Before you get going, think about how many emails you want to send in your whole campaign. I think the days of having a generic behemoth, multi-year, daily email campaign are over. But, that doesn't mean that you can't set up a good, long campaign. Now, if you’re a service business you might be wondering how email marketing campaigns can work for your brand. You’re in luck, here we’re going to share with you three different autoresponder campaigns any service business can use to help grow your business. Here's an example reply: 'I know you're very busy, but I don't think you meant to send this email to me. And I wanted to let you know so you can send it to the correct person.' Get better with every email. As soon as your email hits inboxes, you’ll get the exact information you need to make the most of every campaign. Check analytics at a glance to see what works best. Then apply those insights to future campaigns to make decisions that truly move the needle.
According to Tellwise, the average consumer gets over 100 emails per day, but opens just 23% and clicks on only 2%.When you're sending a sales email, you need to be part of that 2%.
These simple email campaigns pack a serious punch without much work.
In this article, I’ll be covering three “plug and play” email campaigns that deliver excellent bottom-line results.
(RELATED:Following Email Marketing Best Practices)
The fact is that the effectiveness of a campaign isn’t always dependent on it’s length or pushiness.
Though it’s often true that marketers fall short of creating enough messages to truly extract value from a major funnel (as I’ve written about previously), some campaigns work much better when they are short and concise.
The campaigns we’ll address here can be as short as one email (or as many as six emails), and can be automated by most email marketing softwares (Infusionsoft, Ontraport, Hubspot, etc…).
The idea is that you do the copywriting work once, and these mini-campaigns help boost the ROI of your email marketing for years to come.
Sound good? Let’s dive in.
Campaign 1: The “Pull-Back” Campaign
The “pull-back” campaign is usually a 1 to 3 email sequence that drives a customer or prospect back to a conversion point that they almost completed.
The best examples here are for…
- Event or webinar registration
- Direct links to order forms or sales pages.
Sometimes a customer’s curiosity is piqued, or the call-to-action within the email is strong enough to generate a click, but an objection is left unanswered, or sufficient benefits weren’t provided on the conversion page.
In this case, pull-back emails can act to combat objections and provide additional emotional or logical incentive to take the desired action.
Examples:
If you have a link in your email that looks like this…
Register for this weekend’s webinar here.
Or this…
Click here to grab the course for $30 OFF >
…then any reader who clicks these links without actually registering for the webinar or buying the product is a candidate for a short “pull-back” campaign.
Often, the first email in the pull-back campaign will be just 1-2 hours after clicking the email link – so long as they don’t take the desired action afterwards (webinar registration, purchase action).
Often this first email can take the tone of concern, asking a reader if there was something wrong with the sales page or order form, and linking them back to the desired conversion, coming from a place of helpfulness.
A second and third email might be the next day, or as long as a few weeks out. These subject lines might read something like:
- “Here’s the webinar you missed last week,”
- “Your _____ course is still waiting here for you, [FIRSTNAME]”
This “Pull Back” mini-campaign will get more clicks to the point of desired conversion.
Here’s an example “pull back campaign” email…
Campaign 2: The “Fallen” Customer Campaign
How many great customers “go dark” after an initially profitable period, never to spend with you again?
The thought is dreadful.
Though we can’t hope to keep every customer happy or active, we can do a better job of relating to them and making sure we keep them satisfied and tempted to return to purchase again.
For a software or subscription-based business, “fallen” customers are easy to identify. However, for a business like a consulting firm, a restaurant, or an eCommerce business, the “fallen” threshold is pretty grey.
Ultimately, it will be a calibration that’s unique to each individual business. Sometimes the “Fallen Customer” email campiaign will take the tone of “we miss you,” sometimes they’ll take the form of an opportune special, coupon, or sale.
Either way, the objective is to get former customers back in the saddle for another purchase, if they’re ready and willing.
Here are a few examples…
An eCommerce business selling wine glasses might have an average date of “re-purchase” of about 3-4 months after a first purchase.
In this case, we might create a re-activation campaign around month 4 after a previous purchase to present a special past-customer discount on our newest foreign shipment.
A content marketing agency might have an average “stick rate” of 9 months, at which point most customers cease a retained arrangement. Though the company could work on lengthening the extent of their initial engagements, they can also pick up on trends on when customers often need them back, and why.
Lets say that after 6 months of leaving the agency, 20% to 25% of customers make an inquiry about “tune-up” services to polish up their content marketing and SEO efforts. In this case, the agency could anticipate these needs (and their own value to the customer) by simply sending out a call-to-action in an email for a special discount on a 2-month “tune-up” service, possibly followed by a SEO white-paper or webinar that advertises (subtly) this add-on level of service.
