Make your emails work for you

Email marketing can be a great tool in your marketing toolkit. Your email list is a valuable asset for your business, and your tips, offers and news about your company should be providing good value every step of the way. Your emails should be cultivating high engagement. Otherwise, it’s the dreaded “opt-out.”

If you’re already marketing through email, are you taking advantage of all the bells and whistles available through your email service provider? As an Authorized Local Expert & Platinum Solution Provider with Constant Contact, I’m always asked what else marketers should be doing once they’ve hit the send button on their email campaign. Here are my top four tips:
 

1. Share your email campaigns on social media. Every email you send creates its own unique shareable URL. Take that URL and share it on every social media platform your business is on. You can also customize the introductory message that precedes each post to take advantage of the tone of each platform and the ability to insert a photo. (You ARE taking pictures of each landscaping project … right?) A side-by-side before and after photo of your recent project will demonstrate your expertise and talents far better than any article alone can do. You can also use Hootsuite as a social media dashboard incorporating not only your e-news, but other postings to your social channels as well.
 

2. Insert a social media share bar at the top of every email that you send out, whether or not your own business is on social media. You can bet your customers are using social media and this share bar will enable them to share your e-news on the platforms that matter to them. For example, let’s say you send me a coupon in mid-summer that is good for 20 percent off fall plantings. You tell me that this coupon is good for a friends and family discount, too, and you encourage me to forward the email AND share it on Facebook. If I think you’re doing a great job with my landscape, don’t you think I’ll gladly post this on your behalf? And, in doing so, I’ve just become part of your marketing team … a real-life marketing ambassador for you. While you don’t have direct access to my Facebook friends, you can still have a direct impact on their buying decisions. The email you’ve created with your branding now has far greater impact because it’s being seen by people who aren’t even on your email list. This is a huge opportunity for your business.
 

3. Since your emails are being forwarded and shared, it’s important to add the “Sign up for our e-news” button somewhere on your email. It may seem counterintuitive, but you want to make it as easy as possible for people to opt in to your list. While you’re at it, don’t forget to add a link to your website and social media.
 

4. Your email service provider gives you great stats for you to determine whether your emails are getting opened, shared and clicked. Don’t be romanced by high open rates alone. You are looking for a physical and measurable response: Did someone call and book a new landscaping project? Did they click through to an article you shared? Did they share your e-news on social media? Know the goal of each email marketing campaign you send out and have one measurable goal in mind when you hit the send button. Closely track your results so you’ll know what to change going forward. It could be something as simple as placing the call to action “above the scroll line.”

Keep your emails short and remember that just over 50 percent of people are now reading their emails on mobile devices, which means you’ll need to use templates that are mobile-friendly and your readers will not tolerate lengthy emails on their mobile devices. A recent study from Blue Hornet found that 80 percent of email recipients delete mobile email that don’t look good and 30 percent unsubscribe from the email list. Put that all together and what you have is a compelling argument for considering mobile as you build your emails and communications. (And, once they read your mobile-friendly newsletter, are they clicking through to a mobile responsive website? If not, time to upgrade that, too.)

Your next big landscape project is likely to come from your existing customers or someone who is a friend of your existing customers. Your business flourishes on word-of-mouth and never before have small businesses had so many engagement tools at their disposal. Learn how to leverage the online tools available to engage new prospects and watch your business grow.

The author is founder and CEO of The Prospect Finder, consults with growing businesses and nonprofits on email marketing, social media and prospecting strategies, and is an authorized local expert with Constant Contact.