Did you see the world go crazy during the recent Facebook and Instagram outage?
Here in New Zealand, some people even called the police when they found they could not use the platforms.
The social media giants were out of action for less than a day and people were freaking out!
What if that was a long term outage? What if the platforms never came online again?
While we would survive personally, would your business fare the same? Could you still stay in touch with your clients?
This short outage is just one reason why you shouldn’t rely solely on Facebook for your business communication.
I have been saying for a long time that email is still the best way to communicate with your audience. So it was refreshing to find an article on Entrepreneur.com that shared the same sentiment. Let’s take a look at some of the main points raised.
Social Media Is Not The Only Way
It was interesting to read the statistics in this article. They painted a real picture of what communications currently look like.
There are 2.5 billion people that use social media every month. That is a lot of people. Many of them will be your target audience. Having said that, social media is not the only way to reach your customers. It may not even be the best way.
Do you know why?
Because there are 3.7 billion active email users around the globe. That’s right, that is over 1 billion more users on email than on social media! And email is a familiar medium.
“In fact, research compiled by Campaign Monitor indicates that 72 percent of people would rather receive brand content through email, while just 17 percent prefer to receive their brand messages from social media platforms. In addition, 39 percent want that email content to be more informational than promotional”
The statistics prove that you can’t simply send any old email and see results. Your email content should be carefully crafted and follow an overall strategy.
Here’s how you can make your email work…
Craft It Well
Putting an email or newsletter together is not simply about writing some words and hitting send. Although you do need to give plenty of thought to the words to ensure they connect with your audience, you also need to consider your strategy.
As we have learned, people don’t only want to receive promotional material. They want content that is interesting to read and that they can learn from. Ensuring you have a cohesive message is difficult to do unless you have a strategy in place. Knowing the theme you will follow and what content you will cover each month helps your messaging to be consistent and helpful. It will mean you won’t jump around from one topic to the next, confusing your readers.
Here at Big Rock we want to ensure that all of your communication is well received and worthwhile. That is why we offer a content strategy and plan as a stand alone item, and it is also included with each of our communication packages.
Use Social Media To Your Advantage
Email does not have to be boring. Just because it is a traditional method of communication does not mean that you can’t appeal to the social media generation. You don’t want to send boring canned emails that look like they have been produced from a stock standard template.
Instead, you want to encourage engagement. Get your readers interacting with your content by adding the personal touch. That doesn’t mean you have to write an individual message to each person on your list, but simply make them feel like you are speaking directly to them when you are writing. Address their concerns, offer solutions to their problems, and have your ideal client in mind when you are crafting any content.
“Sending the right messages with the right personal touches at the right times can leverage email into a highly valuable engagement channel.”
Start Today
When it comes to newsletters, there is no time like the present to start! Think you don’t have a list? Well, you actually do.
You can start with your current and past customers. Because you have an existing relationship then there is inferred consent to send them informational content. To understand more about how inferred consent works, check out this information about Big Rock’s Anti Spam policy.
It takes time to build enough trust with your email list to convert them to leads and paying clients. So, the sooner you start, the sooner you will be building those trust points!
Then, once you have taken the first steps of communication, you need to keep it going…
Keep It Consistent
When people are used to hearing from you, they begin to look out for your emails. The ones that have a higher chance of getting deleted are the ones that aren’t expected. The random emails that appear out of the blue with a list of sales offers inside.
Build trust and expectation with your audience by sending your newsletters and emails on a consistent basis. We recommend sending a monthly newsletter to keep your audience updated on all your latest news and to give them your hottest tips. Then partway through the months, also stay in touch with an email that generates some engagement with your readers.
This gets them used to hearing from you and keeps you at the front of their mind. With so much noise out there in the market, you don’t want to run the risk of being forgotten!
Get Your Plan
There are a lot of factors that go into creating a successful email strategy. Not only is there good content and consistency, but you need to tie it all together into a cohesive plan that will generate sales.
Luckily, this is exactly what we do at Big Rock. We are experts in email communication and marketing strategy. And we offer our expertise to you. In just one strategy planning meeting, we will set a content calendar for the year designed to build trust and grow your business. Take it as a stand alone service to implement in your business yourself for only $249, or get it free with any of our communication packages.
Get in touch to book yours today!