Email Results

3 things you should be tracking with your email marketing

This month our focus is TRACKING and last week we learned 3 Key areas that you should be tracking for your marketing; however, this week let’s talk about tracking as it relates to EMAIL MARKETING. You may watch the video and/or read the summary below to learn 3 Key things you should be tracking with your email marketing.

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Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on 3 things you should be tracking with your email marketing  |  in Blog, Business, Business Planning, Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Tools, Track

7 Key Email Marketing Metrics You Should Measure and Understand

7 Key Email Marketing Metrics You Should Measure and Understand

If you are using email marketing as a part of your marketing mix (you should be if you are a coach or consultant who wants to grow your business online), you know the importance of being consistent with your email marketing effort.

However, not only do you need to be consistent with the effort of creating and sending emails to your list, but you also have to consistently look at your numbers.  Your numbers tell a story and give you valuable feedback about your email marketing campaigns.

So what numbers should you be reviewing consistently?  In this blog post, I explore 7 metrics that you should measure and understand.

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Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on 7 Key Email Marketing Metrics You Should Measure and Understand  |  in Email Marketing, Email Results, ESP, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants

Why You Shouldn’t Build Your Email List

 Why You Shouldn’t Build Your Email List

Email Marketing is one of the B.E.S.T. modern marketing strategies and one that I always recommend for coaches, consultants, and service business owners.

However, having an effective email marketing strategy can be challenging.  One of the key pieces of your email marketing puzzle is your email list.  If you don’t have a list, then you won’t have anyone to send emails to, no one will read your emails, and you will never get any sales through email, so it is very important to build your email list.

However, you shouldn’t build your email list until you have an email marketing plan.  Many people make the mistakes of building a list and then they don’t have a strategic email marketing plan that will allow them to get business from their email marketing.

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Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on Why You Shouldn’t Build Your Email List  |  in Blog, Business, Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants

How to be Consistent with Your Email Marketing

How to be Consistent with Your Email Marketing

Email Marketing can be a great marketing strategy to grow your business, and is one of the main online marketing strategies that I promote.  In fact, in my last post I talked about the ONE thing you can do to get awesome email marketing results.

However, your email marketing will never work unless your email marketing efforts are consistent, and this is an area that a lot of independent business owners, coaches and consultants struggle with staying consistent with their email marketing.

In this post, I will be sharing two key ways you can stay consistent with your email marketing.

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  1. Create Autoresponders–  An Autoresponder is a series of emails that are automatically sent over a period of time.  Autoresponders are great because they  help you to automate your email marketing.  The hardest part is mapping out the flow of the email sequence, then creating the initial emails, but once they are created, they will pretty much run on autopilot, so this will help you to stay consistent with your email marketing.  There are two types of Autoresponders-  Time-based Autoresponders and Action-based Autoresponders:
    1. Time-based Autoresponders–  Are a series of emails sent out over a period of time.  A time-based autoresponder series could look like this, someone signs up for an ebook, webinar, checklist, email list, etc.  The person receives an email immediately, then in 3 days, then 7 days, then 10 days, then 20 days etc.  A series of relevant emails are sent over a period of time, hence the name “time-based autoresponders”.
    2. Action-based Autoresponders  Are a series of emails sent based on actions taken by the subscriber.  An action-based autoresponder series could look like this, person subscribes, downloads, or requests an ebook, webinar, checklist, etc.  Person opens email and clicks link.  The action of clicking the link prompts the next email in the series, the person opens the next email, this prompts another email, etc.  This autoresponder is based on the actions the individual is taking, hence the name “action-based autoresponder”

Whether you choose Time-based Autoresponders or Action-based Autoresponders, or a combination of the two, Autoresponders are a great way to stay consistent with your email marketing.

2. Publish a Company Enewsletter/Ezine–  Autoresponders are great because they run in the background.  However, most of the time the Autoresponder series ends, so you don’t want to rely just on the Autoresponders, you want to make sure that you are also sending out consistent and timely information to your lists, so having consistent frequent emails in the form of a newsletter is a great way to stay consistent with your email marketing.You will have to decide how often you would like to publish your newsletter (i.e. daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.).  Once you decide how often you will be publishing a company newsletter it is important to stick to that schedule. Since the beginning of this year, I have decided to publish my company newsletter the 2nd Wednesday of every month, and I have consistently published it that day every month this year (no exception).  Sticking to a schedule helps keep you accountable to when your information needs to go out, it shows your audience that you are professional, and it helps to keep your company top of mind.

