The Power Of Email

Are you doing enough to harness the power of email (excuse the pun)?

Just imagine for a moment if there was a method of communication which allowed you to…

– contact all of your clients and prospects, past and present, with a personalised message

– have no limit to the number of characters you could include in your message

– add as many photographs or videos as you wanted to the message

– send your message in seconds

– send your message largely for free

Well, it exists!  And it’s called email.  Remember email?!

In the new age of social media and various messaging apps email can be overlooked – but overlook it at your peril!

A regimented email strategy is an absolute must for communicating with your clients; both those who have not yet had a chance to do business with you as well as your best customers (although you should send them different messages).

I know that emails can get a bad rep from time to time due the increased levels of spam, and you might also read that some emails have a very low response rate.

Do not let this put you off!

In fact, it’s a reason to send MORE emails.

Here are my 5 top tips for putting together a killer email strategy:

1. Make sure you have tools in place to collect email addresses.  You should be looking to collect emails at every possible opportunity.  This includes on your website, in your premises, whenever you are in contact with someone.   Just make sure you have their explicit permission to email them and give them a good reason to give you their details (a free guide, gift or competition entry should do the trick).

2. Send more email!  Many people tell me they’ve tried email marketing but it didn’t work.  When I ask how often they send email they’ll say ‘every few months’!  This is not enough!  You should aim for AT LEAST once per WEEK, if not more!  I know that this sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t.  Not all of your emails will be delivered and they certainly won’t all be read.  Do you read every email?  Of course not.  So you’ve got to keep your name in front of your clients and you can help that by sending more regularly.

3. Send interesting and relevant content.  There are hundreds of things you can email; pictures of recent treatments you’ve done (with permission, of course), special offers, client testimonials, competitions, videos, useful tips which your readers can use… the list goes on!

4. Don’t be too salesy. Don’t make every email about booking a treatment with you!  That will make people unsubscribe in a heartbeat.  You should aim for no more than 20% about your products and services with the other 80% entertaining or educational.

5. Get some personality in there! People buy people. They want to know more about you and most people would rather deal with a real human that a large corporation.  Don’t worry about paying for someone to make you all singing and all dancing emails with fancy graphics.  Just use words!  I mean, who actually wants to read a newsletter anyway?!

This was adapted from my blog for Scratch Magazine.  You can read the original here if you wish.