Despite social media absolutely dominating the marketing and business worlds, email marketing still has its place.
Why?
- Emails are a regular reminder to your customers that your business exists. Next time they’ve got a plumbing/electrical/etc. emergency, they’ll think of you!
- They allow you to build trust and a relationship with your customer
- Ability to automate your emails = the ability to save time
- They are low cost, if not free.
To reap these amazing benefits of email marketing, you need to master the art of creating an email.
How many times have you gone through your inbox pressing ‘delete’, ‘delete’, ‘delete’, because it’s just so full of spam?
Your customers are doing the same. This time, it’s your email on the chopping block.
To avoid up in the trash bin, your emails need to be engaging!
Here are our top tips:
Create a catchy subject line
The first thing a person reads as he/she scrolls through their emails is the subject line. This subject line is the sole influencer over their decision to read or delete your email, which is why it needs to be catchy!
Here it’s important to:
- Avoid capitalising. It’s too shouty in an already noisy space.
- Adding insignificant symbols and characters since this can be irritating to the eye
- Make it relevant
- Keep it short.
As an example, if you’re offering a discount on your services, make the subject line about your promotion.
If the email is more informative, an article rather than a promotion, use an interesting fact or a question to capture their attention.
Provide value
Providing value through offers/discounts and information is one of the best ways to engage your subscribers.
In our own trade business, Dr.DRiP Plumbing, we send out a quarterly newsletter to our customer base.
This newsletter provides value through being informative (our latest newsletter was about the dangers of ‘flushable’ wipes) is informative and provides further value through a $50 discount valid on their next job. Below is the exact image we use in our newsletters!
Be specific
Your email content needs to be as specific and concise as possible.
Most readers don’t like to read walls of texts, so try to keep it short.
If you struggle to keep it short, try using bullet points, headers, and segments to make it more ‘reader-friendly’!
It also wouldn’t hurt to include some eye-catching related images throughout the email.
Call to action
Once you’ve finalised your subject line and content, the next step is polishing your call to action.
This is some text or a button that encourages the customer to essentially, do what you want them to do. For example, ring your business, purchase your products, email for more information etc.
Avoid using a generic call to action such as “click here” or “ring now”, instead keep it use something more proactive that encourages the reader to take action such as “claim your offer now!”.
Below is an example of Dr.DRiP’s latest newsletters call to action. Here we’ve kept the message clear and even added a light-hearted note to it to encourage our specific target market to book in with us!
Following these rules when building your email will ensure your readers are engaging with your content, meaning your business can reap the benefits of email marketing.
Never find your emails ending up in the ‘trash’ bin again!
Interested in discovering more low-cost marketing for your trade business?
What’s next?
- Join our Kick-Ass Tradies Facebook Group, for access to trade business specific conversations, tips and resources, plus a like-minded community of tradies.
- Book a 15-minute Game Plan Call with Andy, owner of Dr. DRiP plumbing and co-founder of Lifestyle Tradie, to clarify your priorities and get clear action steps.