This week I want to cover the basics of an effective email marketing strategy that supports and supplements your practice. First, let's address a common misconception about email marketing. It's not spam and it's not a personal note from an old friend. It's something in between. Used correctly, email marketing is a powerful relationship-building and profit-building tool for businesses.
There are many reasons why you should make email marketing your top priority but a big one is: email is the #1 communication channel. While Facebook has over 1 billion users, to create an account you need to sign up with your email address!
Let's have a look at 5 essential steps to building your email marketing strategy.
Anyone who is online has an active email address.
5 ways to build your email marketing strategy
1. Establish your goals and objectives
Research your industry to see what the average open rates and click-through rates are. This will help provide you with contextual information to back up your goals. What do you want people to do after they read your email or newsletter? If you want them to view your website, create click-through rates and website traffic as your goal. If your goal is to create profit, establish an objective of increasing your conversion rate.
Having 2-3 focussed goals helps clarify the purpose of your strategy and keep track of your performance on a specified timeline.
2. Create a way for customers to sign up
A mailing list is a group of users who have given your practice permission to send them relevant content with their personal information. To build that list, you need several ways for prospects to opt in to receive your emails.
Like I mentioned in the last edition of the Digital Practitioner Program, two key locations to place your sign-up form is the Homepage and the Contact Us page.
3. Choose your content format
Do run a blog on your website? Or perhaps, you share insightful tips on your social media channels? What type of content will you assemble for your newsletter? If your service is about natural health and wellbeing,
As a practitioner, do you run a blog on your website talking about your service? Or perhaps, you share insightful tips on your social media channels to get in touch with your audience? What type of content do you want your email newsletter to share with your growing mailing list?
The answer is subjective but you can start by learning about the different types of email campaigns that exist, then decide which is best for your audience!
4. Create a content schedule
After you figure out the content you will be sharing, you now need to decide how often you will contact your mailing list. Sticking to this consistent schedule will help build trust and so they don't forget about you.
5. Measure your results
Measuring your email performance helps to show you if your time and effort is leading to accomplishing your goals. Being meticulous about every key metric will help you make small changes to your emails that will yield large results.
The key takeaway
Email marketing is a very cost-effective way for practitioners to communicate with their customers and producing effective email newsletters is an essential piece of any email marketing strategy.
Originally published on Jun 24, 2021
