The Magic of Email Marketing

I email frequently. Monday – Friday and sometimes on the weekends, if I have a special announcement.

I’ve received questions over the past few months about my decision to do this. I’d like to mention an eCommerce company that didn’t do utilize emails and the possible results of not using email marketing on a regular basis.

I’ll call the eCommerce company “Jack’s” just to make it simple. They sell shoes.

I ordered a pair online during the first week of December 2015. I received them promptly. I also received a follow-up email asking me to answer a question for customer satisfaction. Fine. Good.

A typical email from a B2C company.

But here’s where it went south.

That follow-up email was sent on December 13, 2015.

I did not receive another email from them until January 20, 2016.

That’s right. This eCommerce site somehow failed to send me any promotional emails for holiday offers. A total of 38 days passed until I received another email from Jack’s.

I also happen to have some inside information and discovered that the internal shifts that were fulfilling the orders didn’t have enough orders and were sending people home early from their shift.

During the holidays.

During a time when everybody in the U.S. is shopping online.

During a year where eCommerce sales increased by 20% during the holiday season.

It was insane.

I can only speculate, but I think the ball was dropped by the person or team who was monitoring their email promotions. It is just stunning to me that an eCommerce site – who relies solely on sales through the Internet – would deliberately fail to send out emails during the most popular buying season of the year.

Since January 20, I’ve received a lot of emails from them. Several a week. But it was unfortunate that they didn’t send out emails during that crucial time in December.

So… here are some questions I’ve received about my own daily emails:

Why do you believe in such frequent emails? Won’t it turn some people off?

I believe with my whole heart that frequent emails are a very good thing. For a few reasons.

First, it builds credibility. Whatever it is you have to sell, your potential buyers are looking for the “Reason Why.” Why pay attention to you? This is what you have the ability to demonstrate in your emails.

Second, relationship is built through trust. How does trust happen?  It certainly doesn’t happen by connecting with someone once every three months.

How can I differentiate myself from my competitors?

This is a HUGE question every business owner and entrepreneur is asking themselves right now!

The one thing I recommend is discovering your brand archetype.  Especially if you’re the business owner.  You can find various brand archetype quizzes online but one I’ve used is the one from Salary.com.  Their free online quiz is no longer available but the descriptions are still there.

Once you know your archetype, then you can start to use that knowledge to differentiate yourself in the marketplace.   You can use it to develop your business brand and then your marketing message.

You talk about your relationship coaching every once in a while. How did you get into it?

I’ve always joked that if there was a PhD. given for romantic relationships, I’d have earned it!

I was single for many, many years… not marrying until I was 39. I realized that dating in my twenties was different than dating in my mid-thirties. I faced these challenges the way I do with anything that perplexes me: I read a lot of books. Watched videos. Joined groups.

I learned as much as I could about the relationships between men and women and also what made for a good, healthy relationship.  After I met my wonderful husband, I decided I wanted to help other women find their special someone.

For three years, I coached single women over 40 looking for love.  I may return to it again, someday, but for now, I dig “matching” a client’s product or service with their own “true love” customer.

If you’re seeking that “whole package” approach to finding true love with your customers, why not schedule  a quick marketing chat with me?   I have something that might be able to help you.

And if you’re on the fence about email more frequently – start moving. My inbox is filled each day with offers from a variety of product and service providers. If you’re not there, then you’re invisible to your market.

Make it a goal to start becoming a more frequent guest in your subscriber’s inbox instead of the long-lost relative.

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