This is another powerful communication strategy for any business, big or small.
Did you know that the email marketing ROI is 3,800%? This means that for each dollar you invest in an email it generates $38 in return.
Major marketing companies have hard evidence that this trend is increasing by the hour.
It starts with an offer of helpful advice or a quick ingenious solution offer for a common problem for your standard customer. Ideally, you are trying to educate the user about the product/service you provide.
They call it a lead magnet.
lead what…?
See the lead magnet as a product/sample. It showcases in a nutshell how your business can help the customer.
The same way as a product sample in a supermarket done by a Promoter.
Although this role can have more extensive requirements than this, his/her purpose many times is to give out samples of the product, to give the customers a taste and ultimately convince them to make a purchase, hence the lead magnet designation, a little token that intends to drive a customer to close a sale. These “tokens” must be offered for free.
You need to make your customer’s time worth their time. If the information you offer is not useful in any way then there is no point in giving it.
In its virtual form, the lead magnet can take many shapes, depending on the business you run. You will dictate what type of information you can provide. The main thing to bear in mind is that it needs to be a useful and quick solution or workaround. These can be:
- eBook
- Template
- Blog, Video or Podcast
- Trial Period
- Discount/Voucher or Referral offer
- Branded calendar, checklist or workbook
now the courtship part…
The practical bits
If you run a small business, at the start it can be fairly manageable. Either you already hold an email list to start using or you can start gathering with a dedicated email. Gmail is free and a good starting point, as you can store and share all sorts through Google Drive.
When you find that it’s starting to get out of hand (as in the strategy is working but you’re finding it hard to handle), you move up a level and subscribe to a mail marketing automated plan.
Many are actually free if your list is under 1000 email addresses, so when you get close to that figure, you can start using one and familiarizing yourself with it. Then if you have to level up again to a paying membership, you will be ready.
The writing bobs
Whether your business is already sorted with the email (non) automation requirements or not, this is that one part that cannot (should not) be automated.
There’s no such thing as a Google Mail Sequence, using the analogy to Google Translate. Yet. Even if there was one (in my Translator opinion), I don’t recommend it for business use. The recipient detects a non-human flow in a text from miles away!
Your business needs to reflect your (and your business) voice. You want to make sure that the customers recognise you straight away by the way you communicate to them. Equally, you want that tone to be kept throughout. You want to ensure there’s no ambiguity regarding your intentions.
Consistency is key to gaining your customers’ trust. If you keep the same tone it inspires credibility and customers are more likely to come to you.
Nostalgic Mumma 