autoresponders

If you plan to grow or promote your business online, then email marketing should be an essential part of your marketing activity.

One of the best ways to be successful with your email marketing effort is to create an effective email marketing plan.

Your email marketing plan doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective, in fact, in this post I will walk you through the outline for a simple and effective email marketing plan.

Step 1-  Define the purpose of your email marketing campaigns

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In this part of your plan, you should:

• Identify who you are trying to reach (customers, prospects, partners, etc.)
• Define why you are trying to reach them (to stay top of mind, to provide education, to create brand awareness, to get sales, etc.)
• What are you trying to achieve from reaching this group of people via email?

Step 2-  Define your email marketing goals

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This part of your plan should cover your email marketing goals:

• Start by listing your overall goals:  more sales, relationship building, stay top of mind, communicate special promotions, get referrals, etc.
• Then list the more specific goals you would you like to achieve through email marketing (i.e. get two new clients per month, get three referrals per month, etc.)

Step 3–  Select Your Email Marketing Strategy

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When it comes to email marketing you have several options on types of email marketing campaigns you can create.  Pick the strategies that make sense for your business.

Your strategy could include the following types of email campaigns:

1. E-Newsletters- An informative e-mail that goes out to your contacts periodically. This could be monthly, bi-weekly, weekly, etc.
2. Autoresponders– A series of e-mails that automatically go out over a period of time based on someone joining your e-mail list or being added to your email list.
3. Drip Campaigns– A series of e-mails that automatically go out over a period of time for a specific promotion, or a specific event, etc.

The difference between an autoresponder and a drip campaign is that an autoresponder is a response from an action someone has taken (downloading an eBook, White Paper, Checklist, etc.).  While a drip campaign is a series of promotional campaign emails sent to your list not based on an action they have taken, but solely based on a specific promotional campaign.

The most successful email marketing plans have a combination of types of email marketing strategies.  The e-newsletters work well to stay top of mind because they are consistently going out over a period of time, but the auto responders and drip campaigns work well too because they are usually tied to a specific product, promotion, or services that you would like to generate some business for, so decide what types of campaigns will work well for you business.

Step 4: Create an Email Marketing Calendar

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The next step in your email marketing plan is to create a calendar that maps out all of your emails over an extended period of time.  The time period could be the next 60 days, 90 days, 6 months or even a year.  Your calendar should include the following:

1. Month/Send Date–  What month and date will this specific email be published to your list?
2. Email Topic–  What is this specific email about
3. Type of Email–  Is it a newsletter, or part of a series of emails for an autoresponder or drip campaign.
   
4. Email List–  Who will this email be sent to (prospect list, customer list, partner list, combination of lists, etc.)

Taking the time to strategically think through your email marketing effort will help you to create successful email marketing campaigns. 

Are you currently using email marketing in your business?  Do you have an email marketing plan?  If you need assistance creating an successful email marketing plan, contact us to schedule your FREE Email Marketing Success Strategy Session.