Email marketing during the 1990’s was a gold mine.
Fifty to sixty percent response rates were common (compared to an industry benchmark of 20% today). Every email campaign I sent out got a flood of email responses.
Today it’s an art form rather than a free-for-all. While email marketing shouldn’t be the only tool in your arsenal, it’s still incredibly effective — when done correctly.
Email Marketing Tips For Managed Services Marketing
You can’t just throw the pasta at the wall and see what sticks. You need a strong, tactical email marketing strategy or you’ll lose your list very quickly.
Don’t send out any MSP marketing emails without running it by this checklist first.
Only email people who want to hear from you. It sounds elementary, but it happens all the time. If you mass email every person in your contact list, eventually they’ll unsubscribe. You’ll also risk hurting your open and click-through rates and getting marked as spam.
Your email list should only include unconverted leads and clients who have given you permission to email them.
If you’re looking for ways to build up your list, I have tons of resources in my Technology Marketing Toolkit, including seminars, free reports, webinars and other content. Referral marketing, canvassing, and trade shows are another great source to add contacts to your email list.
Segment. Once you build up a large enough email list, it’s time to get strategic. Your clients and prospects are unique. You can’t send everyone the same generic email and expect to receive a response.
An IT director and CEO of a small business have drastically different needs and objectives. The medical industry has very specific, compliance IT requirements. They should get different messages and offers.
Analyze your list and segment it into different target audiences. What are you sending to your leads? Clients? Who gets your newsletter? Depending on your customer base, you can segment and customize your email campaigns by business size, position, industry or any other demographic that fits your business.
Get to the point. Our attention spans are limited. We’re hastily scanning emails when we wake up in the morning, on our morning commute, and in line at the coffee shop. We read emails on desktops, phones, and laptops.
After you entice recipients to open your emails, you still need to hold their attention. Keep your emails short, well-written, and to the point.
Email copy should be simple and strong — don’t use jargon or difficult words. All emails should be clearly formatted with spacing, bullets, and headlines when necessary so they’re easy to read quickly.
Subject lines matter. Your subject lines are the key to increasing your open rates, not an afterthought. Spend time creating thoughtful, creative subject lines.
Make it personal. Send your email from a real person, not a company. Recipients are more likely to trust an email from a real person than a generic “[email protected]” email address.
Include a clear call to action. Don’t email your list without a purpose. What do you want them to do? What’s the next step you want them to take? Every email you send should have a clear call to action.
Get permission. As our inboxes are inundated with spam emails and unwanted promotions, regulations have gotten stricter. Make sure every piece of email marketing abides by CAN-SPAM Act.
Need More Managed Services Marketing Help?
Want more email marketing tips? My Technology Marketing Toolkit for MSPs is a field-tested, comprehensive library of marketing tools to help you drive leads.
