Friday Business Challenge (for photographers)

week #6

7 steps to

email marketing+

take the challenge!

Your challenge this week is to follow these quick, easy and practical steps to building an email marketing plan. But not just any email plan. We’ll be looking at email marketing+

So grab a coffee (or your beverage of choice) and off we go…

week #6: email marketing

Email marketing is effective for one simple reason: People like receiving messages from companies they care about. They like when they’re emailed about things they’ve already shown in an interest in.

It’s about building stronger relationships with customers and prospects who already know you and have decided that, yes, they want to keep hearing from you.

They want to stay up to date with what you’re doing, they want to hear about new products, they want to hear about hot deals, etc.

The messages that land in their inbox help keep your company name in their top of mind and force them to constantly be thinking about you.

but is it really necessary?

Q: With social media playing such a huge part in marketing these days, is it worth your time to focus your efforts on email campaigns?

A: Absolutely!!!

An email list is one of the most valuable asset for a photography business. It’s the one of the easiest, cheapest and most direct way to engage with past and potential customers and encourage them to do more business with you.

so what is email marketing+ A bit of the traditional email marketing stuff

The added zing of social media

A healthy dose of relationship building and connection

Your personality

Your work, your images…the emotion of photography

Just the right amount of unique and remarkable

1. getting the basics right

2. adding some social media zing

3. be remarkable

4. communicate value

5. be relevant

6. make connections

7. provide great content

7 steps

getting the basics right

1. Email Design and Construction: Does your design reflect your brand? How can you use images? What are your calls to action? Consider the From address (is it recognizable to your customers?)

2. Content: What does your content consist of? What is your subject line (this will directly impact your open rate)?*

Much more about this later – it is IMPORTANT!!!

1

getting the basics right

3. Contact List Management: Build a contact list of existing customers and/or prospects. Grow your contact list via email sign-up forms, capturing Opt-In at time of enquiry or purchase, “send to a friend” functionality

4. Build the Campaign: There are many email providers out there. Try a few to find the one that best suits your needs. A few I have tried are: Mail Chimp, Vision 6's VeMail, Aweber, Mad Mimi

5. Test in different email programs to ensure it is delivered and presented as you would expect

1Be aware of

SPAM

legislation

and carry

out

“Permission

Marketing”)

add some social media zing

Ask for a Share: If you are considering adding Share buttons to your emails so subscribers can Digg, Stumble, Tweet or Like, make sure the content is worth sharing!

Interaction: The great thing about social email marketing is that you can interact with your customers and email subscribers by connecting with them on social media.

Ask For Feedback… and then take it into consideration. In your e-mail campaign, consider using or linking to surveys and polls to obtain reader feedback and opinions. Make sure you include the results in your next email to keep your readers engaged.

2

add some social media zing

Don’t just use your email campaigns as a way to generate followers on your social media networks. Use Twitter, Facebook and others to generate an interest in subscribing to your email newsletters. Update your Facebook status or tweet about an upcoming emails of interest and link to a subscription page, or telling them how they can subscribe.

2

be remarkable

OK, I know what you’re thinking “Here she goes again! I’ve seen a slide just like this before!”

But it’s worth repeating! Be unique!!! Be remarkable!!! Stand out in that Inbox!!!

If your emails are never opened, they are obviously of little benefit. Getting emails opened, and clicked is essential!

You only have 3-5 seconds to convince them your email is valuable so you must grab their attention right away.

3Have you done Friday Business Challenge #2

How Remarkable is Your Photography Business? If not go back and have a flick through it before you start

be remarkable3

How?

I’m glad you asked

– read on!!!

communicate value

When we talk to customers and potential customers, we often focus on our products or services, on what we offer, or on ourselves. But the people we're communicating with really care about how what we're offering them will benefit them. So are you clear how your products and services really benefit and add value for your customers?

Ask yourself (or ask your subscribers):

1. Will they benefit from taking the time to read your e-mail?

2. What will they learn?

3. Is your product/service going to save them time or money?

4. Is it going to improve their lives in some way?

And, are you communicating this clearly in your emails?

4

be RELEVANT

Your time and effort will be wasted if your emails don’t get opened or get lost in inbox clutter because they’re not relevant.

ARE YOUR EMAILS RELEVANT?

Who are you sending to? Who is your target market? What is relevant to your target market? Is everyone on your list going to get the same message?

Think like your customer: What do your customers want? Do they want to hear about upcoming deals and specials? Do they want educational articles to help make their lives easier?

If you can understand why they subscribed to your newsletter, you can meet their needs and help them to associate positive things with your brand and emails.

5

make connections

There’s a world of difference between an email that “markets” or “sells” and an email that reaches out and connects. Think of your email marketing as a way to share, build relationships, explore and develop strong connections.

Putting a little bit of your own personality into your marketing is a great way to make connections. It creates a way for your readers will get to know, trust and like you.

6

images and stories help make connections

“Emails provide a lovely way to exhibit your latest works by embedding images directly into the email accompanied by the story with it; whether is the story of a lifetime captured in a portrait, or the love shared at a wedding. Your email becomes a gallery. It’s like a wormhole really – a gorgeous powerful email received at a desk whips the reader into a gallery where the photographs transport the viewers out of their moments into the moment captured by you.”

Dean Levitt, Mad Mimi

6

content: how to write your subject lines

If your subject line fails, you might as well go home!!!

If your subject line is boring, doesn’t capture anyone’s attention, is not relevant to your readers or is even remotely likely to be considered spam, the game is over.

A general rule of thumb is that eight out of 10 people will read an email subject and send-from address, but only two out of 10 will read the rest.

The better the email subject, the better the odds of beating the averages and getting your emails read.

7

content: how to write your subject lines

Ask yourself these questions before you start to write your email:

Does your subject line offer the reader a reward for reading?  Will they benefit?

Can you include specifics to make the email subject more intriguing or believable and credible?

Will your subject trigger a strong (positive!), emotion for the reader?

Will your subject topic immediately resonate with your prospect?

Could you add an element of intrigue to entice them to open and read on?

7

content: how to write your subject lines

Two other key points to remember when writing your subject lines are:

1. Keep it short and sweet! Don't make your subject any longer than 60 characters -- and make sure that the most important details are mentioned first so it doesn't get cut off.

2. If possible, personalize it! A subject line like ”Kate, here's something you need..." is going to get a MUCH better response than simply "Here's something you need”.

I’m not making any promises here but personalized e-mail like this can increase the response you receive by as much as 50%! Test it for yourself and see.

7

content: how to write your copy

Remember:

Add value and be relevant to your target market

Focus on making connections and building relationships

Be remarkable to be clicked on

This is a topic too big to be summarized on a single slide so if you want to learn more about writing great copy I’d highly recommend the free e-course: internet marketing for smart people from Copyblogger

7

It’ll also help with writing your blog, website and other

marketing materials

what’s next?

Have a plan: One newsletter does not make an email marketing strategy. Consider how regularly your clients want to hear from you.

And if you don’t know - ask.

Plan a schedule and stick to it!

Test different options (design, subject lines, content, images, send times, frequency etc) and continue to enhance your emails for maximum open, click trough and conversion to bookings and sales.

Friday Business Challenge

Business Challenge for photographers is brought to you by:

Robyn Mayne, Sydney, Australia Today is Different

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