris R. Keller. I work at Profitworks Small Business Services helping various B2B small businesses in Waterloo and Kitchener Ontario generate new customers. Feel free to connect with me on Google+ or if you are just interested in getting new customers for your B2B small businesses enter your email in the box provided below and click the "Send Me Free Updates" button.
I hope this article has been thought provoking and of value. Hopefully you can use these email marketing guidelines to help generate new customers for your business in Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Guelph or where ever your business is.....
