10 Email Marketing Ideas for Your Business
If you are a Gen-X’er or before, like me, you know that when email became mainstream it was a wonderful thing. Nothing was more exciting than logging into your AOL email inbox and hearing the phrase “you’ve got mail”! (Yes, to you millennials reading this, “you’ve got mail” is a real thing!) It was a way to communicate immediately and effectively.
However, after several years of email scams, endless spam, growing inboxes, and of course, social media, it seems that email has fallen by the wayside.
You may wonder to yourself, should I still be using email marketing for my business?
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Why Should You Use Email Marketing?
The simple answer is yes.
Despite what people are saying, it is still important to use email marketing in your overall strategy. According to the Direct Marketing Association, (DMA) email marketing efforts return $39 for every $1 spent.
That is one heck of a return on investment.
If you are still not convinced; here are a few more researched reasons why email marketing is still important for your business:
- Reach Mobile Users – According to an April report from Pew Research Center, 52 percent of US cellphone owners access their emails from their phones. In addition, 3 out of 5 business emails are opened on a smart phone. You may feel that text works better to get your message out but consider these reasons why email still rules; it works on other devices besides phones, emails are free (text can cost money), and there is far more space in your email to communicate your message.
- Email coupons – Do you subscribe to your favorite store for the coupons? I know I have several emails waiting for me in my Hotmail from my favorite brands. You had better believe that if I see a 40% off coupon from Land’s End, I am going to take a look! E-coupons are big business and email marketing is how they are delivered.
- Email marketing is inexpensive – In our IMU Biz Nation Facebook group, we should you how you could use email marketing for free. It’s quick and easy, and you can get started on your first email marketing campaign in no time!
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Email allows you to reach your audience more directly than any other marketing effort, including social media like Facebook, Twitter, etc. Social media is a fast and busy environment. How fast does your news feed update on Facebook? Every time you swipe, do you see the “New Stories” button appear? Email allows you to speak directly to your subscribers, presenting your offers and new products to them off of noisy social media, and directly to them via their inbox.
Email Marketing Ideas
Now that we’ve convinced you to use email marketing in your overall strategy, we won’t leave you hanging and not provide any ideas for you to get started.
Here are 10 ideas to use in your email marketing:
- Create a Rewards Club –
Use an exclusive club to make your subscribers feel special and also to generate excitement for an offer that you have coming up. Do you have holiday packages you are promoting? Giving early access to your club will make them feel special and loved.
- Newsletter
Make sure that your subscribers do not miss out on the great stuff you are ready to own schedule, but make sure you are consistent.
- Behind the Scenes
Use email to send a recap of your latest conference, office event or volunteer event that you and/or your staff took part in. Showcase your culture and offer your readers a look inside your day to day!
- Customer Success Story
Use your email to share a case study that shares an awesome client who has been successful with your products and services and is also happy with you and your company.
- Top 10 List
Create an email that shares top tips for using one of your products or how they can enhance what they’ve learned and implemented with your services. For example, our Instagram for Business master class takes the user how to build a successful business account on Instagram. As a follow up, we may send an email giving our readers a list of the top 10 highest converting Instagram posts.
- Blog Post Round Up
Create a roundup of your latest or most popular blog posts from the last month and send this out in a newsletter format. This will get your links to your readers who may have missed it the first time around. You can also gather up your favorite posts around the internet concerning your topic. It is a create way to create outbound links from your website. Google or look on Pinterest for newsletter format ideas.
- Use Themes
Create unique emails by using themes throughout the year. For example, Thanksgiving is in November, so you could create an email that focuses on the reason for the season. Offer a look into your company or personal experience of gathering food for your local food bank. Vertical Response offers a full list of ideas to use throughout the year.
- Thank You Email
Speaking of the reason for the season, you can use your email marketing to simply say thanks to your email subscribers and customers. These are the ones who support you along the way and they deserve a word of thanks every once in a while!
- Ask for Feedback
Every once in a while here at IMU, we will ask our subscribers to take a survey or reply to a question in our email. We are always looking to improve what we do, and need feedback from our readers to improve what’s most important to them. Additionally, if a customer makes a purchase you can send a thank you email asking what they thought of the purchase process, or the product itself.
- Reminder Email
Do you have a sale going on that is about to expire? Be sure to send a gentle reminder to your email list to let them know they are about to lose out. Note* Be careful with your subject line! Readers don’t want to feel like they are only good for their money.
Summary
Email marketing can bring real revenue into your business. Be sure to think beyond the email blasts asking people to buy, buy, BUY! Your email list is your biggest asset in your online toolkit; bigger than your social media following. People have taken the time to sign up and give you their email address partly if not mostly because they want to hear from you! Be sure to nurture them as you would any other customer or friend in your business.
Happy Emailing!
WOW! So many tips. Sometimes it is great to be encouraged that what you’re doing does matter! I didn’t know the return was a $39 return for every $1 spent! That’s huge! Thanks for the new ideas and encouragement!
I just had a conversation with a colleague about this yesterday. I like email for marketing. I can be personal, yet less time consuming. I love when clients respond to my emails with a personal update!
I admit it: I don’t email my list enough, and I haven’t made attracting new subscribers a huge priority. There is no question that I need to put more time and effort into email marketing. You’ve given me a great list of ideas–love the ‘top 10’ suggestion!
Great ideas.
Yes, I still believe in emails. I use them to send newsletters and updates to my subscribers. It always feels good to be getting feedback from customers, too. I included a survey so I can figure out how the website can be improved.
What a terrific list of content ideas for email marketing. I’m going to do a conference recap for my next email to my list! Thanks for putting this together.
Great ideas! Email marketing is something that I’ve been putting off for far too long. Time to jump on this!