By Rachel Nelson, Public Relations & Events Manager Margaux Agency 

It’s the perfect time to reevaluate your email marketing strategy now that we’re living in a fully virtual business world courtesy of ​COVID-19​ ​lockdowns. Email lists can be a daunting task, you may be thinking: How do I get people to subscribe? How do I keep them from UNsubscribing? How much is too much when it comes to newsletters? Will my email get lost in the shuffle? Or even worse… the SPAM folder??? If you’re interested in elevating your email marketing game in order to grow your business, keep reading!

If you’re a marketer or looking to build up your brand, it’s time to treat your email marketing strategy like your new best friend. Email marketing is a way for you to directly speak to and connect with your audience. This connection is built by trust and credibility between you and potential leads, prospects, clients, and target audience. Email marketing turns you into an information resource, transitioning your relationship from a business partner to a trusted friend. People always listen to recommendations from trusted friends – do you feel your wallet growing yet?

The email list is one of the most important numbers for your business, yes even more important than Instagram followers! There’s a good chance that your followers may not even see your content, but with your email list, these recipients will directly see your content when it’s convenient for them. Reaching an audience that’s actively listening to what you’re saying.

We’re here to help serve your email list in a meaningful way, no spamming necessary! Just follow these five tips below to optimize your email marketing strategy:

#1: Welcome Series 

The welcome series isn’t a simple, generic bounce-back email to a new subscriber, ​it’s a way for you to understand your customers on a deeper level and build a lasting relationship with them​. Articulate what sets you apart from other brands and what you have to offer the subscriber.

In a welcome series, include these three things:

1. Inform the new subscriber what the brand is all about
2. Make an offer that piques their interest (freebie, discount, expert insight, etc.)
3. Allow the subscriber to manage preferences so they can tailor their experience to be relevant to them

#2: Spill a Few Tips & Tricks 

You are starting your email marketing journey because you have something to say, so say it. ​Subscribers must find your newsletter useful to them, adding in a few tips and tricks will keep them happy​…and subscribed! Share your professional insight, expert opinion, and knowledge that you know will help your subscribers. This doesn’t have to be a length blog post about how to amp up your digital marketing strategy. Just a few tips that you’ve found helpful, such as productivity working from home.

#3: Personalize Your Email Marketing Strategy

If your subscribers are a list of trusted friends, then you have to consider personalizing your communications in your brand’s true essence. ​An email list provides you the opportunity to showcase your personality and speak directly to your audience. ​Popping directly into somebody’s inbox and being read by the recipient is personal. Email marketing adds an intimacy factor to your business that an Instagram feed blast may not provide.

Keep it conversational​, write your content in a way that’s meant to encourage engagement and sharing. Your individual voice is so powerful, use it to connect with your subscriber to keep them engaged! Lumping all of your subscribers together will be detrimental. There are plenty of helpful customer relationship management (CRM) software programs that allow you to filter your contact lists where each email is personalized to a specific target group. Be sure to include relevant blog posts, upcoming events, social media updates, and press mentions.

Feeling a little stuck? Check out this article for​ ​Email Design​ inspiration to kick off your email marketing!

#4:  Serve before you sell

Serving your audience first will drive sales in return.​ Email marketing offers a way to serve a specific audience, turning them into new customers or clients of your brand. Cha-ching! Share content that addresses your recipient’s issues and solves their problem(s). This can be done through ways like offering discounts, announcing giveaways, asking for feedback or testimonials, launching products, and freebies. When you serve them, they’ll be excited to listen to what you have to say or sell.

#5: Quality over Quantity

Yes, the email list is one of the most important numbers in your business. ​You must always offer them quality insight, rather than quantity. ​There is nothing worse than an inbox bombarded with pasta recipes when you’re gluten-free, causing your priority emails to be lost in the shuffle. Create intentional, purposeful work that will always better the person reading it. One piece of content in an email can be repurposed across different platforms and included in your blog. This will increase the lifespan of your content and free up your time to tackle your to-do list.

Don’t let email marketing be a daunting task! Once you understand the tricks around efficient email marketing strategies, you’ll see that it’s a vital way for you to connect with your audience. Plus, you can show them what you’re capable of. The most important thing you can do is start the process, one email at a time!