How can I generate more engagement from my email marketing?
Are you sending out marketing emails but aren’t getting much comeback? Do you want to try something new to spark engagement?
If you want people to actually get in touch with you off the back of your current marketing mailouts, here’s a simple suggestion:
Ask a question!
At the end of your email, ask your readers what they’re currently struggling with, or for their opinion or input on something related to the topic of the email. Ask them to simply reply to the email and share their thoughts.
Make it easy to respond
Don’t make it difficult, don’t ask them to respond in a contact form or anything; simply ask them to hit reply and share their response.
With regards to what kinds of questions to ask, it really needs to be relevant to the topic of your email. To give some examples, say your email is about your life coaching services. You could ask people to respond with one thing they’d like to change about their life or their behaviour.
If you’re a graphic designer, you could ask what graphics they tend to need most regularly, or what designs they struggle to create in-house or have problems sourcing.
To give you an example from my perspective; I’m a copy and content writer, so say I’ve sent an informational email about grabbing people’s attention with copy, I could round off the email by asking things like:
“Do you feel you’re letting opportunities pass by because you’re not grabbing people during those first few moments? What copy and content conundrums are you struggling with at the moment? Just hit reply and let me know – I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”
Make sure their response can reach you
If your email marketing tool sends mail from a “noreply” address, you may come across a rather obvious technical snag. Needless to say, if this is the case, their email response simply won’t get to you. Make sure that any email marketing software you use allows subscribers to properly reply and that the email address picking up those emails is monitored by a real human being.
Most marketing email tools such as MailerLite or MailChimp provide a “real” reply function as standard, but it pays to check that this is all working fine.
Always genuinely respond to replies
Hopefully you’ll get a few responses to your query – in this instance always reply! You asked them to take time out of their day to respond, and they have done; so always send back a genuine email thanking them and respond kindly to their query or concern.
When you’re formulating your response, first and foremost, always say thank you to the person for their time. Respond to their concerns or needs graciously and openly. Generosity is the name of the game here – you’re trying to spark a working relationship with this person, so focus on helping rather than a hard sell. Give as much help as you can without having to charge, basically.
Why Is This A Good Strategy?
Firstly, modern marketing is more focused on fostering real, meaningful relationships rather than just pebble-dashing people with promotional material; and all relationships start with one side opening a dialogue.
Additionally, most people like to have their voices heard, so giving them an opportunity to do so generally goes down well.
Secondly there’s the element of credibility.
Sending genuine responses to any replies proves that you’re a real person who’s just an email away. It provides that real, credible, human connection that you simply can’t automate.
There are also benefits to you in this approach. Engaging with your subscribers in this way may help you get to know them and therefore tailor content to the concerns they’ve raised in future.