Here’s an example “Fallen Customer” campaign email…
Campaign 3: The “Congratulatory” Campaign
Another short and simple email campaign is the “Congratulatory” email campaign. Common triggers for congratulatory campaigns are… Macquarie island facts.
- a customer’s first purchase
- a renewed membership
- a benchmark or retention in a membership program or software service
…or anything else that you believe is worth encouraging in a buyer’s behavior.
Often a congratulatory campaign will address a reader’s progress or action directly, while at the same time giving them an additional reward or reminder of an important (and recently attained) benefit.
Here are a few examples…
An eCommerce company might use a congratulatory campaign to provide all first time buyers with a special store coupon, good for a few weeks after receipt.
Alternatively, the company might reward customers of a certain purchase volume with a special discount program only “top customers” have access to.
A service company (such as a carpet cleaning company), might use a campaign of this sort to reward customer loyalty. As either a surprise or an advertised bonus, customers that remain in a “seasonal care” program might receive an extra thank-you message and a voucher good for a free upholstery cleaning in any room in the house, 100% free.
Not only do the customers feel special and pampered, but they’re also exposed to a new and useful service that might turn itself into a convenience up-sell if they’re delighted by their gift.
This strategy is even more powerful if you segment the email campaigns per product, as segmentation has a powerful influence on lifting open and click-though rates when done right.
Here’s an example “Congratulatory” email…
Ultimately, determining which plug-and-play campaigns will be best for your company will be combination of your priorities, your main revenue drivers, and testing.
It would be foolhardy to state that every business could (or should) use all of the above mini-campaigns, but my hope is that this article has prompted some useful thoughts for you for some one-and-done campaign ideas that can yield you more revenue for a simple set of short messages, and a little automation magic.
The question to ask yourself is this: “Is there a certain point in my buyer’s journey where a specific message or set of messages would ALWAYS help drive revenue?”
Let those ideas (and your vigilant testing) guide you in making a more profitable, calibrated series of marketing funnels.
If you use any of the campaigns listed here, be sure to drop me a line and let me know what worked best.
Setting up an email marketing campaign can feel overwhelming when you are just getting started. Maybe you are staring at a blank piece of paper with no idea how to begin or you have an idea but no way to organize all your thoughts.
Here are the steps that I take when I set up an email marketing campaign.
Step 1 – Naming Conventions For Your Campaign
One thing that it is great to get in the habit of is to name your campaigns something memorable. If you don't, you can wind up with similar sounding campaigns that are hard to differentiate in your email marketing program.
For example, I had two courses named Best Darn Email Marketing Campaign Ever and Amazing Email Newsletters. While I did make different names, different content and different sales funnels, in my email provider I didn't use them in full. Instead I have a confusing mish-mash of “which email marketing course is this one?”
Additionally you can use an abbreviation so that you don't have huge email names. For example, on paid courses I have MMC (for Mini Marketing Course) and then the initials of the course. So the “How To Build A Social Media Author Platform” course emails become MMCSMA (mini marketing course, social media authors).
That works okay with just occasional bouts of “what the heck is this one about?”
Step 2 – What Is Your Goal?
The very next thing that you have to do to make sure you have a successful campaign is to know what the actual outcome you are trying to achieve is! If you don't know the reason for doing your campaign, then you have no hope of succeeding.
Some potential outcomes include:
- Customer Service – Onboarding a new client
- Prospecting – Keeping in touch with new prospects
- Referral Marketing – Staying in touch with sphere contacts
- List Building – Building a newsletter list
- List Building – Growing your list with a free one time offer
- List Building – Growing your list with a free course
- Sales – Selling your products or services
- Sales – Sending out coupons and promotions
The reason for doing email campaigns are legion. Just make sure you know your goals before getting started!
Step 3 – Who Are You Marketing To?
The next important piece is to know your audience. If you are prospecting young, hip 18 year olds, your campaign should probably look a little different than if you are prospecting Baby Boomers who need hearing aids.
Some basic things to know are Age, Income and Sex. But more than that you need to know if they are going to be reading most of your messages on the phone or a computer.
Mobile Messes Up Everything! I think it is super important to know whether the majority of your messages are going to be read on a mobile phone or on an iPad, Laptop or Computer.
If you are catering to a younger demographic (say under 40), then you can assume most of your messages need to be brief and get to the point right away. There is no time for beautiful newsletter templates or L-O-N-G messages that are just going to get opened and deleted.
If you are anticipating an older crowd then you can do a little bit longer, but the days of mile long messages are over UNLESS…
You are teaching something in which case the recipient probably knows that the messages will be longer and more involved. Space invaders&& try the games.
Video Is Your Friend
One last thought about video. While people might not be willing to take 5 minutes to read your email, they might well be willing to watch a 2-3 minute video if it is interesting and entertaining.
