‘Get the word out’: email marketing advice

Adam Lovelock, head of online marketing at Coconut Creatives, reveals how to maximise clever email marketing for your brand.

Over the past few years I have been asked one question more than any other: “Is email marketing here to stay?”

As the positive impact of online marketing and social media has grown over the past 10 years, so has the negative view of email marketing. Packed inboxes, increased spam and unsolicited emails hasn’t helped. However, email marketing remains the number-one online marketing tool and is definitely here to stay.

We take our emails everywhere with us. On our laptops, phones and tablets, it’s a great way to stay in contact with prospective clients wherever they go and at any time of day. Remember that prospects need to see or hear from your brand seven to 12 times before they will engage with you; sending regular emails will help to keep your brand in the forefront of their minds and keep them informed about your service or product. Here are my three key tips on using email marketing for your brand.

Send email newsletters

The key to a great email newsletter is finding the balance between trying to make sales and delivering value. The best marketers will try and build relationships through their newsletters by providing interesting useful content to their readers. They know this relationship will turn to sales in the long term.

Make the content of your emails short and concise with a clear call to action to get the best results. Making your emails too long will result in prospects losing interest before they have had chance to click through for more information.

You can also use content that you have already created, such as blogs, press releases and videos, to make email marketing less time-consuming for you and your team. Video is one of the best pieces of content you can use in your email communications because it increases the click-through rates by three times.

The aim of email marketing is to keep your franchise brand in the forefront of prospects’ minds. Providing them with content about your successes and what you have to offer will therefore help you to keep converting them into customers.

Inject some personality into your emails

With people likely to be receiving hundreds of emails every day, your communications must stand out, strike a chord and be memorable. Trying out some creative ideas is likely to enhance engagement with your prospects and improve effectiveness. In a perfect world, you’ll have your contacts looking forward to the next one!

Get your email started with a light-hearted tone; use a conversational, chatty style and put the emphasis on entertaining. Including some common phrases that you use in everyday speech will help to keep it creative and, wherever possible, avoid the corporate jargon.

You can also get inventive with your images. Try some free online editing tools; these can produce surprisingly smart results and are a brilliant solution to the temptation of using images you’ve found via Google, which is generally best avoided. Let your readers get to know you and your team. Interview a different team member each month so your prospects can see the wider team. People buy from people and this is never truer than in franchising.

Ensure emails are mobile responsive

When setting email campaigns it is likely that you will be at your desk, viewing emails on a computer or laptop. However, remember that many of your prospects will be reading your email on their mobile devices – things that look great on a desktop might not look so great on a mobile. It’s therefore really important to make sure the information is concise and that your emails are optimised for mobiles. Most email marketing software can show you what your email will look like on a mobile device, so make sure you use it. So many businesses lose click-throughs and prospects simply because their email was never designed to be viewed on a mobile.

Email marketing is an incredibly affordable way to reach a large number of contacts. The latest research from the Data & Marketing Association states that, in the UK, email marketing returns £32.28 for every £1 spent, up from £30.03 the previous year. So, email marketing is here to stay and advances in modern technology are making it easier and more affordable than ever. If your brand isn’t utilising this important online marketing tool, why not?

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