Using Email Marketing to Pivot Your Biz From Fear to Opportunity

Cue tactic four, Raman! If you’ve missed Raman’s previous pivot tactics, click here to learn more and discover other ways to pivot your biz during this time.

What sets small business entrepreneurs apart is they are truly lovers of creating beautiful products and offering impeccable service. This is a group of founders that go the extra mile in ensuring their customers feel appreciated. From the moment their customers place an order, to every detail of their unboxing experience, as consumers of their brands, they know how to make us feel incredibly special. 

In this case, small businesses have perfected what most corporate-tier have missed: with customers having direct access to brand founders, small businesses know how to build an emotional connection with every single one of their customers. 

Contrary, larger and more corporate-tier businesses have perfected one of the most challenging aspects for most small businesses, which is marketing. Both social and email. 

On a personal experience, my inbox is being bombarded with promotions from well-known brands at the tune of anywhere between 5-7 emails per week. Of all the small brands I’m subscribed to via email, and genuinely want to hear from, the delivery rate is anywhere between one per month to one per week. 

You may be thinking, what on earth does your brand have to offer on a weekly basis? The short answer is, a lot! Email marketing isn’t just about promotions, it’s an opportunity to build your community. In other words, it’s the one space where every single one of your brand messages gets seen over and over again. 

For my clients, I have designed four main categories of email content which includes: 

1. Theme – anything that is product or service related
2. Feature – spontaneous announcements or product features ie: awards
3. Promotion – percent or dollar discount
4. Community – emotional, vulnerable, fun and behind the scenes long form content

The point of each category is to psychologically target all the various ways customers build loyalty to a product or service which eventually leads to a sale. 

As an Advisory Board Member at CTZN Cosmetics, I also help plan and execute our email marketing campaigns that are designed up to three months in advance. To help readers understand the power of email marketing, the beauty industry’s average opening rate is 16.5%. At CTZN, our opening rate is between 19-20%. Making email marketing our most profitable source of revenue.

Still not convinced? Here are another 5 reasons why email marketing should be your brand’s number one marketing strategy: 

1. It’s algorithm proof. Every email your brand sends, lands in the inbox in chronological order. 
2. Most reliable source of communication. If social media, for whatever reason, was to disappear without notice, your email list won’t fail you. 
3. Affordable. Most email marketing platforms offer free marketing options of up to 2000 email contacts (Mailchimp). 
4. Expands word of mouth. With most website platforms offering built-in reward systems, email marketing makes it easier for your existing customers to hit forward and invite new customers to your brand. rel
5. Most profitable marketing channel. No other platform offers open rates or returns like email marketing. 

For e-commerce based businesses, I suggest the email marketing software, Klayvio, for designing all of your campaigns. Klayvio is also Shopify compatible.  

If you’re wondering what’s the best frequency for emails, start with twice a week. For example: Every Tuesday and Friday.  

Here is my personal 7-step checklist I use with all of my clients to design each and every email campaign. 

• Email Subject: What’s the main reason customers will want to open this email?
• Email Type: Theme, Feature, Promotion or Community
• Email Copy: What will the email say? Stick to one message at a time. Too many points of focus will take away from the CTA goal. 
• Schedule Time: When will the email be sent? 
• CTA: Every email requires a customer to take some sort of action, determine what you would like your customer to do and where they will land once they engage. 
• Images and Visuals: Determine if usage of GIF’s or still images will be used, if so, which ones?
• List Segmentation: Which list is the recipient of this email?

Email marketing is, without a doubt, the most powerful tool at any brand’s fingertips. For brands looking to thrive during and post COVID, I strongly advise they start utilizing their email lists and start connecting with customers who have willingly given them permission to communicate.

xx

Raman