#1 in Our 20 for 20 Series
Welcome to “20 for 20” where we share our 20 Best Tips for Email Marketing and Business to celebrate our 20th Anniversary. In today’s video, CEO Ken Mahar will discuss why having an email marketing strategy is one of the most important first steps towards a successful campaign.
When we talk to business owners and ask them what they want from their email marketing campaign, invariably we hear, “Oh, that’s obvious, we want to grow our businesses.” Ok, I say. What’s the number one thing holding you back from growing your business? And the answer might be, “Well, we need more leads.” Ok, tell me about the leads that you’re getting now and what happens to them. That might lead to a discussion about the effectiveness of their sales team or how they don’t have enough salespeople.
So from this one discovery call, we might need to build an email marketing campaign that does a great job at generating leads. Or we might need to focus on converting the incoming leads into sales opportunities. The campaign could also be about an automated pre-sales series, or an automated follow-up series that helps lighten the load of an overloaded salesforce. Maybe they need a recruiting campaign to hire more salespeople.
So having the right email marketing strategy is akin to having a road map. It can tell you HOW to get where you’re going, but you have to start first with the destination. And by the way, the destination might surprise you.
The destination might be how to:
- Educate your audience
- Establish thought leadership
- Drive repeat business
- Build a new brand
- Build customer intimacy
- Build customer loyalty
- Improve online reviews
- Restore trust
- Lower operational costs
- All of the above
Once you have your destination in mind, then coming up with the strategy is a lot easier. You’ll still want to take into consideration your audience, the demographics, the psychographics, your unique position in the marketplace, the customer’s journey, your other marketing initiatives and the like—but figuring out the ultimate goal FIRST will help you get there.
So today’s tip is this: Start with the end in mind—what do you want to accomplish in your business this year? Have that dictate what your email marketing campaign is going to be about.
If you would like more helpful tips on how to succeed in email marketing and business, be sure to sign up for “20 for 20” and then watch your inbox.
By the way, for each of our 20 tips we’ll be drawing one random winner from our email list and to kick things off right—today’s prize is $100 cash. Congratulations to Phil Plemast***@gmail.com. Please contact us to claim your prize.
Be sure to open your next email when we’ll talk about how to build your email list and to find out if you are our next lucky winner.
Sign up below to get 20 for 20 – our best tips for email marketing and business. As a bonus, we’ll send you our Top 5 Email Marketing Mistakes that almost all businesses make. Once you’re on our email list, you’ll also be eligible to win one of our giveaways announced every month via email.
