Social media marketing experts always push the importance of social media ads and a constant content flow when it comes to generating a revenue for your business. However, simply providing fresh content isn’t always enough.
Did you know that email marketing is considered one of the most effective online marketing techniques? It’s true! In fact, for every $1 spent on email marketing, the average ROI is $40. With those numbers, it’s hard to deny that an email marketing funnel is essential to your business plan.
How do Email Funnels help you?
The reason email funnels are so successful is because they have more than one direct benefit to your business. The first, and maybe most important, benefit is that an email funnel helps you acquire new leads. When people opt into your email list, they most likely have some interest or need in the service you’re providing. Another benefit is that a proper email marketing funnel can turn these leads into buyers. If done correctly, you could be making sales in your sleep… SCORE!
Email funnels can also turn those buyers into lifelong fans who continue to support your business and products.
Building your subscriber list
So obviously, by this point, an email marketing funnel sounds like a dream come true for your business — and it is! Don’t be fooled though. Creating a healthy, fully-functioning funnel is a lot hard work initially.
Before getting into the logistics of a funnel, you need to know the importance of the mailing list. Without your list, you can’t have a funnel. It’s never too early to start building your list. Use pop-ups, slide-ins or landing pages. Although, people say they’re annoying, they work when you have the right info you’re offering.
Once you have a list, don’t just use it to “touch-base” when you need something. Think of it as a friendship where the other person only wants to “hangout” when they need something. Isn’t that frustrating? Don’t be that friend to your subscribers. Provide them with valuable information, tools and freebies to let them know you value their commitment!
Finally, email segmentation is vital to further funnel success! By getting down to what specific subscribers need from you, you can customize your email content to fit those needs. This will give you even more ROI!
How to set-up your email funnel
The foundations of an email marketing funnel derive from regular marketing funnels. You attract, lock-down, convert and create customers in every step of the funnel. However, in email marketing, each segment has a few more specific guidelines:
Awareness
Like a regular marketing funnel, awareness is always the first step. This is the widest part of the funnel, so naturally, it’s a numbers game. You want to attract the most number of people here, because statistically speaking, a majority of them will drop off before moving further along the funnel.
In this step, your potential customers are looking for solutions. You will need to tell them a bit about yourself and the details of your business. The emails you send should be about raising brand awareness, providing valuable information, and creating a bond. Be helpful and engaged to show how much you care about your brand.
These emails should contain blog posts, articles, videos, infographics and freebies.
Consideration
In this step, you’ll want to change gears in your emails. At this point, the potential customer is considering making a purchase. Now, it’s okay to increase your product or service promotion, but only slightly. It’s still important to not sound like you’re giving a sales pitch.
Use this step as an opportunity to address a pain point or need they might have, and educate them on a service you provide that can ease the problem. The content you provide should be useful and relevant to the particular segment you’re pinpointing.
Conversion/Decision
The conversion and decision stage is where you can start to be a bit more intentional. You’ve now convinced them on your expertise, they trust you, and they like what they’ve been shown. It’s completely okay now to sell to them. Send them your ratings, testimonials, and reviews, and emphasize on the benefits of your products. Show your list what sets you apart from the rest and what makes you the best option to go with. This is also a great step to offer a “flash-sale” or offer a free trial. Creating a sense of urgency can make your offer seem irresistible.
Loyalty
While an email funnel that moves someone from the awareness stage to the decision stage is fantastic, the work doesn’t stop there. It’s much easier to keep an existing customer than to acquire a new one, so some of your focus needs to remain in the funnel.
Send a “thank you” email, and continue to ask how things are going and if there’s anything else they may need. Feel free to provide some suggestions for getting the most out of their purchase, and even ask for their feedback. Doing so will continue to make them feel valued.
Advocacy
If you’re email marketing funnel has done its job fully, your customers will turn into your cheerleaders. They believe in your message and your services and want to share their experience with friends, family and anyone who’ll listen.
In this step, you should think of ways to make it easy for these customers to recommend you and your brand. You should also ask for referrals and reviews to share across all of your social platforms.
Automate
As you can tell, creating an email marketing funnel is a lot of work, and keeping your subscribers interested and fulfilled is even more complicated. The good news is once you’ve created your funnel and work out all the kinks, you can set it on autopilot and let the emails generate revenue for you!
For more information on how to get started on email marketing, contact Tintero Creative today!