Staying in touch with past clients is a vital part of your marketing strategy. Building authentic connections is integral to the growth and stability of businesses. Email lists are indispensable for connecting with past clients, and others who’ve expressed interest in your company.
After all, it can take some time for people following your work to hire you for a job. The first step in our marketing process is creating awareness of your company and your brand. Over time, potential clients see more and more of who you are what you do. Then, when it’s time for them to hire a remodeler, they pick you!
Keeping in touch with special offers, informative blogs, e-news, or long-form, information-based assets (such as e-books, webinars, or tools) helps build a trusting relationship with those on your email list.
What Not to Do: Never Pay for Email Lists
Do not, under any circumstances, buy an email list. Many legal regulations impact email permissions. Purchased email lists are an almost surefire way to get labeled a spammer. Here is a quick, honest, checklist of possible ramifications from taking this ill-advised shortcut:
- You may violate consent rules; for example, data protection regulations are always shifting locally and internationally.
- It’s aggravating. When receiving unsolicited emails from a company you’ve never heard of, do you feel more annoyance than curiosity? Some companies sell “opted-in” email lists. Opted-in emails are usually gathered on a site stating something like, “check here to receive messages from us or other companies that may be of interest.” Cold emailing an address obtained in this way almost always results in an instant unsubscribe and possibly a total loss of trust!
- Many of these lists are duds: using them means risking your email reputation and also wasting money and time.
- Sending messages to long-dead emails can harm your email reputation—such activity can lead to being labeled a spammer. With the label of spammer, your email messages may not get delivered at all.
What to Do: Grow Your Email List Through Valuable Information Assets
- One of the best ways of collecting marketing email addresses is in person. Request email addresses when someone visits your office, at trade shows, or at open houses or events showcasing your work. Consider doing educational events in your community; for example, you could demonstrate a DIY home repair. Educational opportunities provide tangible value to members of your community.
- Create “gated assets,” comprised of quality information people want enough to give their email addresses in exchange for it. Examples of gated assets include e-books, webinars, or tools (such as an online tool helping people select a room layout or a paint color).
- Your e-newsletter and blog are vital components in the quest to collect fresh email addresses for future qualified leads. Your blog can even touch on subjects related to the content of your gated access materials, resulting in interest, follow-through, and shareability.
- The content of your e-books, blogs, e-newsletter, landing pages, surveys, tools, and educational materials needs to be remarkable. Consumers are busier than ever: they want quality information researched and disseminated to them in the form of high-quality prose.
- Promotion of your gated materials should be carried out across all marketing channels, like social media, pay per click ads, e-blasts, e-news, and blogs. Share buttons on your website and clickable links in email signatures are also advisable.
- Consider using print to invite people to sign up for your e-newsletter! Postcard mailings, print newsletters, or door hangers are just a few of the print options available where you could potentially share a simple invitation to sign up for e-news at your website.
- Consider sending out an email message with a new “opt-in” feature. This may seem like an extreme step, but it is one way to cull dead email addresses from your email list. Shedding dead emails will help you seek out valid, fresh addresses for your list.
We hope this information gets you excited to continue building your marketing email list. Regardless of your goals, we’re here to support you in your marketing ventures. Our team of experts can answer your questions. We specialize in providing exceptional online content for your company’s ever-shifting marketing needs. Contact us today!