- Email marketing is an opportunity to create a connection with your customers, and like with any touchpoint you have with your customers, you want to make sure that experience is consistently branded to represent your company. Below are some tips for creating a consistent brand in your email marketing campaigns.
- 5 Opt-In Forms to Segment Your List Like a Pro. Syed Balkhi March 11. You can use your email marketing software to send them a welcome email to help them learn even more about your brand.
- And you use targeted email campaigns to be connected and solidify relationships. Naturally, you will use consistent branding in all those kinds of endeavors. As you do, you strengthen your company’s brand with every piece of content generated. More than that, your brand will keep reaching new potential customers and clients!
When you’re new to the online biz life, nothing’s better than waking up to a ton of new followers! Not only is it confirmation that you’re making an impact – but it’s an opportunity to convert those followers into buyers!
Consistency in your efforts and policies is the key to manage your brand’s online reputation in the best way possible. Today, the power of the consumer is greater than ever before. A quick, yet sensible response is essential for the mitigation of any problem. Welcome emails are a great opportunity to introduce your new lead to the way your brand does things. Some companies use them to share the benefits of being a subscriber, like specials, product announcements, and content. These emails are also a chance to set expectations, like how frequently your subscribers should expect a new email.
Here’s the thing – to turn followers into buyers, you need a solid follow up strategy. You know, we don’t do business in Facebook Inboxes (where messages get filtered!), or via twitter (who can pitch in 140 characters?).
The easiest, and most professional, way to keep in contact with your audience is email.
Brand Your Emails Like A Product
Lean in, cause I’m covering the big deets – when to invest in an email marketing solution, which (ultra cost friendly) email marketing tool I love, and why it takes the guesswork out of sending emails.
When do I drop the coin for an ‘official’ email marketing product?
Back in the day (like 2009, ha!) you collected email addresses from your fans and followers, and then you would copy and paste them to a list or somehow save them in your email address book. From there, when you needed to send updates, you’d copy and paste them into the address line in your email. SUPER Old School. Emphasis on Old.
The copy and paste method is cool when you have 10-20 people on your list, but we’re fancypants entrepreneurs building mega tribes, right? We don’t have time for that! Not to mention the list of other issues:
- Strangers seeing your email addy.
- Who opened what email, and when?
- Manually unsubscribing people who don’t realize your awesomeness.
- And of course, we all know someone who always hits ‘reply all’ – and no one likes that person. Don’t be that person.
So it comes down to this – if you’re operating a business (no matter the size of your email list), and you plan on growing your brand – you need to invest in an email marketing solution.
Okay, I get it, Nicole – but WHICH email marketing system? And it better not be expensive!
Guys, you know I have you covered on the low business overhead! My two favorites – budget friendly, but value packed email marketing systems are MailChimp and ConvertKit. I’ve tried the fancypants guru favorites InfusionSoft and Aweber. They work – but between the cost, ultra basic templates and the 3-hour tutorial to get the most bang for your buck – they’re so not my style. Especially the cost. Ha!
ConvertKit & MailChimp. That’s easy – but what do they DO?
The real question, is what don’t they do! You can:
- Store all the email addresses you collect in a database.
- Create different customer lists i.e. Facebook lead list or Instagram lead list.
- Deliver emails to the people on your list – this is called a ‘broadcast.’
- Delegate your unsubscribe management to your mmail management system.
- Find out who actually opened your email and clicked the links to greatness you share!
Ok, so obviously all email management systems do these things – but what bells and whistles make Mailchimp and ConvertKit the hot stuff? Well…
MailChimp
- Simple pricing structure (basic level is FREE – my favorite price to pay!)
- Super easy to set up.
- VIDEOS! Their help center has tons of easy to follow videos that SHOW you how to do things.
- Dashboard amazingness – it’s so easy to tell how well an email does. You can tell how many people opened it and how many people leave your list – right at login.
