4 TIPS FOR YOUR E-MAIL MARKETING GAME

The proportion of the population using the Internet to send and receive e-mail will be 86% in 2019. For 2018, the number of e-mails sent (excluding spam) in Germany is estimated at 848.1 billion. E-mails are no longer just read at the office desk or at home: Four out of five Germans use e-mail on their smartphones. This means that e-mail is still the number one communication medium.

Correctly implemented, e-mail marketing is still an effective marketing method, even in times of social media. Provided your company sends out its e-mail campaigns in a targeted manner. And that’s to customers who hope to receive useful information about your company or your products from their newsletter registration. You should definitely refrain from randomly sending out advertising e-mails. They will only clog up your inboxes, cause frustration and, in the worst case, give your company a permanent place in your spam folder. So the magic word is opt-in mails.

Your mailing list is worth its weight in gold!

Your email list is not just a list, it’s something that’s part of your business performance. Why? Because it allows you to have direct contact to people who have either already invested in your company, are interested in your product, or have a special interest in your industry. So, if you are concerned about the long-term growth of your company, building a valuable mailing list should be one of your priorities. We have put together 4 steps for newcomers to email marketing that can help you build a solid mailing list.

When it comes to gathering initial email contacts, it’s best to start with the apparent opportunities:

• Take advantage of in-person client meetings and networking events. Ask if they would like to receive your newsletter.
• Use telephone customer contacts to offer to send interested customers exciting information on the topic.

This way, you can build up your first mailing list relatively quickly. To boost the growth of your list beyond that, you need to make it as easy and exciting as possible for everyone to sign up. Strategically placed signup forms on your website are a great way to do this. Various email marketing software platforms offer handy generators for such form boxes, which provide you with a snippet of code that you can place in different places on your page.

New signups through lead magnets

With the number of promotional emails everyone is exposed to, the question naturally arises: how do you get people to voluntarily subscribe to yet another newsletter – let alone buy your products after they’ve subscribed to this one? The answer is easier to answer than it is to implement, yet it is entirely feasible: At the end of the day, it comes down to the right mix of incentive, signup form, and quality, valuable content. That’s why we have three more tips on how you can get more signups to boost your sales.

In order for someone to subscribe to your mailing list, you have to offer a potential subscriber an added value, a so-called lead magnet, in exchange for their e-mail address. So a lead magnet is nothing more than a gift you give your subscriber to get them to subscribe to your list. It doesn’t matter what kind of gift you choose: the main thing is that it outweighs the price of subscribing.

Here are some examples of lead magnets:

Once you have decided on a lead magnet, you should build a landing page that is 100% aimed at getting people to subscribe to your newsletter. You should therefore refrain from disturbing factors such as sidebars or advertising. Which content is relevant for this page:

• A convincing headline
• Testimonials to underline your credibility
• Short text or video of your lead magnet
• Advantages of subscribing to your newsletter
• Registration form

No matter how good your lead magnet may be – if no one sees it, it’s useless. Fortunately, there are endless possibilities to send your visitors to the landing page of your lead magnet:

Share the link via social media

With an attached post on Facebook or Twitter you have the possibility to present your lead magnet to your visitors directly when they enter your site. And as the first post on your fan page. Furthermore, you can add a call-to-action button on Facebook and link directly to the landing page. If anyone knows their fans, it’s you – you should take full advantage of this when sharing your landing page links on social media: Follow the interests of your fans and use pictures and eye-catching headlines to direct them to the page.

Promote your page on Google AdWords & Facebook

If you find it difficult to generate traffic, the easiest way to change this is to use paid advertising. You can use Google AdWords or the Facebook ad manager for example. How to become the Facebook ad queen is explained by the guys from Bang Bang Burgers & Beer, who successfully created a burger empire with the use of Facebook ads.

Ideally, the message of your ad will address a problem that potential customers might have. With your lead magnet, you can then provide the desired remedy.

For example, imagine someone has opened a new ice-cream parlor, they lack customers and your landing page offers newsletter subscribers valuable tips for local marketing. Your ad would therefore be aimed at small to medium-sized local businesses that have just opened their store.

Link your landing page in blog posts

Let’s stay with the example from above and go one step further. Not only do you have a great article on local marketing up your sleeve, but also your own blog, or video content on marketing? Then you should also point out the link to your lead magnet in related blog articles and videos.

This method is called content upgrade. Why Upgrade? Because readers of an article or viewers of one of your videos are already familiar with your content and obviously interested in it. These readers/viewers will also tend to click on the landing page link to download your guide via local marketing and enter their email address in exchange.

For example, in an article about offline marketing campaigns, you could link to your marketing guide and give the reader a content upgrade.

Link the landing page in your e-mail signature

As a company with an online affinity, you send and answer a lot of e-mails every day. This is an excellent opportunity to place the link of your landing page exactly there to reach quite a few people.

Your e-mail signature is predestined for this. You can use it advantageously to place a direct link to your landing page and discreetly point out new offers in capital letters.

Email marketing can be a very powerful and important channel for your e-commerce business. Because unlike other channels like SEO or social media, your email list isn’t nearly as volatile and changing. In fact, over time, a well-built list can become a loyal support for your business. A support that will help you to get new and returning visitors in the long run. E-mail marketing should therefore not be underestimated among the countless possibilities to address your target group. The best thing is to start acquiring new visitors today! Our 4 steps for e-mail marketing beginners are only the tip of the iceberg. Always in mind: Create added value.