These are just two main ways that you can be consistent with your email marketing.  What other ways have you been consistent with your email marketing?   Be sure to comment below.

Also, don’t forget to download the Marketing Essentials Checklist of 21 Things You Must do in Order to Get Amazing Results from Your Email Marketing.

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on How to be Consistent with Your Email Marketing  |  in Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants

This ONE Thing Can Get You AWESOME Email Marketing Results

This One Thing Can Get You AWESOME Email Marketing Results
Email Marketing can be a great strategy for your business if done correctly!  In fact, in my last post I talked about
5 Types of Email Content that Get You Awesome Results.

However, the problem is that many business owners, coaches, and consultants are missing a key element in their email marketing strategy, and this one thing is almost guaranteed to get you better results from your email marketing.

So in this post, I will be sharing the ONE thing you can do to get AWESOME Email Marketing Results.

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The one thing that is proven to get you better results on your email marketing effort is segmentation.  If you are not practicing segmenting your list, you are missing out on a huge potential to get better results.

So why is segmentation important?  When your lists are segmented into key groups then you can create targeted messages designed specifically for that key group of individuals, and you get better results from targeted messages rather than general and generic messages.

So here are some steps to segmenting your email lists:

  1. Create Main Lists (i.e. Customers, Clients, Prospects, Email Subscribers, etc.)
  2. Within your main list, segment the list into smaller groups (i.e. One-Time Customers, Repeat Customers, Loyal Clients, Prospects for Product A, Prospects for Product B, Subscribers from Website, Subscribers from Blog Post, etc.)
  3. You can segment it even smaller if you have other types of information available (i.e. Age, Gender, Location, etc.)
  4. Once you have created a segment, your goal is to create a campaign specifically for that particular segment (i.e. special offer for repeat customers who live in a particular area, invitation to prospects who expressed an interest in service A to trial service A, etc.)
  5. Your results will be much better because the message is tailored and directed to a very specific group, so the message will be more targeted and more than likely will resonate more with that particular audience.

So here is an example of an effective segmentation:

  1. Main List-  Prospects
  2. Segmentation-  Realtors
  3. Additional Segmentation-  Women Realtors
  4. Offer-  Invitation for women Realtors to attend a women’s luncheon in which real estate tips will be shared.

Because the list and the offer are so targeted, you will more likely get better results from this email marketing campaign compared to:

  1. Main List-  Prospects
  2. No segmentation-  sent to the entire prospect list
  3. Offer-  Invitation to a business networking luncheon

You may get a response from this type of email, but you will get a much better response from the first example that is more targeted with a segmented list and a targeted offer specifically for that segment.

So if you’re looking to get better results from your email marketing, try segmenting your list and offering specific promotions for each segment.

Are you segmenting your email list?  If so, do you find that you get better results from a segmented list and a targeted email campaign?  Be sure to comment below.

Also, don’t forget to download the Marketing Essentials Checklist of 21 Things You Must do in Order to Get Amazing Results from Your Email Marketing.

 

 

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on This ONE Thing Can Get You AWESOME Email Marketing Results  |  in Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants

5 Types of Email Content that Get You Awesome Results

5 Types of Email Content that Get You Awesome Results

Email Marketing can be a great way to grow your business, stay top of mind, and nurture your leads, but getting real results from your email marketing can be difficult. 

After sending many emails and working with companies in different industries, I have noticed that there are five types of email content that get you the best results.

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  1. Video

    Video by far always gets the most engagement in email.  When sending emails to prospects or clients,  be sure to include a relevant video that will resonate with your audience.

    The key to a successful video is to Keep It Super Short (KISS).  The most effective videos are less than 5 minutes.  People are busy and don’t necessarily have the time to watch long videos, so it’s better to keep it short and sweet.

    When I placed this short (less than 2-minutes)  video, the 3 C’s of Email Marketing, in my monthly email newsletter, it received the most engagement.  Check it out:

  2. Blog Posts

    Informative blog posts always get high engagement in your email, and email is a great way to remarket your blog posts to your email list.