I use ConvertKit for my email provider and they don't allow videos. If you can't actually embed a video, think about putting in a picture or click here for video command to get a chance to “talk to them face-to-face”.
Step 4 – How Many Are You Sending?
Before you get going, think about how many emails you want to send in your whole campaign. I think the days of having a generic behemoth, multi-year, daily email campaign are over. But, that doesn't mean that you can't set up a good, long campaign.
I tend to like to keep mine under about 12 and then encourage them to join a different campaign at the end or just put them on my regular weekly email list.
You can have as few as one (to fulfill a specific offer) or as many as you can write. Just remember that you have to have GREAT emails or your response rate will drop the more you send.
Step 5 – How Often?
There are all different kinds of emails that you might want to send and your frequency should depend on the campaign type and sort of clients you have.
Daily – Did you cringe and think “I wouldn't want to get a daily email from ANYONE?” Yeah, we all think that until it is something that we find interesting. If you are a doing a week long course, it is fine to send a daily message. Or if you send out “daily deals” or anything else with high frequency.
The problem isn't that you would be sending often, the only time people are unhappy is when they don't know what is coming. So if you tell them they will get a daily email and then they get one, they are going to be okay with it!
Weekly
Weekly is my sweet spot. I have found that my peeps like when I send them messages once a week (a few liked two times per week, but I got more spam comments and unsubscribes when I went over 1X per week).
Special Day
Okay, here is a pro tip if you are going to be doing A LOT of email marketing. I have people sign up for multiple campaigns all the time. They will see my free courses and think, “I want all of those” and then they are bombarded with messages.
I have fixed some of that easily by assigning my emails to special days. For example, all my Realtor specific emails go out on Monday, Email Marketing Tuesday, etc. all the way to Friday which is my newsletter day (and hardly any of them are ever scheduled for Fridays).
Monthly
Now we are headed down a slippery slope. If you are ONLY contacting them via email (no calls or direct mail) then there is a chance they will forget you if you mail them once a month.
There is a much higher chance of them marketing your message spam or them unsubscribing if they only hear from you this sporadically.
Step 6 – Tags
It has never been more important to segregate your list according to what your customers and prospects like. Think about Groupon! At first we were all so excited to get free discounts but then they started spamming us with all kinds of things that we didn't want.
Using tags in your email campaigns will let you send special messages to each type of subscriber. Say someone comes in on an offer for a free business plan, you can probably safely assume that they are in “Startup” mode and would other things that would relate to that stage of business like information about branding and accounting practices.
Make sure you are tagging not just that they are in a specific campaign, but also any additional info that they might share as they go through the campaign!
Step 7 – Text, Pictures or Video
This is just a global, overall idea for your campaign. Individual messages may or may not have one, two or all three. Just at this point I want you to keep in mind that there are different things that you can send to your list that they might sincerely like to receive!
3 Email Campaigns You Need To Try Someone
Email Development
Okay, now that we have gone through the nuts and bolts of the campaign, lets look at the emails themselves and how to get them set up.
Brainstorming Message Themes
These are the types of messages that you will be sending. For example, I am getting ready to do a bunch of emails for marketing campaign selling my SEO products. So some of my theme topics can include:
SEO for websites
SEO for social media
SEO tools
SEO fails
SEO tricks
There are a ton of these I could do, but I think you get the drift. This is not the final list (that is when you move them over to the pattern area) at this point you just want to think about different themes you could use when writing or recording your messages.
Brainstorming Messages
It is tempting to just think that you can sit down and write out 12 glorious emails in a row without having to rearrange them or getting stuck, but that is rarely the case for me! I like to brainstorm at least 305 more email topics than I EVER thought I would need. This way as I go through the process of developing my emails I have lots of different content ideas to work with!
Patterns
One of the best ideas for making your emails make sense (to you and your readers) is to put them into patters. For example, I just set up a series of 12 emails for a Realtor client and we did this:
1 Buyers Email
1 Sellers Email
1 Other Fun/Interesting Email
This way instead of just having real estate message after real estate message, she can mix them up with things that her audience would still like, but which make the series less boring and keep her readers wanting more!
3 Email Campaigns You Need To Try Something
Wrap Up
Well there you have it! All my best tips for setting up a BRILLIANT email marketing campaign. While this may seem like a bit of overkill now, I guarantee you that you will be happy when you get ready to start writing your messages and putting them into your email system!
Get The Guide
Well this is all very well and good, but how do you functionally scope it out and then track your progress through development? With a handy dandy form from Paperly People of course!
This guide, video and worksheet will walk you through all the steps of building and launching a successful email marketing campaign!
>> Get it now!