A TOP level email marketing strategy: the most important keys and mistakes to avoid

The key for your email marketing to work and help you get more sales is only one:

And it has nothing to do with how ‘groundbreaking’ your subject line is.

Nor with how much value do you think you contribute in each email.

The key word in all this soiree is the whore “strategy.”

Many businesses that use email marketing on a regular basis and do not get good results cause their strategy to fail.

They send emails to their list of subscribers, without rhyme or reason, because a digital marketing guru has said that they have to do it and that it also has to be daily.

But sending emails indiscriminately, without a clear objective, is nothing short of strategic suicide that can resent your brand forever…

Well… I may have exaggerated a bit, but it can cause a backfire.

Therefore, before you start writing, you should ask yourself a lot of questions that will help you align all the elements that should make up that strategy.

And in this article you will have the roadmap to get it up and running.

Shall we start?

What is email marketing and why do I need a strategy?

In case you’ve just landed in the world of marketing and you’re still not sure what the hell this is about using emails as a marketing tool, I’m going to explain it to you very briefly:

Email marketing consists of sending emails to a database (your subscribers or leads ) in order to capture their attention, retain them and end up buying.

It is one of the least intrusive and closest online sales techniques that have been used since before social networks were invented.

And why is it still used if there are now other ways to connect with potential customers?

I’m glad you asked, darling !

Well, because even today everyone checks their email account on a daily basis.

Think about how many times a day you check your own mail: 3, 8, 20? Or do you have it open all day just in case?

Email marketing differs from other communication channels because:

• It helps you build a more personal connection: they are one-on-one conversations.
• It allows you to segment by type of public, type of offer and even type of interests: you already know that it is not the same to go to those who have already bought from you as to those who have not yet trusted you.
• It helps you optimize your time and effort: since it takes the same time to write an email to one person than to write it for 30 or 1,000 subscribers.
• And it allows you to easily measure the results so that you can pivot your strategy as many times as necessary.

Maybe you’re thinking, okay Marja, I know all this, but it doesn’t work for me.

This is when I start to talk to you about the most interesting thing, about the heart of the matter: the ES-TRA-TE-GIA.

Communication with your contacts must be done strategically. The last thing you want is for your emails to be considered annoying (SPAM) or so useless that they unsubscribe.

When you have an email marketing strategy, a roadmap, it is easier to define the content, measure the results and know if the objectives are being achieved.

It also helps you correct what is not working and get to know your audience better.

What do I need to define BEFORE designing my email marketing strategy?

No starting the house from the roof. Before getting down to work and starting with the design of the email marketing strategy, you must clearly define the parameters that I am going to show you below:

The target audience

How many times have you read this? Every time you’re going to start doing something, WOW! They recommend that you define who you are targeting.

Yes, my friend . Knowing who you are targeting is essential.

To give you an example, in my list of subscribers I have dozens of copies. They are colleagues who like to see what strategies I use and the content I create.

Do you think that my email marketing strategy can only revolve around them?

Not even joking. I am happy to be an inspiration to them, but I cannot forget those who most need my services and are willing to pay money-money for them.

H3. The right shipping frequency

This is a mess, really. That if daily emails, that if better one a week, that if only when you have a new entry in the blog… Everyone has an opinion.

And there is no universal answer that always asks for it. If so, I would not be here writing this, but in Bali under a palm tree, smelling coconut sunscreen and drinking a mojito.

Depending on the goals you set for yourself, what your audience is like and what your business is like, you will have to define what frequency is best for you. Not to mention the overall sales strategy.

What I do have clear is that you should not even think of writing once a year for the Black Friday campaign and not showing signs of life again. You will lose customers, credibility and you will be damaging your brand image.

The value content

Be careful with this point. I don’t care if they told you that the best way to sell is by offering valuable content.

Perhaps with other types of content and in other formats it will work, but I assure you that with email marketing it will not.

With the amount of emails we receive in our inboxes, if you want your senders to open your emails you have to motivate them.

They don’t have time, so they will select those emails that interest them the most and leave the rest unopened for later.

For ever, go…

With entertainment you will be able to keep their attention, that they will remember you and that they will want to know about you, while with curiosity you will be able to hook them, make them visit your website or take them to your blog.

And that’s where the sales come from, my dear.

For this reason, it is better to leave valuable content for other formats, such as your blog, and think about engaging content for your email marketing.

Make it a good bait for the fish to bite.