    Pick your top performing blog posts, and include it in your emails when it is relevant to the theme of the email.

    The key is to peak your audience’s interest by including the first few lines of your blog post in your email, and then linking them to the entire blog post on your website.

    Some people include the entire blog post in the email, but I think a better strategy is to include the first few lines, and then have them click to read more.

    I prefer this method because it allows you to track how many people were interested in reading more, you can measure what topics get the most engagement in your email, and it shortens the length of your email (the longer your email the less likely people will read the entire email).

  3. Images

    Most people are very visual, so including relevant images in your emails can help to increase your engagement.

    Information Graphics (Infographics) are great images to create and include in your emails.

    Most Infographics are very long, so including the beginning of an infographic and encouraging your audience to click to see the entire infographic is a great strategy.

    Even if you don’t create the infographic yourself, if it will resonate with your audience, there is no harm in including it in your email and giving credit to the source and linking to the source of the infographic.

    Linking to the infographics for companies who complement what you do, or even affiliate companies can be very useful for your audience.

  4. Audio

    In addition to the items listed above, audio also receives high engagement in your email, so if you don’t have a video to share with your audience, try including links to audio.

    Not everyone loves to read information, so when you offer information in various formats including audio, you are able to get the attention of individuals who prefer to listen to your content instead of having to read or watch it.

    This is why Podcasts are so popular and are a great medium for coaches and consultants.

  5. Special Offers

    Providing great content in your email like videos, blog posts, images, and audio is always a good idea, but having a compelling offer that resonates with your audience is even better, because that is where you make your sales.

    So be sure to send out emails that include relevant special offers or promotions.  If the offer is something that resonates with your audience you will see engagement with offer, which leads to more business for you.

Are you using any of these types of content in your email?  If so, what content works well with your audience.  Be sure to comment below.

Also, don’t forget to download the the Marketing Essentials Checklist of 21 Things You Must do in Order to Get Amazing Results from Your Email Marketing.

 

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on 5 Types of Email Content that Get You Awesome Results  |  in Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Uncategorized

The #1 Reason Businesses Struggle to Get Results from Email Marketing

The #1 Reason Businesses Struggle to Get Results from Email Marketing

I recently sent out a survey to my audience, which included the question, “If you are using email marketing in your marketing mix, what do you struggle with the most when it comes to your email marketing?”  The responses varied, but the #1 thing that most business owners, coaches, and consultants said they struggle with was staying consistent.

It’s easy to start sending emails to your list, but it’s hard to stay consistent, and only when you are consistent with your email marketing will you get results, so I decided to put some tips together on how you can stay consistent with your email marketing.

  1. Create an email marketing plan–  in your email marketing plan you will outline your email marketing goals, types of emails you will be sending (e-newsletter, autoresponders, drip campaigns, etc.), how often you will send your emails, when you will send your emails, your email flow, specific topics, etc.When you have a plan, you are better able to execute and to stay on task with getting your emails out.Many business owners, coaches, and consultants, skip the step of creating the email marketing plan, and then they don’t have anything to refer back to and therefore, they become very inconsistent with their efforts.
  2. Select a specific day and time that you would like your emails to go out–  this can be really helpful in staying consistent with sending out your emails.  For example, my monthly e-newsletter goes out the second Wednesday of every month, because I know that it goes out the second Wednesday of every month, I plan my activities around that time frame to make sure that the e-newsletter goes out.In addition, after a couple of years of testing days and times, I figured out that on average I get the best open rates on Wednesdays after 3:00 pm, so now I schedule my e-newsletter to go out the second Wednesday of every month at 3:30 pm.Knowing the time and date my email needs to go out, helps me to stay consistent.
  3. Put it on your calendar–  if you put your publishing dates on your marketing calendar you will be forced to make sure you get your emails out, because you now have a deadline that you have to send out your emails.  If it’s not on your calendar, you will tend to forget to send it out, or because you don’t have a deadline, you will continuously put it off, so place it on your calendar so you can stay consistent.
  4. Plan your topics-  included in your email marketing plan should be what topics you plan to write about and promote in your e-newsletter.  The information you will be sending in the series of emails for your autoresponders, and/or  drip campaigns should also be included in the plan.  When you’ve planned out your topics and information, it makes it much easier to create your emails and to stay consistent.

