Email marketing reportedly has an ROI of $40 for every $1 spent. But your traditional monthly newsletter isn’t getting the engagement it used to.
What should you send to increase engagement with your audience and create new and repeat customers?
With an organized email list, you can pull contacts by their relationship to you (customer, prospect, vendor, lost deal, etc.) and their interests (puppies or kittens? red wine or white wine? homeowners or life insurance?). Then, you can send targeted emails that increase opens and click-throughs, driving sales for your business.
Here are 10 ideas to fuel your email marketing efforts:
1. I thought you might like this article
Perfect For: A new contact you’re building a relationship with.
Not everyone on your email list is ready to buy right now. But that doesn’t mean they should be dismissed. Stay in touch with new contacts by sending a relevant industry article their way.
Say you’re in the insurance industry and met a new contact, Joe, at a networking event. You find out that he’s thinking about buying a house for the first time. He’s not quite ready to think about homeowners insurance, but it’s definitely a concern that will need to be addressed in the next 6 months or so.
Sending an informative, helpful article on homeowners insurance is a great way to stay top-of-mind with Joe and earn his trust. He’ll be happy to turn to you when he’s ready to buy.
2. Quick question…are you still interested?
Perfect For: Those cold, pending opportunities in your pipeline
Sometimes a contact will be eager to make a deal with you one minute, and disappear the next. You’ll never know why they didn’t convert, or if they may still convert – unless you ask.
Maybe the timing wasn’t right. Maybe they went with another solution.
No matter what the scenario, following-up is a great way to get insights into how you can better serve your customers, and potentially win back some of those opportunities you thought were lost.
3. If you liked x, you’ll love y
Perfect For: Your customer base
Are your customers familiar with everything you bring to the table? Repeat customers are a valuable asset to your business. In fact, according to SumAll, returning customers spend 20% more than first time buyers.
If they bought the top-of-the-line fishing rod, they might be interested in some high-tech tackle. Likewise, if they’ve bought into an entry level consulting package and are happy with your service, an upgrade to the next tier might be a great move for them.
Tapping into your customers’ interests can help you upsell and cross-sell products and services for a revenue win.
4. A new post from our blog
Perfect For: Anyone in your audience whose interests align with the post.
Need an excuse to say hello? Use your blog content to keep prospects, customers, lost deals, partners and more up to date on industry topics that they find important.
Build a stronger relationship with your audience by sharing thought leadership and helpful how-tos that are in line with their interests.
They key to increasing blog engagement is not to simply blast the same post to everyone on your list, but to identify the contacts on your list who are actually interested in the topic at hand.
They’ll be more likely to read, and more importantly, share your content, boosting brand awareness and reach.
5. Check out this helpful guide
Perfect For: Those prospects with whom you’re trying to build trust
Your prospects have a problem you can help solve.
Owned content (think whitepapers, guides, ebooks, infographics and videos) that gives actionable advice builds trust with prospects. Help them address an issue today, and tomorrow they’ll be hitting you up for the sale.
6. A compelling sales call-to-action
Perfect For: Hot opportunities who are close to making a buying decision.
You wouldn’t introduce yourself to someone for the first time and lead with your sales pitch – that can be a turn-off.
The same is true with email marketing.
It’s important to add value to prospects that are just looking until they’re ready to buy.
But that doesn’t mean that you should never ask for the sale.
Send a compelling, relevant call-to-action to prospects who have been introduced to your business and who know value you bring to the table. Ask for the sale to convert.
7. Checking in
Perfect For: A follow-up to a sales conversation
Have you had a productive sales conversation, followed by silence? Send a check-in email to stay top of mind and achieve next steps.
8. Thank you
Perfect For: Your amazing customers!
We have our first-time, our repeat, and our loyal customers to thank for our success. Without them, we might not be able to come to work every day and pursue what we love.
The problem is, finding new customers is hard work. Once the deal is won, it’s easy to move on to the next opportunity.
Reaching out to your customer base from time to time is well worth it. Saying thanks with a discount, a customer perk, or just a friendly note will create advocates who will go to bat for you when you need a reference or referral.
9. Check out this video
Perfect For: Staying in touch
Need a reason to reach out to your prospects or customers? No time to create new content? Share a great video with your audience.
In fact, according to a report published by Forrester, including video in an email leads to a whopping 200-300% increase in click-through rate – just make sure you send all of that extra traffic to a relevant landing page.
10. See what our customers are saying
Perfect For: Prospects at the bottom of the funnel who need a push to take the next step in your sales process
Case studies and testimonials are powerful tools that help convert hot prospects into customers. While you may have these assets on your website, getting them into the right hands with email can boost conversions.
With a well-organized email list, you can send personal, targeted messages to your audience. As you earn their trust with relevant, authentic emails, you’ll convert more people on your list into first-time and repeat customers.