The objectives

You know, be clear about what you want to achieve and analyze the results.

Among the most common objectives of email marketing are the following:

• Loyalty: some of those contacts in your database have surely already bought something from you, so it is easier for them to trust you again. Take the opportunity to send them special promotions, exclusive offers and recurring love.
• Earn their trust: to get a sale you need to be remembered, to be known. Take advantage of the strategy to position yourself as an expert.
• Get to know your customers better: and thus be able to adapt and offer them products and services of interest. If you write an assertive message, they will want to reply, so you will get to know them better.
• Launches and special campaigns: email sales funnels work great if you focus them well, of course.

types of mail

The types of mail you can send always depend on your type of business and your strategy at that time. Therefore, they will vary over time.

As you can imagine, you will have to analyze when you will carry out sales campaigns and set your goals to determine what type of email you will send to your list at each moment.

As this topic is important, later I will detail what types of mail are the most used.

A clear segmentation

And I’m not talking about you having to have the Ferrari of email marketing tools. That if you have it, what you take. You can consider segmenting your subscribers easily.

The easiest way to segment is the language itself. In the messages what counts is how you communicate, how you express yourself.

You have heard a thousand times that you have to address only your ideal client. Well this is the thousand and one. Write to him, and only to him.

What can happen? That others, who are not your ideal clients, unsubscribe?

Better, because with email marketing tools you pay for the number of subscribers and the volume of messages per month.

In addition to that, you will have to take into account that your list of subscribers is perfectly tagged and organized by groups: by different interests, customers who have already bought from you, those wo have not yet broken that barrier, etc.

Write different emails for each of those groups. Only then will your email message connect with them.

Tests A/B

Another great classic of digital marketing and business in general.

What all life has been called trial-error.

Test, measure, analyze, make small changes, test again and so on ad infinitum.

Or until you get rich, you buy the Lambo and you can go to Bali as a digital nomad.

The good thing about automating emails is that if they don’t work, you can make small changes until you find the sequence that works best.

The email marketing strategy according to your objective: step by step

Do you already have a defined goal? Well, now yes, let’s get down to business and I’m going to give you the key to planning that email marketing strategy.

If your goal is loyalty, forget about sending them informative emails, unless they have a lot, a lot of value to contribute. These people already know you, have already bought from you and already trust you.

Spare them all those educational lead nurturing emails . In these cases, you can perfectly use the daily email strategy or the Seinfeld method, with a link to any product or service you offer.

If your goal is to get the subscribers to your list to go from leads to customers , what I recommend is that you create a welcome automation with a sequence of emails with which they get to know you a little more, empathize with them through a story , show them examples of clients you have helped to gain authority and at the end of the sequence show them your sugar.

That is, your products or services.

To get to know your leads or prospects better, you can also consider sending a weekly newsletter, with which, in addition to ensuring that they do not forget who you are, you ask them questions and try to get them to respond via email.

And of course, when you are launching or for temporary campaigns like Black Friday, writing a sequence of emails to all your contacts is essential.

To write this email sequence, think of them as a sales page, in sections.

The 4 pillars of your email marketing strategy

You have to bear in mind that to get sales through this channel, the client has to go from not knowing you at all to trusting you, so during all that way you will have to teach him why he should choose your offer over any other .

In that sense, I recommend that you start with these four elements so that you can start designing your strategy:

• Entry channel: where will those leads come from ? Those who subscribe because they read your blog do not have the same profile as those who have come through publi.
• The lead magnet – make sure of two things. That it is VERY attractive to your ideal client and that it is aligned with the product or service that you are going to offer.
• The welcome sequence: This sequence is a must . Don’t miss the opportunity to create this little sales funnel, not too long, in which subscribers go from “I don’t know you at all” to “I’m interested in what you have for me”.
• Product or service: that is related to the lead magnet . At this point, after the emails, the lead should be interested in buying, or at least asking you about it.

With this you can now put together your welcome sequence and then work on your strategy with other types of emails like the ones you will see below.

Types of emails that can be part of your email marketing strategy

Once you have managed to get them into the sales funnel of your email marketing channel, you have to make the most of it.

Here are the types of emails that can be part of the strategy:

• The newsletter : a regular mailing, always on the same day of the week or month, so as not to be forgotten. Through entertaining content you can link to news or other resources of interest.
• Promotional campaigns : very variable in frequency and number depending on what you sell and how the launch is.
• Transactional emails : they are often the great forgotten in communication strategies. I am referring to subscription confirmation emails, welcome emails, purchase confirmation emails, abandoned cart emails, etc.
• Automations – Those series of emails that are sent automatically after the lead takes an action. They can be used apart from welcoming the list, to build loyalty after a purchase or as a sales funnel for a campaign or launch.

