Blog - Page 2 of 3 - Timothy Buysman

Sometimes you hear these silly reports about email marketing being dead. But nothing is further away from the truth. Most entrepreneurs report email is their most profitable marketing-channel. And that shouldn't be suprising. Because email IS and will ALWAYS be an inexpensive way to build a relationship with your audience. It has the unique ability to send thousands of ultra-targeted, personal messages thanks to list segmentation. And it's one of the KEYS to automating your business. But what if your results are still lacking? Chances are you're making one of these 11 common email marketing mistakes. 1. Bad subject lines Your subject line's should persuade your list to open your email. If they don't accomplish that goal? Your email marketing efforts will be wasted. Realize that developing the skill to write great headlines takes time. It's an art form. Here are some tips that will boost your open rates: Invoke curiosity. Think about benefits (What’s in it for them?) Keep your headlines short. Make your audience feel special. Don’t bait someone with a misleading headline. 2. A bland, unengaging welcome email Ah, the oh-so-important—but often overlooked—welcome email. The moment you got someone to subscribe to your list is extremely important. This person showed interest in your business. You’re allowed to contact them at any time. So, now’s your chance to make a great first impression. Time to roll out the red carpet! Unfortunately, lots of healthcare companies don’t cease the moment. They fall into the trap of thinking a basic, dull “Thank you for signup up and showing interest in our business/practice” is enough. Big mistake. A welcome email is one of the first moments a potential client gets in contact with your business. It sets the stage for your future relationship. Plus, chances are this person is still taking other companies into consideration. Not only that. A welcome email has the highest open rate. The highest click rate. But—most importantly— it has the potential to generate a whopping 320% more revenue than other promotional emails. Are you reconsidering the importance of your welcome email yet? Give your welcome email lots of attention. Make it memorable. It will pay-off. Here are few tips: Give a warm “thank you” Ask a subscriber to whitelist you. Set expectations for your future relationship. Tell them important details about your business. Offer a special deal or discount. Have a clear call to action. Pro tip: Have a welcome SEQUENCE. 3.Writing too clinically Many health entrepreneurs write too clinically—meaning the tone of voice in their emails is dry, informal and lacking in emotion. Humans connect with other humans. Not robots. So, humanize your emails. Here are a few tips: Avoid using too much jargon. Imagine talking to a good friend when you’re writing an email. Don’t be afraid to show a little personality or use humor. Shorten your sentences: Use The Flesch-Kincaid Reading Score to determine your emails readability. 4. Talking about product-features instead of benefits. When you're excited about your product it's tempting to talk about its features. But the the thing is a potential customer doesn't really care. So, communicate how your product or service solves their problem. And how it makes their life better. Here's a little trick you can use to come up with your product-benefits. Put the words “so you can” after the features of your product, then fill in what comes next. 5. Not optimizing emails for mobile These days, more than half the people read emails on their smartphone. Yet, many health businesses overlook the importance of optimizing emails for mobile. So, before you send out your emails? Make sure they look good on mobile devices. 6. Not giving email marketing a high enough priority Sometimes it’s hard to give email marketing a high enough priority. Maybe because it’s just ONE of the marketing channels you're using. Or maybe it's because you're scaling your business and you have a lot of other things on your plate. The fact remains, once you fully focus on email? It has the potential to become your most profitable marketing channel. 7. Not considering the customer journey Sending a potential customer information that’s not relevant to them can turn them off. Look at it like this: What would you do if someone immediately started pushing their product... Without establishing ANY kind of rapport with you? Exactly. You always need to take the customer journey into consideration. And think about how you will make a (potential) customer move across the 5 stages of the customer journey: Awareness. Familiarity. Consideration. Purchase. Loyalty. So, map your customer's journey and segment your list accordingly. And make an editorial calendar. Make sure you plan all your content ahead of time and make all your communications relevant to your list. Give the right person the right content at the right time. 8. Not enough focus on customer loyalty You might have heardthat attracting new clients is more expensive than keeping your current ones happy. But did you know it can be anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive? Usually, the problem is the desire to attract new clients. It can make you have tunnel-vision. Email marketing can be used to build customer-loyalty perfectly. A couple of things you should consider doing to build loyalty: Show your loyal clients they’re valued: “Thank you” are powerful words. Give your loyal clients special perks. Think about ways you can go the extra mile for your loyal clients. A birthday email is a great example. 9. Not doing enough A/B testing It’s David Ogilvy who said it best: “Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.” Sometimes A/B testing can be put on the backburner. Maybe because you have a hectic schedule. Or because you simply don’t know what to test. The thing is A/B testing is an essential part of any winning email strategy. Here are the golden rules of A/B testing: Make sure you’re testing only one thing at a time. Have a hypothesis. Make sure you have enough data for the results to be meaningful. Make sure you know what metric is the best measure of success. Here are a few type of A/B tests you should be doing: Test longer emails vs shorter emails. Test different call-to-actions. Test the number of links you put in your emails. Test the design of your email. 10. Not tracking important data E-mail marketing gives you plenty of data to work with. Sometimes it's hard to decide what to track. The thing is the most important metrics ALWAYS remain the same. Here’s what you should be tracking AT THE VERY LEAST: Open rate. Clickthrough rate. Conversion rate. Bounce rate. List growth rate. Email sharing/forwarding rate. Overall ROI. 11. Not having a clearly defined, long-term strategy No battle is won without a great strategy. Yet, lots of health businesses make decisions based on assumptions and wishful thinking. Or sometimes they have a strategy in place—but it’s only aimed towards short-term results. It’s a shame, really. Developing a strategy starts with setting goals that tie into your overall business goals. Your list and past results will then form the foundation of your strategy. It will also determine what tactics you should use to support your strategy. Use industry-benchmarks to measure your campaign against. Developing a clearly defined, long-term strategy will take some time. But it will pay off BIG TIME. You’ll set up expectations for long-term success. And you'll get closer to achieving the holy grail of email marketing: Getting the right content. In front of the right people. At the right time. In a FRACTION of the time: Need help with your email marketing? I can help you manage your email marketing campaigns. Reach out to me by filling in my contact form.

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