With the way digital marketing has progressed especially over 2013, the usual hard selling and content broadcasting no longer works, there has to be engagement involved for a customer to even consider purchasing.
Talking TO your customers is no longer the norm, you need to connect WITH your customers and communicate. Consumers want more than just information, they want to get to know who is behind the brand and more importantly, they want their voice heard not just by a business, but by other consumers too.
When it comes to finding the right way to engage with your consumers, true online success begins with marketing through email and social media. There is no one better than the other in this case, both need to not only be used by your business, you need to have a strategy in place too. Having a complete marketing mix is crucial as what your customers will want is choice. While some prefer connecting on social media, others prefer reading an email.
Email marketing can be hard, especially if you don’t have a list. After years of speaking at 100’s of business events internationally, I have built a list which not only opens my emails, but also responds and see’s the value in my offering by spending money with me. This didn’t happen overnight. If you want your email marketing to work, you need to make sure your content is not only engaging and unique but also enticing enough to make them look forward to your next email. Here are 3 tips to help you with your email marketing;
1. Avoid Content Overload
By this I mean not having too much conflicting content in one email. If you do this, you will distract your potential customer from wanting to know more information if they have to read an essay of unhelpful words.
2. Use Images
One of the best ways to keep your list engaged with your emails is if you use images. You can use a tool like PicMonkey to help you create images if you don’t have the budget for a designer.
3. Always Give a Call to Action
If you don’t tell your audience what you want them to do, they won’t do it. Focus on the NOW and If you are running a special offer, make sure they know this by making the “purchase here” text more prominent on the page but not so much that is too distracting.
When it comes to marketing through social engagement, there is a lot of competition and it is harder to find paying customers when compared to email marketing because those who are on your email list, are the people who have given your details to you for one reason or another. Whether it’s through Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest, your customers are there and you will be missing out on increasing your online sales if you don’t have a social media strategy in place.
Having the real-time nature of social media and understanding where your “social” customers are, it’s important to have a social media strategy this reflects who you are, why you are so passionate about what you do and is tailored for the specific social media platform. Combine this with email marketing will give you the ultimate tool to reach a large audience. Remember to add social media links into your email marketing as well as asking for feedback. Your customers will happily give you feedback if they think it will benefit them in some way.
Digital marketing takes on many forms for companies these days, by starting with the basics, email marketing and social media with consistency until you have mastered the art, together they can give you ultimate online success.