As you can imagine, contacting these potential clients one by one is not viable for any business. That’s why when you think of an email strategy, you talk in terms of email sequences.

You create several email sequences, and automate them. If you do it right, the leads themselves through actions in the emails will be segmented and you will be able to create new sequences as you have new products or services.

What types of email do you need in each automation? It will depend a lot on the temperature of the client and the sale price of the product or service that you are going to offer at that moment.

For example, to those who already know you and have bought you something cheaper, you don’t have to tell them who you are, but rather propose a solution to a specific problem that you can solve.

Errors in your email marketing strategy that can make you lose money

It is just as important to know what types of emails to send to your subscribers as what you should not do to lose those potential customers.

Some of the most common are:

• use email marketing to report a new blog post,
• or to inform about commercial offers,
• or even report news about your brand.

In case you haven’t fallen yet: don’t use it just to INFORM.

Talk about what your customer is interested in: use storytelling to link to that new blog post or generate curiosity to segment and find out if they would be interested in this or that product you are selling. If you want to tell the news, do it in an informal, fun way, telling anecdotes, showing the making off with the outtakes, become the best soap opera.

And always, always, entertain and generate an increasingly close relationship.

That is what sells: closeness and trust.

Some actions that will make your email marketing strategy a powerful sales tool

Pssss, listen to something: what I’m going to tell you now, hardly anyone takes into account.

They are the great forgotten and can be key to growing with your business.

Secret nº1: The purge. Remove zombies from the list.

Do not fall into the Diogenes syndrome with your list of subscribers.

The (painful) truth is that not everyone who signs up will be a future customer. Nothing happens. No drama.

When you detect that a lead hasn’t opened any email from you for months, delete it. That Walking Dead will not miss you and you focus on those who do want to know about you.

Es un win-win.

Secret nº2: After-sales service.

This is more common in the sale of services: when you finish, is your business relationship over?

Don’t you dare lose sight of that client. He is more likely to get back to you than any new subscriber. So create an email automation to build loyalty.

Stay in contact.

Secret nº3: Create an onboarding top.

What happens when a subscriber on your list buys something from you? Apart from receiving the invoice, do you give him the welcome he deserves?

He has just trusted you, and he needs to know what is going to happen now, what will be next, how he is going to receive his purchase, how you will communicate in the future, etc.

Generate an email sequence that explains all of that, and if possible, create a custom video to tell them about it.

With these tips, you will make a difference with respect to your competition.

The tool: what weight does it have within your email marketing strategy

We are finishing, but I didn’t want to finish without helping you with this part. You need an email marketing tool to implement all these emails. Which to choose?

Hmmm… I was tempted to tell you it depends, but I passed. I will make a list of the most used and you choose the one that best suits you.

• MailChimp : the most used by beginners because it is easy to use. With a free version for you to try but very limited. Are you starting and English is not a problem for you? Go for it.
• MailerLite : simplicity and with the possibility of changing the language to Spanish. Its free version allows automation. Try it because although it is not one of the best known, its simplicity will pleasantly surprise you.
• Mail Relay : the most tempting with its free offer. Up to 75,000 emails per month and up to 15,000 contacts. Take accounts and freak out,
• Active Campaign : top tool where they exist. With it you can do tricks. If you are serious about your email marketing strategy, do not hesitate. Of course, you can only use it for free for 14 days.

I do not continue because there are many options. And if you want to go deeper, I recommend this comparison between Mailchimp and Active Campaign .

Remember that at the end of the day the important thing is the strategy you use. The email marketing tool is just the means. So don’t complicate yourself. You can also migrate at any time.

If you’ve come this far, I hope you’re looking forward to starting to implement your email marketing strategy. But beware, the most important thing is that there is a constant flow of new subscribers.

Each new subscriber is a new sales opportunity. What we all want.

So remember, that the biggest showcase today is social networks. There you have your potential customers.

And what is the best platform to sell? The only network where professionals are on the radar to find professionals and pay them for their services? On LinkedIn. Do you want to know how? Hold on to your chair because in this other article you are going to learn about the power of copywriting on this platform,   essential to get your contacts to become new subscribers and go on to your mailing list.