Lead generating is done in almost every aspect of digital marketing today. Almost everything about your site influences your inbound marketing. And we all know content lies at the heart of all lead generation. But getting people to your content can become quite a challenge. There’s many ways to draw in this crowd, it can be done through Social Media, good SEO strategies, and the most popular way of generating leads, Email Marketing. Email marketing is one of the most saturated areas to market, but can be the most personal and effective way to generate leads if you can just set yourself apart.
Unwanted+ Annoying= Spam
We all know the annoying side of Email Marketing, and being annoying is what you want to avoid at all costs. To break it down and make it very simple, never email without permission. Unless that email was provided to you from a person wanting more information from you or more of your service or product, any mail you send them will be unwanted. Many companies buy leads and will send “emails” (Spam) out to all those leads in an attempt to gather an audience that will open and click through their mail. One of 3 things will happen to these emails. 1) They will be ignored, 2) They will be labelled as spam, 3) They will be opened and followed through resulting in a successful lead. The latter is very unlikely to happen if you are sending mail to random leads, instead the first 2 are much more likely to take place. If someone provides you with their email they are asking for more of a service, a product, or information. That person wants further contact from you.
Being unique is being noticed
Some people can receive hundreds of emails in a day. The only 2 things that will set you apart is either an interest in your product or service, or a one of a kind email. If they’ve subscribed, then they’ve already show an interest in your business. Just make the email personal and worth the reader’s time, focusing on the person not your product or service.
- There are all kinds of blogs and articles sharing tips on how to make your emails “POP”, or be noticed, followed by a million different approaches for doing so. After sifting through them all, one can decide being yourself is the simplest and most effective way. Let your character show, use a little bit of humor, as being too formal can just be depressing.
- Also, use an actual reply to email address. People are much more likely to open an email they feel was personally written to them than they are to open one that seems as if it was mass produced for thousands through a program.
- Don’t overwhelm your leads with a daily email. You know that person who posts on Facebook 26 times a day? Let’s not be that person, don’t email leads every day. This doesn’t mean save the emails for every Christmas. An email a week is fine, just be of interest, not annoyance. Sometimes emailing less frequently means higher open rates.
Nobody wants unsubscribers, but it’s unavoidable in marketing. So make sure it’s easy and convenient for any leads to unsubscribe if chosen. If they can’t find the option to unsubscribe, or find it to be too complicated, annoyance will turn into hate and they are likely to label you as spam.
So all in all, email marketing is a fair way to generate leads. Some companies can turn it rotten, but if you approach it right, your purpose and quality will be understood and reciprocated. HubSpot has a useful 2014 report on the email open rates. It’s filled with useful tips and statistics to help you strategize through Email Marketing.