Do you have a large email list but you don’t know what to do with it?
One of the most common things that get me really excited when I speak to business owners is that they have this massive collection of former, current, or potential clients sitting around and they have no idea what to do with them!
Why do I get so excited? Because they are basically telling me that they are sitting on a pile of gold but they don’t have any money to buy bread!
Actually, scratch that – they’re actually sitting on bread, wondering how they are going to buy themselves some bread! Because those emails won’t cost you a thing, except your effort and your time!
A quality email list is your best audience.
It is your lowest-hanging fruit.
I like to say it’s “free” because, unlike other forms of digital marketing, aside from social media, you don’t have to pay for the results. Technically, you probably already have, but from this point on, you don’t need to pay to reach them!
The first place you can start is by creating a monthly, bi-weekly, weekly, or even daily newsletter! Depending on your audience and how ambitious you want to be.
Platforms like MailChimp allow you to set up automated and manually delivered email campaigns, to see how many people have opened your email, clicked a link within the email, or how many have unsubscribed from your list.
This is all very helpful because you can learn what kind of information works best when reaching out to past, current, and potential clients.
You can also utilize this list to educate someone on another product or service or present an upsell opportunity and present an offer to save more money on a second purchase by sharing a link on their social media account or providing your company with a review.
It’s ok to ask for something as long as you don’t continually bug your audience about it!
Provide them with something special that they can only receive in this email and then ask them for something in return if they have the time – don’t make it mandatory! No one likes a bossy Bethany or pushy Pete!
Not only can you achieve additional success for your business directly through these low-hanging fruit email lists, as we say in the marketing world, but you can introduce this data back into your advertising platforms and increase your chances of success!
Facebook is one of the most interesting platforms to utilize for your digital marketing needs—it can act as a landing page, an advertiser, and a customer service representative, just to name a few of the many hats this social media monster wears!
But it also offers the ability to retarget to those who use that same email from your email list to log in to Facebook!
So although that past customer or potential client might have totally forgotten about your business, you can subtly – or shamelessly – remind them of what it is you do or sell, and maybe even incentivize them with some special offer that only your email list will see!
On top of that, Facebook uses interest marketing to distribute its advertisements.
That means it determines who wants to see what content by the information it has been able to collect via the Facebook Pixel, which is a tracking mechanism that relays information back to Facebook and tells them what you might be interested in.
Why is this important? It allows you to upload your email list of people who have shown great interest in your business, either by purchasing or signing up for something and target other Facebook users who share similar interests with that email list!
So while they might be “cold” to your business or product or service, they have a much higher chance of being interested in what it is that you have to offer!
And to end this long rant, you can also utilize this list to create evangelists or advocates for your brand by using the jab-jab-hook theory – or give-give-ask.
Once these emails are submitted, you can reach back out to them, as mentioned previously, and “ask” them for a favour – whether it be to share your business on their social network feeds or provide a review on your Google Business page, or give them some incentive to invite their friends to use your product or service.
Remember, just because you have made a sale, it doesn’t mean that your conversation with that customer has to stop—nor should it!
If you have their contact information, never be afraid to reach out and ask them how they are enjoying whatever it is you provided for them, and continue to build that relationship.
You will be very happy with the results!