Growing your freelance business with smart email marketing techniques
If you regularly use your email account, chances are you receive dozens of marketing emails every day. Which ones do you click on and why?
Recognising what makes an engaging email can help you create your own marketing strategy — one that lets you and your freelance business stand out in your customer’s inbox.
How email marketing can help your freelance business grow
With the right techniques, email marketing can be a smart and effective way for freelancers and small businesses to grow. It’s also cost-effective, taking little investment or resources.
For visibility: Receiving a weekly or monthly newsletter will remind a one-time customer or a hot lead of your product or service and encourage them to take further action.
As a reminder: Clients further up the sales funnel may be prompted to buy your product or use your service, converting them from leads to customers.
To strengthen connections: Establish trust and loyalty with frequent interaction via email. This can lead to return business and referrals to friends and family.
For networking: Why not provide your customers with a referral code they can share with their contacts? Both parties can then use the code for a discount on your products or services.
Email marketing for freelancers: Where to start?
When done right, email marketing can be a fantastic way to convert new leads into clients and re-engage your existing customers. But before you can put your excellent email template and snappy copy to good use, you need to build an email list first.
Some great techniques to do this include:
Adding a form to your website: One of the easiest ways to promote your email marketing list is to add a form to your website. Anybody interested in hearing more via email can add their details.
Creating a lead magnet: A lead magnet is a valuable resource that people can download after subscribing to your email list. Some popular lead magnet resources include e-guides and template documents.
Offering exclusive content: You could encourage leads to sign up for your email list in order to gain access to exclusive content. This could be a video, webinar, or podcast, for example.
Leveraging social media: You can also use your social media presence to build your freelance business’s email list. Set up a competition or giveaway to encourage your followers to join your emailing community.
Offering discounts: A discount for email subscribers can be especially useful for freelancers who offer services or have an eCommerce website.
Keeping your email subscribers engaged
Now you’ve got a healthy-looking list of email addresses, how do you keep them interested and ensure your business grows?
Write clearly and concisely
Effective emails are short and to the point. Make sure your key information is clear — not obscured by dense paragraphs of information. Also write in a friendly and conversational way that represents you and your business.
Captivate with your subject line
The subject line and text preview are the first things your recipient will see when your email comes through. Make it count with phrasing that will pique their interest and follow the recommended 30–50 character count limit.
Remove inactive subscribers
Pruning your subscribers list to include only those who open and engage with your email content can lead to more effective marketing. Having a list of thousands of names is all well and good, but if a large number of them are ignoring your emails, it can skew your analytics.
Be consistent
Consistency is key in many areas of marketing. From your content’s tone of voice to the frequency of your emails, a consistent approach will help build that all-important loyalty and trust.
Email marketing support
While email marketing can be very effective, it can also be time-consuming. As a freelancer spinning lots of plates, you may not feel you have time to build, maintain, and track your email marketing campaigns.
If you need support with gathering email contacts or scheduling your email campaigns, why not get in touch with a virtual assistant (VA), like Erin?
A VA can do all the email admin for you, so you can focus on growing your freelance business.