In the early days of writing my newsletter I often received a less than overwhelming response. It made me wonder if it was worth all the time and effort. Fortunately, now and then, someone told me they read every article I published, or that they loved a particular article and they ended up buying something because of it. Even if I got no immediate response I knew my efforts were generating business.
Go Social …
With the growing trend towards social media, people wonder what the future of email marketing is. Well, email marketing is going nowhere. It’s been around for over 20 years now and it’s not going away. If you already have an email marketing list, keep it, and if you don’t already have one, now is a good time to start.
People tend to keep their email addresses in the same way they like to stick with their telephone number. You know yourself it’s just really hard to change these isn’t it? They almost become part of your persona. That link makes it very easy to reach people once you have their details.
Social media is more transient. People come and go, they’re in and out. If your timing isn’t quite right they might miss your update, or, it might not get shown to them at all, as we showed you in last month’s Sales Tip. Use social media to engage people and then direct them to your mailing list. Facebook changes its rules often and people who build their business on there get shut down all the time.
What’s more, social media platforms come and go. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn look unstoppable at the moment, but networks like MySpace and Bebo that once looked dominant have either disappeared or lost prominence.
… And Stick with Email
If you’ve built your business on email lists you are in control. 
Emails are right there in your inbox, until you make a conscious choice to delete them. It’s a medium people are familiar with, in a way that many are still not comfortable with social media. You can use this to your advantage to build trust with your audience. Give them information that’s highly targeted and valuable once and they’re much more likely to open your emails in the future. Why? You’ve sold them on your idea. Over time you earn their trust and loyalty. What you need to do now is take that trust and direct it towards your goals. Because your audience is already following you, it becomes easier to convert that sale or subscription that you’re telling them about.
Emails: How Often is Too Often, or Not Often Enough?
Read any article and you’ll get conflicting views on how often to send emails. Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly? It’s a tough one, and to some extent depends on the market you’re in. With the amount of information flowing around these days, every day is probably too much for most niches (and for most small business owners, too much for you to comfortably manage too). There’s also a delicate balance between being remembered and being annoying. On the other hand, you should stick to at least quarterly emails, or you run the risk of being forgotten altogether “Who the heck is this from? Why am I getting this email?” Resulting action: Unsubscribe.
Email is an important marketing tool that still has a role in your marketing strategy. We’ve shown you how Google is looking more and more for social signals via engagement. Your email marketing is a way to hook into that. Go ahead and promote your emails with the social media platform that works best for your business. (or automate and do them all). Go for repeat business too. If you’re using social media well your followers will be the first people to know about your latest promotion, product or service.
One of our client, Hanne Andersen does a great job of promoting her content on Facebook and Pinterest. People love images of her designer jewellery and they lap it up. Her Facebook following is soaring and is lifting her mailing list with it.
So don’t waste your precious time and guru-ness by publishing in just one place. Feel free to call us for a chat if you’d like to find out how we can help you leverage your articles by publishing to your web site, your mailing list and all the main social sites.