If you run a small business, the chances are you are better at the thing you do in your business rather than the marketing side of things. If this is true for you, then don’t worry. It’s a common situation.
It will come as good news that selling more with your email campaigns in 2021 doesn’t mean adding more technical skills to your bow. In fact, everything that’s mentioned here is straightforward to set up. You can use these tips with a free Mailchimp account or a similar email provider.
You don’t need to pay for anything extra or do anything ‘technical’ that’s new to you. All you need to do is have a little strategy and stick to it.
Content calendar
Let’s start with your content calendar – or your absence of one, as is the case for many small business owners. If you don’t yet plot out your email content, then you are missing a trick.
Having a dedicated weekly or fortnightly newsletter that goes out consistently does wonders for your sales. That regularity builds familiarity and trust with your readers. Furthermore, if you are sending some valuable content each week for people to enjoy, then they will look forward to your newsletters, open them, and possibly consider whatever offer you mention at the end in your call to action.
This doesn’t have to mean creating more work for yourself. For example, you could take a look at the content you have been sharing on social media lately and repurpose it for your newsletters instead of writing something new each time.
Due to social media algorithms, most of your fans won’t see your social content anyway, and if they did, they might have been too busy to read it at the time. This is why you shouldn’t feel bad about repurposing content – it’s actually a brilliant move.
Try out regularly emailing from your content calendar for a few months, then look at your website metrics and see where your boost in sales is coming from. Your email efforts should make an impact you can measure.
New product launch week
Every time you launch something new, give yourself a big window for that launch to make sure you catch as many people as possible.
We are all so busy these days. So having a single-day launch is not a smart option, as many people will miss it. Instead, when you are in launch mode, make it a week-long event, with different discounts or content to share each day, to make it interesting for those fans who are more present.
If you only have one new product to sell and one piece of content to share, you could still find a creative way to fill your launch week promotion period. You could set up a ‘discount countdown’ where you send an email and post on social every day. Starting on a Monday with the biggest discount, such as 70% off – each day the discount could reduce by 10%, to 60%, then to 50% and so on.
Amazon Kindle countdown offers are a great example of how this works. People see the excitement of the discount slowly decreasing and feel inspired to jump in and grab a bargain. It’s a good way to build excitement into a launch.
Having something like a countdown promotion is a rare excuse to send a daily promotional email. Just remember not to do this too often, as people will get bored and eventually unsubscribe. In short, have a good reason to send an email: a big promotion or a weekly content-based email newsletter.
Keep growing your email list.
Of course, your email list needs to be constantly growing to sustain your business in the long term. There are many ways to keep on growing your list, both online and in the offline world.
Use social media to invite people to sign up to your list via your landing page in the online world. For example, you can offer discounts exclusively for email list members. Or you might prefer to create a digital gift as an incentive to join your list. Popular options are ebooks, MP3 tracks, or exclusive video content.
Many free and low-cost email software providers have this function built-in. If you need a new account, check out Mailchimp or Convertkit.
You can invite people to the same landing page with the same offer when you meet them offline. As business events begin to return slowly, there will be countless opportunities in the coming years to hand out your business cards at expos and talks.
Check outBusiness Cards to create something fresh to hand out at your next event. Add the URL for your landing page to your card to keep that list growing.
In summary
So there you have it – some straightforward ways to sell more with email marketing. As I hope you can see, this is really about being consistent, with the occasional big promotion to keep things exciting.
But that consistency is what will affect your bottom line the most. Email marketing is about building that routine and sending something people will want to read in a way that they come to expect.
If you send a newsletter on the same day every week, it will give people a familiar feeling. As a bonus, if they have enjoyed your email content previously, then seeing you in their inbox again will give them a good feeling too.
Eventually, your readers will take up the offers in your email when the time and offer are right for them. But, until that happens, stay consistent and trust the process.
