I finished my computer science degree back in 2004, and since then I have seen allot of marketing trends come and go, but the one which I have consistently seen working well over the years is email marketing. I remember back in 2004 when everyone was saying that email marketing was finished, and I also remember people saying the same thing is 2008, 20012, 2015, 2018 and you get the idea!
The reason, I believe people doubt email marketing is because it’s been around for so long that people thing it must be outdated – but that couldn’t be further from the truth, and if you ask any high earning marketer, I can guarantee that everyone of them uses email marketing as a backbone of their strategy.
Think about it this way, if you run ads and drive traffic somewhere, once that person leaves you have no way of contacting them again, the same if you had an online store, without email you would have no way of directly contacting them. With email marketing you can keep in touch with everyone, from your die hard customers, to leads coming in from ads or social media.
This year should be your year of email marketing! Yes, include everything else is necessary to drive it, for example people won’t join your list without a reason, but effectively everything you do should be focused on building your email list and then converting that list into customers. If you can build a strong email list of just a few thousand fans you’re in a great place to drive your business forward.
In 2021 I recommend, if you haven’t already go ahead and set up an email marketing account with Mailchimp, Send in Blue or one of the other popular options, and start learning about segmentation, landing pages and automation. Once you get an idea of that then it’s time to get started with building your list.
If you hear people talk about email marketing being finished in 2021, ask to see their marketing account, and I can almost guarantee it won’t be performing anywhere near as great as it could be, because anyone missing out on running pro email marketing campaigns is leaving money on the table and that usually doesn’t make much business sense. The main reason being that every penny you invest in driving traffic should be utilised and if that traffic doesn’t convert on the first visit, you can give yourself the opportunity to contact them in the future without incurring any further costs by contacting them again through email.
The most important thing is to get started, so once you set up your email account, use a plug in to include a sign up form on your website, make it very clear and if possible above the fold ( what can be seen before scrolling down) this will maximise the volume of sign ups. Compare the number of people landing on your page to the number of sign ups to determine the conversion rate of the form, and if it’s low think about adding a lead magnet. This is usually an e book, video or webinar that people will get access to by joining your list, this will usually increase the sign up rate.
Once you have a decent email list with a few thousand sunbsribers you should focus on adding value, sharing useful information with them to build brand awareness and engagement.
Good luck and keep hustling!