So, if you create an email marketing plan, set a day and time to publish your emails, put it on your calendar, and plan out your topics in advance, these four things can help you to stay consistent with your email marketing.

Do you have an email marketing plan?  Do you need help with creating your email marketing plan?  We can help, contact us for a FREE email marketing success strategy session.

 

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on The #1 Reason Businesses Struggle to Get Results from Email Marketing  |  in Business, Business Development, Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Uncategorized

How to use automated emails to grow your business

How to use automated emails to grow your businessAs a small business owner, coach or consultant, email marketing can be a key way to grow your business, but are you using various types of email marketing to grow your business?

Most people think of e-newsletters or e-zines when they think of email marketing, but one of the best ways to grow your business is by strategically using automated emails. Two key types of automated emails are autoresponders and drip campaigns.

Autoresponders

Let’s start with autoresponders.  We’ve probably all seen this type of email in action. Whenever you opt-in to receive a product, service, ebook, white paper, checklist etc.  from a company, we immediately get a response email from the company after the action has taken place.  This is an autoresponder in action.  The email could simply be a “Thank You for Your Business” email or it could even be the delivery of the actual digital product or service via email.  Whatever the case may be, the automatic email that you receive after taking action with that company is an autoresponder.

Autoresponders are great because you can set it in advance and it runs on autopilot.  So if you client signed up for your coaching program or scheduled a consultation you don’t have to manually respond to that client, your autoresponder will take care of the communication for you.  It’s like having a personal assistant who handles your initial communication.  This is not only time saving, but it also makes you more efficient knowing that this part of your business is always taken care of.

Drip Campaigns

In addition to Autoresponders, you may want to automatically send out a series of emails to your clients and/or prospects over a period of time.  Drip campaigns make the process of creating and sending these emails super easy.  You create the emails one time and then when a client is added to the list the emails go out to the client or prospect over a period of time.

All of this happens behind the scenes, so the drip campaigns automatically keep your audience informed without the need for you to actively do the work.   It is super important for you to plan out what drip campaigns you would like to send out.  Make sure that the emails are informative, value-packed, and beneficial to your audience.

For example, many companies like to send out a drip campaign to new customers.  A series of emails welcoming the client and informing them of the various services that you offer and giving valuable and helpful information can really help to start the relationship off in a good way.

Tips:

The key to successful autoresponders and drip campaigns is to keep it relevant and timely

By keeping it relevant you are ensuring that the information that you are sending is what your client or prospect needs and can help them in some way.  And by making sure it is timely you want to make sure that you are sending emails at a frequency that is not annoying to the recipient.  Spreading it out over the course of several days is good.  Most people don’t like to receive back to back emails from a company (unless they have signed up for a daily email in which they know they will be receiving frequent emails from the company)

So if you have not done so already, be sure to setup an autoresponder and think about various drip campaigns that you can send out to your clients and prospects.

Are you using automated emails in your business?  If so, are autoresponders and drip campaigns a part of your automatic email mix?  Be sure to share your thoughts below.

 

 

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on How to use automated emails to grow your business  |  in Business, Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Small Business, Uncategorized

Does List Size Really Matter?

E-mail marketing flat illustrationWhen it comes to your email list, does the size of your list really matter? As a business owner, coach or consultant, you probably already know about the importance of having and growing an email list, but did you know that it’s not the size of your email list that is most important, but the quality of the people on your list? As the saying goes, it is better to have an email list of 100 interested prospects, than 1,000 uninterested people.

However, you still want to work on increasing the size of your list because you want to make sure your message is reaching a wider audience each month. Your goal should be to grow your email list with individuals who are interested in what you have to say, and what you have to offer. So the big question is how can you effectively and efficiently grow your email list?

