Email marketing is still very much alive. (Picture Dr. Frankenstein screaming from his lab, “IT’S ALIVE, IT’S ALIVE!”) Email marketing hasn’t gone anywhere, but what was once a great tool for reaching new customers has been tarnished by a bunch of rookies who have no clue what they’re doing.
However, you’re better than the average Joe. This article will teach you great strategies you can use in your MSP email marketing to build trust and educate your future clients. So let’s dive in and figure out where your email marketing strategy should begin.
Where email marketing really starts
How many of you believe your email marketing starts with the tool you select to use, like Connectwise, Constant Contact, or Infusionsoft? Well, you’re wrong. This is where the process ends, but many of your peers start here. The tool really doesn’t matter. It’s simply how you get potential customers to opt-in to your list and the value you’re going to provide.
Your email marketing strategy truly starts in your boardroom. What valuable information can you give away to a prospect that will get them into your sales funnel? By the way, a free network assessment or cybersecurity review isn’t what I’m talking about here. It needs to be something that’s valuable as well as educational. Maybe an FBI report on cybersecurity or a white paper about what a small business needs to look for when building a business continuity plan. It needs to be something of high value that they can put to work immediately in their business, which then positions you as the expert.
Where should this free information go? Everywhere: on your website, in your print advertising, and even on your mobile phone. Try it out. Text MDF to 72000 and see how this works. Go ahead. You need to promote your complimentary educational material everywhere you can in order to drive awareness and traffic from all possible angles.
Important next steps
Next, you need a great tool to capture all this information. At Ulistic, we recommend Infusionsoft. We’ve tried them all, and I think it’s the best solution out there for managed service providers. Infusionsoft is affordable and will do everything you need to create customized funnels, capture leads, and offer continuing education to your prospects. There are many solutions out there, though, so try them all and select the one that will work best for your business.
Then, after someone signs up for your information, don’t start blasting them with a bunch of spam. You need to nurture them through a process. We call this the indoctrination phase. Warm them up. Tell them a bit about yourself, how you help people, and what they can expect from you. The indoctrination phase is about you building your brand. It’s only a few days long, though, so you need to get to the point. (Note: You can skip the indoctrination phase for anyone who is an older prospect.)
At the same time, prospects should also be put into your engagement series. The good news is that email marketing software does this all for you. Just set it up once, and it happens forever.
The engagement process, which lasts seven to 14 days, will focus on providing information about the topic that brought the prospect in. Your goal during this phase is to get them to buy something. Get them to invest in the product or services that they were interested in.
How to get prospects to read your emails
So, how do you get someone to open your emails in the first place? Remember I said earlier it doesn’t start at the email? This is the biggest mistake managed service providers make. They think they can go purchase a list and, presto, they’ll get hundreds of leads and thousands of new revenue dollars.
Well, it isn’t that easy.
Good luck getting your emails opened by a cold email list. Research has shown that 90 percent of cold emails go unopened. The key to getting your emails opened is TRUST. Trust is huge with email marketing because people are hesitant to open emails from people they don’t know. Why? Malware and spam is one reason, and the other is that folks are just busy.
Here are some tips to help you get your emails opened:
- Keep it personal. Make your emails personal and directed to the individual. Think “Met You at the Chamber of Commerce” or “Great Discussion Yesterday.”
- Make sure you know the person’s real name. Lots of people have legal names they never use. My friend Joe’s legal name is Eric, but he never goes by that. Any emails that are addressed to Eric or Mr. Smith are never opened. They’re not personal enough.
- Don’t put links in your email to your cold list. People don’t trust links anymore. If your content is good enough, people will reach out to you.
These are just some basic tips to get your emails opened and to help your managed services company separate itself from its competition. Email marketing works like a charm, but you need to do things differently.
Want to know more? Watch the recorded webinar, and learn the secrets to making your email marketing explode.
