- Two small business owners share how they started their email marketing campaign.
- They began researching competing tools and formulas.
- Then we figured out how to reward registered subscribers.
- This article is part of our Small Business Marketing series on the basics of an SBO marketing strategy to attract new customers and grow your business .
Whether you are just starting out or looking for new ways to grow your small business, opening a marketing channel can seem like a daunting task.
That's how Davis Nguyen, founder of the job search consulting program My Mentor Supply, felt about adding email to his marketing mix two years after he founded the company.
"There are a lot of things that need to be fixed," he told Insider. "What kind of emails? How often should I send them? Is there a better time? What program should I use?"
After two and a half years of working on these issues, he has reached over 50,000 email subscribers and 75% of his customers come from this channel.
"They join because they are interested in what we do, but it can take several months to a year before they want to send their resumes to companies," he said. "But we do have a list of email addresses so we can keep in touch."
On the other hand, after closing her first job and losing her only source of income, Tanya Dalton had to quickly build a new email list to start her own layout company, Inkwell Press.
"We really had to hit the ground running," she says.
Planted - On launch day, she said, they had no problem getting orders.
She added, "And that's because we're very keen on growing our email list."
Nguyen and Dalton share with Insider the steps they take to keep email programs simple but successful.
1. Do your research and ask for help
Nguyen says if you're worried about anything related to email marketing, there's someone out there who can help.
For example, when he felt overwhelmed when choosing an email marketing platform, he got tipped.
"I wrote to some friends who do email marketing campaigns and asked, 'What program would you recommend if I were starting today?'" "I asked them."
He also suggests posting to Facebook groups for advice, hiring someone on Upwork, or reaching out to your email marketing tool of choice for help setting it up.
"All email software companies want to get started, so customer service is usually good," he said.
Not only did Nguyen start asking for help directly, he also began paying attention to what other people in the industry or similar industries were doing through their email programs.
"I hope they spend money on campaigns that aren't working so they can figure out what resonates and how they can improve," he said.
2. Consider a simple but compelling lead magnet
According to Dalton, one of the best ways to grow your email list is to give people something in exchange for their email address. In marketing parlance, this is called a lead magnet, and Dalton and Nguyen suggest creating a lead magnet that is a small effort on your part, but a huge value for your target audience.
Nguyen pre-computes lead magnets using existing marketing channels and the content he creates.
“For example, if someone attends our free webinar and wants the slides, send them to the website to enter an email address to receive a copy,” he says, adding that he does the same when he uploads the resources. Forums or participating forums. during a podcast interview.
Dalton achieved success by playing a daily planner joke on his life.
"It sounds great," she said, "but at the end of the day, how much does it cost me to give a planner a year? A little bit."
She added that her fans loved it and that people were happy to share their emails for the entry. When you share the prank with others, it increases its visibility by giving people more shares.
3. Now check, measure and repeat
Once you have people on your list, all you have to do is figure out what kind of emails to send, how often, and what topics will catch your audience's attention. Nguyen recommends not thinking about it. Instead, make your best guess and look at the data, he said.
He said he first thought about his email marketing goals — to inform his audience and build trust — and what type of content he thought his audience would enjoy most. Then his team started sending emails and seeing what happened.
"Some of the emails got a lot of responses, so we thought people liked the content," he said. "Others had lower engagement and open rates, so we thought it might not be important."
Also explore more detailed aspects of your emails, and A/B test subject lines, something you can do with most email marketing services to see what generates more engagement. This led Nguyen to regularly send out three types of email: updates and advisory tips, information about upcoming seminars, and a behind-the-scenes look at the company.
However, he's still constantly experimenting with email types and isn't afraid to ask subscribers what they want.
"Twice a year we send out an email asking our audience what content they'd like to see in their inbox," he said. In other words, the simpler approach is often the best.