Here are 6 tips to grow your email list:

Offline:

  1. Events– whenever you conduct an event (workshop, seminar, etc.), or if you are presenting at an event, be sure to collect the email addresses of the attendees (or participants who expressed an interest in learning more) . Be sure to disclosure that by signing your list or providing their information they are agreeing to receiving emails from you.
  2. Text Messages– Consider adding a text to join your email list option. Now-a-days people don’t leave home without their smart phones, so making it easy for them to join your email list by simply texting a word to a number and then providing their email address makes it easy to join your email list.
  3. QR Codes- Consider adding QR Codes to your marketing material (business cards, brochures, flyers, etc.) It’s another way to make it easy for people to join your email list. However, I personally don’t really use QR Codes and haven’t gotten a lot of people through this method, but it is still something you could consider.

Online:

  1. Webinars– a great list building strategy is webinars. When you conduct webinars, people have to give their information to sign up for the webinar. Just add a disclosure that signing up for this webinar also gives you permission to add them to your email list.
  2. Lead Pages– Another great online list building strategy is to create a lead magnet (eBook, White Paper, Case Study, Checklist, etc.), and have people enter their information on a specially designed lead page that talks about how great your lead magnet is, and why they need to give you their contact information so they can receive your awesome lead magnet. This technique works really well because you know that you are getting people who are interested in the content that you have to offer
  3. Social Media– Encourage people who follow you on social media to sign-up for your email list so that they can get additional and maybe even exclusive information that you provide only through email. This technique works really well, because if you already have a following on social media, it just makes sense that the next logically step for them is to receive your emails. This also allows the relationship to get stronger when they are not only connected to you via social media, but also receiving your emails.

For more tips, download this Guide Building Your List Can Be a Thing of Beauty by Constant Contact

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  2 Comments  |  in Business, Business Development, Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Small Business, Uncategorized

4 Reasons Email Marketing is Key to Your Online Marketing Success

Are you using online marketing to promote your business?
Is email marketing a part of your online marketing strategy?

Email Marketing Blog Post 1No matter what type of online marketing you engage in, blogging, social media, sales pages, podcasting, video marketing, etc.  You will find that one key element that can help in the success of your online marketing is Email Marketing.  Some people are under the impression that Email Marketing is dead and that nobody really reads email anymore.  Although it may be true that most of our inboxes are inundated with email messages, and it is getting harder and harder to get people’s attention in a crowded email box, email still plays an important role in our daily communication.

So why is email marketing so important to the success of your online marketing?  The simple answer is own, control, personalize, and act.  So let’s look at these four reasons in detail:

  1. You Own Your Email List–  Compared to other online marketing mediums, email is one of the only mediums that allows you to own the information that you collect on your contacts.   Therefore, the goal of your email list is to own a large list of people who are interested in what you have to say and are engaged with your brand.  The larger your list is with engaged, interested subscribers, the higher your chances of successful email marketing.  It is also important to use all of your online marketing channels to encourage your loyal followers, fans, etc to join your email list.   As the saying goes, the money is in your list!
  2. Control of the Visibility of your Content  compared to the social network platforms, email marketing gives you more control of who sees your information, and the actual information that they receive.  Almost on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, some major social network is making changes to its algorithm, which influences, how, when or if your posts, tweets or whatever is being seen by the audience that you have on that network.  Therefore, there is limited control as to how much of your information that your audience will see.  Let’s face it, these networks are looking for ways to monetize every area, so the visibility of your posts will be less and less unless you plan to spend some advertising dollars.  Take control of how often and what information your followers see by consistently sending valuable email marketing campaigns (the keyword here is valuable).
  3. Personalization  Most online marketing efforts have a “one-to-many” feel.  When we are on large social networks it feels like you are at an online event, or an online party and although the marketing messages are geared to be personal, it still feels public.  Email on the other hand although it may be “one-to-many”, it feels more “personal”.  Especially if you add various personalization throughout the email like the person’s name, business name, etc.  This gives email marketing more of a stronger relationship building feel for a brand than other forms of online marketing.
  4. Strong Calls to Action  Email Marketing is also the best place to use strong calls to actions and to inspire your audience to take the next step with your company.  Whether that next step is purchasing, learning more, referring business or just having your company top of mind.  After all the end results of good marketing should be consistent exposure, which leads to  consistent sales.

Do you feel email marketing is important to the success of your online marketing?  Be sure to share your comments below.

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  1 Comment  |  in Blog, Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing