Email marketing tips: ideas for campaigns you can send right now (and in future)

In these uncertain times it's important your clients hear directly from you about how your business is operating and what you are doing to adapt. We've put together a series of ideas for potential email campaigns you can try, from providing clients essential information about your business to potential opportunities to create new leads and build sales during a downtime.

You should let people know the following details

• Opening hours
• Where you are working 
• How clients can work with you (e.g. online consultations instead of face-to-face)

It also doesn't hurt to link to a personal video to help further connect to your clients - you should also share this video (and the above information) on your social media accounts for anyone who doesn't follow or read your emails.

If unfortunately your business has had to close for now, let them know what you're planning for the future and how you're building your business to be better than ever when you open again. It's important to get people excited and looking forward to being able to visit, book products/services etc.

Offer some free advice and/or guides to help them during this time

• Bars could suggest cocktail making tips to try at home and beauticians could give advice on how to maintain your nails
• Companies like ours are providing free advice on how businesses can survive and bloom during these times (such as different ways to pivot your business to make money)
• B2B consultants should offer tips on how to endure and strengthen your business during this time so when the market starts opening again your clients and prospects are ready to go with you

Build up and strengthen your connection with clients

As with the aforementioned video, you can create a series of personal messages including:

• A series of emails and/or social media posts showing off the human side of your business, such as a regular "meet the staff" feature that introduces folks to your team or even a behind-the-scenes look at how you make your products
• You can even take the above concept and turn it into a series of videos of your team explaining why they are passionate about their area of speciality
• Show your team in action.  A Chef of a closed down restaurant, could have pictures of him cooking and testing new menus for when they re-open.  Copy this into your social media too to interact with clients on what was their favourite meal

Sell your products and services

You don't need to apologise for trying to sell during this time - all businesses are trying to stay afloat. Yes, some people are hurting right now, but you shouldn't deny someone else the ability to feed their families and staff and keep their business going. Remember to be sensitive and considerate in your approach.

• Create some special offers or bundles/packages to encourage purchases
• Do you have any new products or services? Many businesses are pivoting to new products/services during this time as a way to make money. What can you provide that serves a need right now?

New client emails

You can create a series of emails to send to clients - these could be targeted based on one particular product or service, or even a general welcome and introduction. For example, an accountant could produce something like the following:

• Welcome new client and introduce your team - photos, brief profiles and contact details of key personnel they may be working with (link to your website for more information)
• Top pages on your website to find useful information - blog posts and news articles, hints and tips, and other resource areas (to provide them relevant and up to date advice going forward)
• Basic tips for managing finances - a checklist of what one needs to have setup in their business to best manage their finances and get the most from the accountant (and even reduce costs)
• Reminder emails - when to do BAS, FBT, Super and EOFY with a checklist and tips on each (these can even be scheduled in advance each year to go out strategically a few weeks prior to when clients need to action these tasks)
• Key advice - what KPIs should they be measuring and how? How they can protect their business with key insurances etc.

Okay... I've got some ideas, what should I do next?

Going forward we recommend writing a list of what emails you could potentially do for your business and prioritising them in order. Tip: Mix up your added value and sales emails to balance what you are sending out and to keep things interesting. Write them one by one and set up and schedule in our email marketing system (and remember, if you need any help we have a number of content writing/editing services available).

This post was written in conjunction with a free email marketing offer we have available until the end of July. If you're interested in this offer, please get in touch with us by phone or email so we can help you build a connection with your clients today.