Social media has indeed taken over the world, with it becoming an intangible part of every person’s life. People have started using social media on an almost daily basis, and this has opened so many avenues for digital marketers. Social media gives marketers actionable insights into the world of their customers, and this can be leveraged via social media automation tools to precisely market products and services.
However, finding the right email templates with an email marketing solution will help companies delight their customers and not be a burden. Social media can be used to push messages on sales and offers, but emails have a higher impact. Here’s a stat – A good email strategy can get you $38 for every $1 that’s being spent!
The reason behind this? Emails are known to be an excellent way to reach out to genuine leads. Social media can be a massive playground for bots to come and skew your numbers against you. With emails, you know that you’re targeting genuine people. And, if they find something worth investing in, then transitioning them into regular customers via email becomes an easier task. Moreover, personalized and responsive email templates can help build trust and foster long-term relationships with your audience, ultimately driving customer loyalty and repeat business. A whopping 81% prefer to open emails on their smartphones while 21% open emails on their tablets by Campaign Monitor.
Further, 72% of individuals prefer receiving emails on promotional content rather than view it on social media.
Overall, emails are known to bring in the numbers which matter. Email templates have become so powerful that you won’t have to hire an extra designer to get the work done. For example, if you want to write SaaS emails, you can easily use one of the email templates available online. Without much prior experience in designing, you will be able to garner results if you continuously analyse and make changes.
Also, email subscribers are three times more likely to share whatever content you put out on social media. So, you have to target your consumer base right to convert them.
Why Reach Out To Your Social Media Audience Using Email Marketing?
A common mistake that a lot of brands commit is investing a lot of time and money into social media. While it seems lucrative at first, it isn’t the right way to approach if you’re looking to sell to your audience online. Also, you don’t have control over the way your content reaches out to them as social media sites generally change their algorithms regularly.
You don’t technically own your followers on social media as the SM company owns your account. They can hamper the way you access your followers and get them to interact with your brand. Social media companies can control the reach of your posts and how they get displayed to the end customer.
Further, social media behemoths like Facebook don’t have stringent guidelines when it comes to determining bots, spammers, or perpetrators of fake agendas and news and tracking them. Also, if your business ends up getting tied with the wrong crowd or profiles, you could run the risk of having your social media profile temporarily, or worse, permanently suspended.
This means having to wave goodbye to your contacts, fans, followers and more after months or years of hard work, and you don’t want that happening, do you? While this is only in extreme cases, the underlying thought behind the message is – why to use another platform when you can develop your content that reaches precisely the people you want it to.
Just don’t run the risk of keeping all your eggs, or in this case, followers in one basket – social media, as it is risky. Your primary goal must be to take prospects away from social media and onto your email list and ultimately, your website.
When you run an email marketing campaign, you’re showing audiences your real side. The one that wants to sell, but at the same time, not force. If you can entertain or catch their attention with the help of a well-thought-out strategy, you’ll be well on your way to creating space in the consumer’s mind with regards to a specific category.
It all comes down to how you’re able to collect genuine leads and converting them into long-time customers.
How Can You Start Collecting Emails Of Your Social Following?
Social media gives you the advantage of running different types of content pieces. One type of content that’s sure to get you returns are contests. People love receiving gifts and being gratified online, and you should know how to tap into that emotion.
Contests end up as a great platform to receive emails of participants. Whether it’s Facebook quizzes and polls, Instagram photo contests, or other types of content, this marketing form is a proven way to generate buzz and attention and leads as well.
Running a contest just for the sake of getting a few participants doesn’t serve a large purpose. Your contests need to be optimized so that it can gain potential customers from social media and then convert them into leads for your database.
Contest participants need to enter their email address to join a contest and win prizes because that’s the only way you can ratify their efforts. It’s the perfect setup for prospects who already follow you on social media.
How will you be able to combine social media virality with email conversion power?
- Being relevant to your prospects with the messaging, offer and follow-up on your offers
- Ensuring gamification is done in the right manner to deliver an experience that’s engaging for your participants
- Following-up on multiple channels by smartly utilizing social media and email marketing, remarketing ads, live chat, and more.
- Nurturing their experience with excellent customer service that solves their problems in one go. Here’s a great resource on improving your social media customer service to align all your marketing efforts into one.
If you wish to further your efforts once you’ve created a genuine email list, it comes down to how you build your email list to the mail.
Building a Good Email Marketing List:
If you’re looking to establish a sound email list, it becomes easier to target your leads and get them to convert. Here are a few smart tips to help you in the process –
- Easy sign-up:
By making it simpler to sign-up, your lead will stay on your website longer. Instead of giving them long forms to fill out, give them a few simple steps to get to your goal. An easy sign-up takes them straight to your site and also gives you the advantage of their details which you can collect onto a main database.
