By Emeka Anaeto

More than ever before people are on their computers and other internet-enabled devices a lot right now. If email marketing isn’t currently part of your business strategy, you may be losing much ground to competitors. This is the time to develop and switch to digital marketing and the easiest form of it is e-mailing.

Following the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, internet usage has skyrocketed in Nigeria and elsewhere across the world. People are turning to their devices and computers even more for news updates, shopping and entertainment. For businesses, this presents a great opportunity to employ an email marketing strategy if you haven’t already.

Email marketing is a way to send marketing promotions directly to a specific audience via email. That could take the form of discount promotions, newsletters, business news, or new product and service offerings.

You can always get your marketing messages like these out to as many customers or potential customers as possible through emailing.

In the circumstance of COVID-19 lockdowns your business can continue running especially marketing activities, from your home or designated location without physical interface with customers are target markets.

In fact even after the lockdowns and COVID-19 frenzies the non-physical marketing should become the new normal given its many advantages.

READ ALSO: Covid-19: How 2020 Black Friday can help SMEs, consumers bridge revenue gap

If you are new to email marketing, it can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Getting started can be simple, and it can offer great short-term and long-term profit for your business.

To start, you will need an audience.

Building an email list

When asking people to sign up, try to recall the email lists you have signed up for in the past and what made them appealing. You should often make sure the “receive email offers” check box is empty at the end of an order confirmation so that your inbox isn’t filled with dozens of emails every week. That’s important to keep in mind throughout your entire strategy.

Make it worth your customers’ time and effort to sign up by offering something. This could be a number of things depending on the products or services your business provides.

Once you create a reason for people to sign up, let people know about the offer. Don’t wait for the check box at the end of an order summary. Promote the subscription throughout your website’s homepage, in sidebars or using pop-ups. Make it so even casual browsers notice it and have a chance to sign up.

You can attract sign ups with some of these: “Subscribe Now for a Free Consultation,” “Free Webinars and Demonstration Videos With Email Subscription” or “Sign up Now for 10% Off Products and Services!”.

Creating an email

As soon as people sign up, let them know your appreciation by sending a welcome email. The first emails received have the highest open rates — up to 82% — so make it a good one.

The subject line should be short and concise and use attention-grabbing words without being too generic. Using the person’s name in the subject line can be a great way to make it sound personal and not like just another spam email.

Avoid using words and symbols like free, win or cheap. Using these types of words, excessive punctuation and emojis will trigger accounts to send the email to spam.

Follow that with a message that introduces your company and explains why people should work with you and how you can help them. Don’t be afraid to tell a short story about your company, such as why you started your business and what it means to you. This is another way for your company to get personal and develop a relationship with the reader. Relating to your audience is proven to reflect in sales.

And finally, don’t overdo it. Limit the number of emails you’re sending. Getting multiple emails every day or every other day about the same things will only annoy readers and make them disregard your emails. Make sure that when you send an email, it contains important updates and useful information.

Emails should be helpful to the reader and to your business. Include links to the best content on your website, or share events and links to webinars — anything to get readers back on your website and spending money. The more links you send, the more clicks you will get, so don’t be afraid to use a lot of them.

Vanguard