Why You Should Keep Sending Emails

A few months ago, I discussed why email is a superior marketing tool over social media. Well, the news continues to worsen for social media. A recent report by McKinsey & Company had this to say:

“If you’re wondering why marketers seem intent on e-mailing you more and more, there’s a simple explanation: it works. E-mail remains a significantly more effective way to acquire customers than social media—nearly 40 times that of Facebook and Twitter combined.”

Ouch…take that, Mark Zuckerberg! You can claim to have all the “likes” in the world, but “likes” don’t equal much in the way of customers. Sure, the social media zealots will continue to make claims that Facebook and Twitter represent the future of marketing. But, the numbers don’t lie. Email is the way to go.

What does this mean to you? Two things:

1. You should always be growing your email list. My most successful clients have email lists with over 10,000 subscribers.
2. You should be sending effective email campaigns. You can’t email once a quarter and expect results.

How do you grow your email list? Two great ways:

1. Your website: Make signup boxes easy to see on your site. Then, give away something really good for free to get people to signup for your email list, such as an e-book, special report, exclusive short story, etc.

2. Your events: Encourage people in your audience to signup for your newsletter by putting slips of paper in each seat that are easy to fill out.  Give away a cool prize at your event and tell people to signup for your newsletter by filling out the forms in their seat. Use the forms to conduct a quick drawing for the prize. If done well, this technique can get over 80% of the audience to signup for your email list.

How do you send effective email campaigns? Two ways:

1. Provide consistent value: Send subscribers content that they will legitimately appreciate, including helpful articles, statistics, research, how-to guides, short stories, pictures, recipes, travel tips, updates, etc. Make people look forward to your mailings. If your open rate is less than 20%, most people probably find your emails too boring.

2. Create a call to action: Motivate the people on your list to take action by offering special prices or coupon codes for a limited time, such as a “25% discount for the next 48 hours.” Don’t let people wait. Give them incentive to buy in the moment. If your response rate is low, either your pricing is too stingy or you’re not creating a sense of urgency.

Facebook and Twitter may be good ways to stay in touch with friends and family. But, they’re not good at helping you land more customers. Stick with the marketing tool that is 40 times more effective. That’s why you should keep sending emails.