- Offer a value-based entity:
To get customers to sign up, it’s always good to provide them with a smart value-based entity which will benefit them. This can include a free subscription for a certain number of months, a small gift or anything on those lines. This gratifies them immediately and keeps them interested.
- Writing good CTAs:
If you’re promoting your email marketing list and services, people won’t sign up for it. If you’d love to get them on board, create Call-To-Action statements or CTAs that provide the readers with faster updates, in-depth information, and more. Personalizing the CTA for every webpage makes it easier for them to always access that option.
The next step is to, of course, design your email itself. Let’s see how!
A Text-Based Email or Image-Based?
This is a hot debate that has stumped marketers for the past few years, but there are still tangible results you can get from either of them – as long as you use it smartly.
Text-based pros and cons:
The biggest advantage of creating text-based marketing emails is that you’ll be able to get a message across in a few words. Also, sending text mailers have higher deliverability as they take up less bandwidth. Text emails are also great for follow-ups and transactional updates.
The con of text-based emails is that they are unattractive and could not get you the CTRs you’re looking for, especially if you’re an image-based website.
Image-based pros and cons:
Image-based emails can bring life to a message and entice the viewer into wanting to know more. These image-based marketing emails are also a great way to create an impression in the consumer’s mind into how they view your brand.
The biggest con of using image-based emails is that certain IPs block out image-based emails and send them directly to the spam folder.
As long as you get your prerequisites right, you will be able to get your audiences to engage regularly, regardless of the format you use.
Basic Prerequisites for Nurturing Your Social Media Audience Effectively:
To nurture your social media audience, there are a few prerequisites that need to be satisfied, these include:
- A relevant email marketing list – A good and relevant email list is the first step in strategizing through social media. If you’re able to get a good number of subscribers, then pairing them into different lists based on their actions on your site makes it easier to target.
Consistently update and keep an eye on the quality of your subscribers to ensure that they can get exactly what they’re looking for.
- Good email content – You are only as good as the content you create! So, ensure that you’re always on top of the latest trends and happenings in your brand world. Planning offers well in advance, makes it easier to implement and capture new customers as well. Segregating your emails based on the goals you wish to achieve immediately gives you a framework for your content.
Create content that is appealing to the needs of the customer rather than your wants. This will help you figure out a starting point for all your needs. You can use one of these Mailchimp Alternatives to get started with ease.
- A high-performing template – An excellent template makes your job easier and allows you to work around the designing aspect of the email. You can use a powerful drag and drop email template editor that is able to easily change text images, etc. from your basic email template.A lot of sites make good templates that are readymade and require a content retrofit. If you’re looking for a good list to help you out, here’s are close to 1,500 templates to make your job easier.
Let’s view a few good templates examples to understand this in detail.
7 Examples of Great Email Templates to Help You Get Started
Great templates allow you to replicate their success and use the same formula to help you out as well. A good email has a great flow and keeps the customer engaged throughout the entirety of it. The below examples show a great way in which the emails are designed, making it easier for the customer to go through the entire email without losing interest in it.
Here’s a list of some amazing templates which have worked before –
- Welcome Emails: Welcome emails are always a fun way to introduce a customer to your brand and messaging and hook them into purchasing. The below email shows an excellent, warm way of welcoming customers into the company’s email lists –
- Cross-promotion: Cross-promotion is another great way to get people interested in other products in your brand. Below, an e-commerce portal shows how they cross-promote their brand product with the help of a fun email –
- FOMO – People hate missing out on a good deal, so getting your social media customers to feel left out with the help of a nice email template can get them interested in purchasing your products with a discounted rate –
- Milestone emails – If you’ve achieved a milestone, instead of showing off about it only on social media, direct the message through your emails, by targeting the same audience with a nice image. Setting up a reward program with milestone emails can be an effective way to motivate and engage customers.
- Webinar emails – These are another great way to get people from social media. If they’ve signed up for the same on SM, you can retarget them to remind them of the date or some content on what they should expect.
- Content emails – Sometimes, text-based emails can get high returns as well – if designed the right way. Here’s a good example of smart usage of text emails.
Thus, you’ll be able to do so much with the help of your social media assets. Ensure that you’re ready to get your away from SM and onto your website because that’s the only way you’re going to start generating revenue.
Good templates can go a long way in ensuring that the right people read your content, and they go ahead and explore their options further. Have a great time marketing and all the best!
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