CREATING EMAIL AUTOMATIONS
In this video I share how to set up email automations. Below is the detailed breakdown I shared in the Complete Guide To Giveaways. It is still accurate. If you want a written breakdown, see the steps below.
WHY SEND THESE EMAILS AT ALL?
As you may have heard myself and others say often, attention is the name of the game. The last thing you want is for your new potential clients to forget about you. Maintaining a thread of their attention will keep them primed to see your content and ready to receive your offers. Email marketing is part of a multi-pronged approach to retaining attention.
I use emails to add value to the customer journey and experience by sharing the stories of the art with the people who have, by signing up for the HVCO, declared that they are interested in the and what I have to offer.
Yes, email marketing does have a low rate of engagement but it should not be ignored. As you saw in the overall social media strategy, constantly showing up in the lives of your customers is key to maintaining their attention on your artwork and making them more receptive to your offer when you promote it to them.
SETTING UP EMAIL AUTOMATION TO STAY CONNECTED WITH YOUR NEW SUBSCRIBERS
I use Mailchimp to as my CRM provider. There are many options for email marketing and the general principals and actions listed here will be applicable/adaptable to what ever platform you use.
Assuming you have a Mailchimp account, begin by creating a brand new audience. Mailchimp will ask you if you’d like to use a new set of Tags instead of creating a brand new list. I prefer to use a new list.
Choose a name that will be easily identifiable as, in the future, you may have many lists to browse.
This will be the address people can reply to when they receive your emails. You can change this when you write an email to your list.
You can change this name when you compose your emails. Actually, I recommend switching this field up to appear fresh in your contacts email box.
This is a reminder that will appear at the bottom of your emails. This helps people remember why they’re receiving correspondence from you. Make it fun.
This isn’t actually my address. I hate putting my address in these things, so I chose an office building near by. (Picture me shrugging about this)
Double opt-ins help your emails get to people’s inboxes instead of their spam boxes. It’s not foolproof, or even close to it, but it helps.
Now that you have a brand new home for your new contacts you can can connect your King Sumo giveaway to this list and watch it populate as people signup to win your art. Lets create some email automation to drive content to them while they wait, create value, and make sales.
Thank your reader for opening this email. It’s a small thing but they didn’t have to, and most people won’t. Also, super important, write your emails as if they are to a single person, because a single person will be reading it.
Your Call To Action should be near the top of the email, above the fold.
Introduce the Why Now in your email. If you don’t give your audience a reason to act, chances are that they will not act.
Link your reader back to the sales page.
Invite them to a conversation and be available to speak to. I linked the email to my Messenger Bot so that I can ensure I am able to reach whomever opens this and connects with my bot in the future. Just because a person opens one email does not guarantee they will open the next or that it will even make it to their inbox.
Other tips:
Use images that are small, less than 800kbs so as not to destroy people’s inboxes.
Stay away from ALL CAPS- pet peeve.
After you have composed your email it would behove you to preview the email using what ever preview mode your platform offers. Mailchimp offers the option to Preview and Test your email by viewing it in simulation on different devices. You can also send the email to yourself and a trusted friend. DO THIS. There is nothing worse than sending typo-ridden content to an over scrupulous audience or worse, sending an email with links that do not work. It takes only a few minutes to do this final step.
REVIEWING PERFORMANCE OF YOUR EMAILS
Review performance metrics is pretty self explanatory but there are a few things to note.
This email went to 364 people, that is how many people joined my mailing list during this give away. Giveaways are great for building a mailing list. This, in itself is a win. Future giveaways will grow from this seed.
Compare the open rate of this email to the open rate of the list at large. More people will open this email than any of your subsequent emails. Make it a good one! In retrospect, I’d have written less ‘stuff’ and left this first email as a meat-and-potatoes type thing. Instead of introducing the bonus I’d have re-introduced my value proposition (see the sales page module).
Note the link click through rate. 50% of all the link clicks are on the first CTA. Be sure to have your CTA above the fold.
