Marketing isn’t just about selling goods and services, and it never has been. That might sound like a radical statement, but think about it. The best salespeople know how to sell themselves by being likeable and starting conversations. Conversations lead to relationships. Relationships lead to trust. And trust leads to business. The same is true for email marketing. It’s how well you keep conversations going that makes the difference between success and failure. This month, we thought we’d use our enewsletter to talk about how to make your enewsletter stand out.
First, let’s talk about why email marketing is so important. One of the main benefits of an enewsletter is that it keeps your brand regularly in front of current and potential customers and referral partners. Think of it this way: there are millions of people on the verge of needing in-home care services, but they don’t realize the need for it yet. When they do finally recognize the need for care for themselves, a loved one, or a client, your regular enewsletter with informative, useful information, will position your agency as a go-to for answers and assistance. Enewsletters have other benefits too, including:
- Being a cost-effective form of promotion
- Helping you build a following by consistently offering valuable content
- Increasing traffic to your website and social media channels
- Allowing you to track data easily and measure response rates
Email Marketing Best Practices
So, how can you ensure that your enewsletter gets seen among the inbox clutter?
Decide how often to communicate: Some agencies choose to send their enewsletters out monthly, while others communicate every other month or on a quarterly basis. It’s important to establish a regular schedule and stick to it. As you build a following, your audience will look forward to your regularly scheduled communication. It’s also important not to over-communicate by sending too many emails in a short time frame, which can overwhelm your audience.
Know your audience: Listen to your customers. What questions do you answer regularly? What do people find interesting about your business or about senior care in general when they talk to you? What are some problems your agency can solve for referral partners? Make a list of all the topics clients and referral sources ask you about and craft a content calendar or newsletter outline for the next several months. Then write content that provides the answers to the questions people ask in a friendly and helpful way.
Improve subject lines: The subject line of an email is the first thing a person sees when opening his or her inbox. It also can raise a red flag among spam filters if you’re not careful, so what you put there matters! Your subject line should be engaging and speak to the benefits a person will get if they open your email, but keep them brief, as many email programs cut the subject line off at a certain number of characters. Avoid using “spammy” terms, like “free” or “premium” or “click” as these can trigger filters that will reroute your newsletter into a spam folder.
Include great visuals: A captivating image that also complements your content helps grab your readers’ attention and draw them in. Images will likely not display by default in some people’s emails, though, so all images should be labeled with alt text describing to the reader what is pictured, just in case.
Get help: Running a senior care business is a rewarding but demanding job. It can be hard to find the time and energy to write compelling content, design an attention-grabbing enewsletter template, proof and edit content, select the best images, manage sending out an enewsletter on a regular schedule, and track data. It’s okay to get help with one of more of these tasks. The home care marketing experts at corecubed assist clients in a variety of ways so they don’t have to do it all, but they get the desired results they seek. Here are just a few of the ways we can help:
- Design a template
- Write content
- Select images
- Send and track
- Post to your website
- Help you get more email sign-ups
Want to learn more about the benefits of email marketing and find out how corecubed can help improve your newsletter campaigns? Contact us today!