If you're looking for quick ways to invigorate your inbound marketing campaigns during these cold winter months,
you might have a great resource right under your nose: your existing email list.
Emails aren't solely for product announcements and special promotions. They're also a great tool for spreading content, driving people to your website, and encouraging social activity. Besides, they're also a fine way to keep your business alive in your leads' minds, by reminding them that you're still interested in them.
So, let's talk today about how you can leverage your email lists in your 2014 inbound marketing strategies!
Email: The Forgotten Social Network
But first, a small note on legal matters...
How Do You CAN SPAM?
We find some businesses are hesitant to get too involved in email campaigns because of the CAN SPAM Act of 2003.
However, there are only a few guidelines you have to follow when you're emailing anyone who has already voluntarily given you their email address for business purposes.
Emails to your qualified leads and client list should:
- Contain a non-deceptive subject line.
- Have at least one line of text.
- Contain a working option to opt-out of future mailings.
- Include an active human-monitored email address for replies.
- And (this is sometimes forgotten) it must include your physical address as well.
As long as you're adhering to those very basic rules, which are pretty commmon sense anyway, you're free to send promotional emails to anyone who's already given you permission to email them.
Making Your Email List Active And Involved
1 - Make The First Line Count.
This is advice to remember on any promotional email: Because so many personal email listings now show the first 250 or so characters of the message alongside the subject, the first sentence is nearly as important as your subject line.
Use it as a sub-header, or include some other hook to make people click. For your email to be read at all, it has to stand out from the other emails in their box.
2 - Announce New Premium Content
You shouldn't send out an email for every blog, but whenever you create new upper- or middle-funnel premium content, an email makes a powerful Call-to-Action. In fact, the copy can be substantially adapted from your landing page for the offer. Keep it short and to the point.
3 - Encourage Shares
Emails are a great time to remind people, especially your best customers, about the importance of social sharing in growing your business. Word-of-mouth is your best advertisement, after all.
If you have an active and engaged audience already who are willing to advocate for you, they can quickly spread word of your new products or ideas.
Accordingly, make sure you include buttons to follow you on your various social media outlets, as well as an RSS feed for them to subscribe to your blog.
4 - Create Micro-campaigns
It's not always a good idea to blindly mail your entire list at once. Do some segmenting, and divide up your email list according to target demographics like sex, age, income, or job title. (These are all great pieces of data to collect with landing page signups.)
For example, you might send a customized email, with more executive styling, to your C-level contacts.
Generally speaking, the more an email seems to speak directly to a particular person, the more likely they are to click. That sort of direct targeting can't be achieved with large bulk mailings.
Ask Your Customers Questions
Finally, don't forget that one of the best ways of creating email content that your clients enjoy is to ask them what they want to see! Reach out in an email, or through social media, and get their suggestions for content they'll share and enjoy.
And, of course, for more suggestions on inbound marketing or a free consultation on how to jumpstart your online presence, please let us know what you need!
