Email is a basic tool, but it is very powerful and has decades of marketing practices behind it. It’s perfect for a printing company on a budget.
Using affordable and strategic marketing tools such as email on a regular schedule will help plant your brand firmly and positively in your prospect’s mind.
BENEFITS OF EMAIL MARKETING
- The cost is reasonable.
- It doesn’t take a huge amount of time.
- If you are learning as you go, readers usually are forgiving if you have good intentions.
- You can invest in high-quality writing and see quick rewards in engagement.
- The data you capture will improve future emails.
- Email mixes well with your other marketing options.
- Email can grow as your company grows. You never outgrow it!
HOW TO GET STARTED WITH EMAIL MARKETING
First things first. Sign up for an email service. It’s surprising how often I find companies using their own email addresses as the launchpad for their email marketing. An email service that resides outside your email server will protect your email address and allow you to follow email laws. Free or affordable services are fine. As your needs change, you can look at a more robust service. Once you have a service provider, the other pieces fall into place.
Establish your visual identity. The email service will have templates you can embellish for newsletters, landing pages, event registrations, and more. Templates can echo the style of your website and incorporate your brand colors and images. Design with mobile viewers in mind.
Create an editorial calendar. Look at your events schedule. Get copies of sales and marketing promotional calendars. Think about topics that will motivate readers to take action at certain times of the year. Each summer, for example, one of my clients publishes an email directory of golf tournaments, including dates, websites, and signup info. This email edition gets a huge number of click-throughs. Readers even email back to say thank you.
Read the rules that come with your service. You don’t have to know every detail, but you need to know how to handle spam reports, opt-outs, list updates, and data integrity. It’s important to build a clean list of people who have chosen to receive your communications. If you use a consultant, he or she should know current laws and best practices.
GETTING RESULTS WITH EMAIL MARKETING
Set goals. You’ll get valuable data and reports when you use an email service. For example, you can see how long it took someone to open your email and which elements they clicked on. This information will help you refine your campaign and create more appealing content. Capture baseline data when you start your campaign and measure your progress as you move toward your goals.
Start with a solid plan. With the help of your salespeople and an email expert who can get you rolling, you can build your audience from zero and see dramatic gains.
Keep going. It can be tempting to set aside an email marketing program in favor of a busy time in the print shop or the lack of a dedicated person to handle the deadlines. It’s important to stick to a schedule and make it a priority if you want to get optimum results from email marketing. If you plan ahead and learn how to use the tools, you can work more efficiently and keep publishing on time. Setting and meeting expectations is a way to build trust with readers who may become customers.
By using email marketing on a regular schedule, you can demonstrate to your readers that you are a reliable printer that follows through and meets deadlines. That’s a great result!
My goal is to #HelpPrintThrive, so I want to help you be successful and profitable in the easiest way possible. If you’re not using affordable marketing options like email marketing, this is a great time to learn how.
Read more posts from Sandy Hubbard – Marketing Strategist 🌻 for the Printing Industry.
Sandy Hubbard is a relentless advocate for the power of print. As a Marketing Strategist and Consultant, she helps printers develop a strong cross-channel marketing program that catches the attention of new customers. You can find Sandy Hubbard every Wednesday co-hosting #PrintChat on LinkedIn. Join the group here> https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12566297/
