You may have heard that email marketing is an effective strategy for businesses to unlock growth opportunities and increase sales. But what are some key benefits of email marketing for freelancers and small businesses?
Here are 10 benefits for you to consider:
1. You can connect with prospects whenever you like
Email is a great way to stay in touch with your prospects and clients and actively promote your services. You can email your list whenever you like. You are not restricted by time or date. However, when they sign up, you might want to let subscribers know when they can expect to hear from you (i.e. daily, weekly, monthly, when you have news or an offer, etc.).
And, unlike with social media channels, where your followers might not see your latest post or update, emails go straight to your subscriber’s inbox – so you have increased visibility, too.
2. Your email list is your asset
Your email newsletter is ‘owned media’—anything you directly own or manage, such as your website and blog content, also falls under this term.
This is important because if a social media channel you use to generate leads closes or changes its algorithm or rules, you could lose your followers, but it won’t affect the people on your email list. They will still be subscribed. That’s why it makes sense to get your social media audience to sign up to your email list. You can share the subscribe link online and add it to your social media bios.
3. You are not limited to the content you can create
In addition to news and offers, your email newsletter content can include whatever you want. You might provide value-packed how-to guides, videos, your latest blog posts, interviews, tips or even some fun behind-the-scenes content.
It’s helpful to have an email marketing strategy in place before you start and to know what content you will be sending and its purpose (e.g., sales, engagement, promotion, product updates, discounts for subscribers, etc.).
Email marketing can be a great addition to your sales funnel strategy.
4. It can help build your brand
In the same way that using professional-looking invoices with your logo and colors looks good and marks you out as a professional, email marketing is a great way to showcase your branding, build trust, and develop a robust personal brand.
High-quality emails with engaging and helpful content, plus your visual branding, build trust and connection with your community and establish you as an authority in your field, which in turn can lead to better-paying clients.
5. You can cross-promote
Cross-promotion is when you promote other businesses’ newsletters in your newsletter in exchange for them promoting you to their audience in their email newsletter. This works well when there are complementary products and services or when you are in a similar niche. You may even have teamed up with another freelancer to promote a service, product, or bundle.
The aim is that it’s a win-win situation because you both get in front of each other’s audiences and have the opportunity to increase your subscribers (and, therefore, leads).
6. It can be a low-cost marketing strategy
Email marketing can be budget-friendly when you are just starting out. Many email marketing service providers offer a free or small business plan option, so it doesn’t have to cost anything or break the bank to get started.
As your subscribers grow and you need more sophisticated features, you can upgrade accordingly.
7. You can gain valuable insight and feedback
An email newsletter gives you an opportunity to connect with your audience, dig deep and find out their wants and needs so you can provide the solution. You can send them a comprehensive survey to complete or simply ask them for feedback and what content they’d like to see from you.
Either way, it’s a great opportunity to understand what your audience wants. This can lead to you providing more enhanced services or products and, therefore, making more money.
8. It’s an effective way to capture leads
If your website has an email newsletter sign-up option and a free lead magnet to entice subscribers, you can capture leads who would otherwise leave without buying or contacting you for more information.
You can then use email marketing to nurture them and keep them ‘warm’ until they are ready to buy.
Lead magnets can be anything you like, from a short video to a how-to guide or a discount as an incentive for visitors to sign up. You can discover more lead magnet ideas here.
9. You can tailor the right content to the right audience
Email segmentation strategies can be very effective in helping tailor the right content to the right audience, increasing the likelihood of sales.
Segmentation is simply segmenting subscribers to your list into different categories.
You can segment your list by demographic, behavior, event, location, or some other factor and then send relevant content to that particular segment. For example, you could segment subscribers who opened and responded to an email about a specific product or interest. Now that you know they are interested in that topic, you can send more targeted emails. The segmentation strategy you adopt will depend on your business, product, and audience.
10. You can free up time with email automation
Email marketing automation can significantly free up your time. There are many use cases, and probably one of the most common is having a welcome sequence in place.
When someone subscribes to your list, they automatically receive a series of emails welcoming them to your service or website and providing them with information. These emails can also be used to promote an offer, introduce yourself, show them how your product works, and much more. Likewise, as mentioned in the segmentation section, you can set up specific sales campaigns and single emails that are triggered by certain events and behaviors.
To further streamline your workflows, you can also connect Invoice Ninja to thousands of apps, including email marketing service providers, via our platform integrators such as Zapier, Make and more!
Find out more at the link here.
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