Y’all, when I was a newbie, MailChimp stole my heart. I started with them when I had about 109 people on my list (reminder: I had a blog business BEFORE I launched my consulting company). I even stayed with MailChimp for over a year after that. As my list grew, I needed features that served my Richfriends more – features like ‘segmentation,’. Segmentation allows you to send personalized messages to different people on your list based on what they’ve clicked on or emails they’ve loved. Yep, not everyone wants to see all your business all the time. Once I had over 5000 people on my list, I ‘outgrew’ what I wanted from MailChimp…so I graduated to ConvertKit…well sorta.
The thing before, my newest love – ConvertKit!
I heard from industry greats that InfusionSoft was the way to go, so I had my team get on that ASAP (I don’t do tech). I dropped the coin, switched to InfusionSoft, and it was not my thing. Complicated, chock full of awesome features (that I had no idea how to use quickly) and my Richfriends were all waiting to hear from me! I needed a new option, and I needed one fast. 60 days later we found ConvertKit and made the switch.
Guys. Y’all. Richfriends…I’m obsessed.
Brand Your Emails Like A Project
ConvertKit does everything MailChimp does PLUS segmentation and it’s cheaper!!!!
Brand Your Emails Like A Professor
What does this mean for you, my brilliant Richfriend?
Check it out for yourself, read up on ConvertKit here. If you do decide to opt for ConvertKit, I am a user and affiliate of their product (like I said- OBSESSED) so use my sign up link: http://mbsy.co/convertkit/22272554
If you have questions that I wasn’t able to answer in this post, please leave them below and let’s chat!
Do The Work and Get Your Coin!
We all know the importance of the everyday email… With 188 billion emails being sent daily (EDIT – Excluding spam), the majority of these coming from businesses – there is no way that companies can afford to slacken off when it comes to making each email as professional as can be.
![Brand your emails like a product Brand your emails like a product](/uploads/1/2/6/5/126522159/803173067.jpg)
But what makes an email ‘professional’? And how on Earth can we create ‘branded emails’?
To help you out, I have gone ahead and sketched a quick mock-up of what the Team atCrossware Mail Signatureconsider a ‘professionally branded email’
Branded Header
Just like the letterhead of old, we believe that every email should offer your brand image at the top of your communication. People aren’t going to scroll down just to see your logo – so do the work for them and put it right in front of their eyes! This also sets the scene for the rest of your email.
Correct Name and Contact Details
How often do you see emails with an incorrect job title, a phone number with a typo, or even no contact details at all? This leads to unnecessary effort when you then need to contact that person… not too mention company embarrassment when old Bob decides to call himself the CEO one day. It’s vital to pull these details straight from your Corporate Directory so that you can ensure they are correct AND up to date.
Social Media Icons
For the true web savvy company… Add links to any social media networks that your business belongs to, this gives the reader another source of interaction with your company. The average business users sends and receives over 100 emails every day – make use of this hugely popular medium!
Promotional Banner
We like to think that customers and prospects constantly visit our website, unfortunately this is not the case… BUT we do send them emails every week! Turn every email into an advertising opportunity with an attractive promotional banner, this could include your latest product or sale.
Appropriate Disclaimer
These days it’s vital to be 100% confident that every email being sent from your organisation is compliant with the latest laws and regulations. Specify a standard email disclaimer message to be appended to all emails leaving your company.
Professionally Branding Emails at a Corporate Level?
It’s one thing to know what a really great email looks like… it’s another to implement great email across your entire company! I’m going to mention our product, Crossware Mail Signature, for a quick product plug:
If your company is currently using IBM Lotus Notes for email, and you’re after branded emails or professional signatures, then definitely check outour website. Crossware Mail Signature allows you to centrally manage your entire organisation’s email very VERY easily! We offer the best server-based solution out there and your email signatures will be appended on every single email leaving your company – whether it is sent from your PC, the web or your mobile device.