As a marketer who works online with websites, social media, and email marketing campaigns every day, you think I would be sick of this stuff by the time I get home!
But it’s actually just the opposite. I’m a marketer and a consumer, which means I also benefit from companies who use these tools to their advantage. There are a few companies that I regularly am waiting for their email blast to appear in my inbox each month. As a business, they have trained me to know when the email will be arriving and what I can expect when I receive it.
How did they do this?
This isn’t a crazy new concept, in fact, it may be simpler than you think. Businesses got me excited about their email list by talking to me where I was already engaging with them. This could happen in a variety of places, online, on social media, or in the store.
Email marketing is a great tool for businesses to use to regularly to contact customers, generate sales, and build relationships. You should be using it to your advantage and regularly talking about your email blasts to get people to sign up AND to keep people engaged.
It’s pretty common to talk to people about signing up for your email list. You can ask them at the register, put a sign up form on your site, and have a sign up form on Facebook. Great! Hopefully you are building your list and regularly sending emails to your customers who are asking for you to contact them (hey, that’s what it means when they give you their info!).
But we need to do a better job of reinforcing the value of our email campaigns to customers who have already signed up. Let’s make it a priority to build some hype around our email blasts! When you have a customer at the register about to check out, say to them “Hey, we sent out a 20% coupon yesterday did you get it?” Whether or not they have it is fine, give it to them anyway but make it a big deal. “I’d be happy to give it to you this time, but be sure to check your inbox before coming in next time for exclusive offers to save you money!”
You can use a very similar approach online! Start by creating posts on Facebook and Twitter a few days prior to your e-blast going out. Something as simple as “An exclusive offer will be sent to our email club this Tuesday! Sign up today if you’re not a member yet so you don’t miss this great deal!” Continue posting enticing messages once per day until the e-blast is sent out, but continue to change up the message to keep it exciting for fans of your page. This concept reinforces why people should be on your list and gives new customers a great reason to sign up!