So there’s a plethora of information online about how to strategize and execute an email marketing campaign for service businesses and professionals. Most simply regurgitate the same monotonous information without offering anything new. Surprisingly others seemed to try to use the same tactics for ecommerce companies when it comes to people who sell professional services! Admittedly some of the strategies DO work yet others don’t (though the authors of these posts don’t share which do and don’t).
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So we’re going to share with you how to set up email newsletter marketing strategy for your service based business. What we’re NOT going to cover is basic sales automation. In which you’re essentially sending email and sometimes SMS messages that are predesigned and preprogrammed to be sent out to people who are in various stages of your sales funnel. There’s tons of information online already about how to do that.
Understand that sales automation messages are not email newsletters! They’re the type of emails that ultimately people don’t want to receive. The type of email marking that we’re talking about is your COMPANY email newsletter.
Aren’t company email newsletters obsolete? Nobody wants to sign up for those anymore, right? Nothing could be further from the truth. Company email newsletters serve a very valuable function and are one of the pyramids of your overall marketing strategy…when leveraged properly.
What Is A Company Email Newsletter Used For?
Company email newsletters are used to predictably send out VALUABLE information to both clients and prospective clients (people who haven’t agreed to an appointment as well as though who weren’t ready to buy after your presentation) to foster, nurture and build relationships with them. They can be used to send out updates about the latest developments with your company, changes to your services, upcoming events (in person or virtual) and more.
Fundamentally, they are used to promote your brand and continuously build credibility with both your clients and prospects. This function of the company email newsletter is one of the most important and is responsible for getting more of your clients to continue doing business with you, also to buy more of your services and finally even converting your prospective clients to finally reach out and sign up for your service as well.
Yet one of the most overlooked uses for your company email letter is as a Conversion tool for you and your sales team. You and your sales team should still send follow up emails (using your sales automation platform) in addition to the company email newsletter. The people who are in your email newsletter WILL eventually buy from you. It could be a month from now, 3 months from now, 6 months from now, a year from now, etc., ss long as you continue to build value with them, instill confidence build credibility.
Most salespeople are horrible at follow up. So your company email newsletter is your last line of offense to convert ALL unclosed prospects into paying clients. One other benefit, you and your sales reps can also send specific articles from your blog to prospects even in your sales automation strategy. These articles should be written specifically to the pain points, common needs or concerns of a prospective client. When they’re in your company’s blog, they serve as great conversion tools to leverage with prospects who are in various stages of your sales funnel.
What Kind Of Content Should You Send Out In Each Issue?
A lot of the information online is generic and you should take it with a grain of salt. Nobody wants to keep getting updates about your company, pictures from your last event, which vendor or strategic partner you’ve now forged a relationship with, etc.. Yet what clients always want…is something that can benefit them directly. And whether you are a B2B or B2C company, that’s usually going to come down to valuable information. The more valuable the information the better.
When clients or prospective clients get valuable information from you, for free, they feel like they’ve gained something. Emotionally and psychologically (deep down) they feel slightly indebted to you. This is actually known as one of the ‘12 Laws Of Influence’, the law of obligation or reciprocity. This is the whole reason behind giving prospective clients a valuable book, eBook, white paper, audio book, etc. for them to give you their contact information to reach out to them. It’s an exchange of value.
Specifically, the law of obligation works based on human psychology. And for most humans, if someone gives them something of value, they feel somewhat indebted to the gift giver. They don’t wish to remain that way for very long so they do what they can to repay that debt. Then they feel as if they and the gift giver are now even. This is the whole point of giving someone a free gift they if they come into your office, or a free vacation for sitting through a timeshare presentation or giving anything for free to a prospective or existing client as an incentive. The key thing is the gift has to be something that they actually want!
Simply giving people a bunch of free stuff that they don’t want does not get you the same effect or end result. And this is exactly what most professional service businesses do with their email marketing and email newsletter. They send a bunch of information that their clients and prospective clients neither want nor need. So the results of their email marketing produce little to no results, including no new sales or referrals.
OK, OK, So What Should You Send In Your Email Newsletter?
When we’re designing an email marketing content strategy for one of our clients, we structure it VERY carefully. Because we know that this will either make or break their whole email marketing campaign and greatly impact their sales! In this article, we’re not going to get into segmenting, tagging, etc.. We’re going to keep this general just so that you get a firm understanding of how it can work for you and get good results for your business.
Firstly, let’s establish your sending schedule. For many professional service businesses, sending out 2 to 4 email editions each month is fine (this does not include special offers). The way you determine whether it’s 2 or 4 is you can base it on how often a client needs your service. If you’re selling financial services, home services, accounting services, etc. 2 editions is fine. If it’s tax season and you provide tax preparation services, then 4 editions (or more) will be better for you.
For the days and times that you send it, base it on when your clients and prospective clients are most active in their emails and typically have a slower email day. This could be Tuesday to Friday morning between 9:30 am to 11:30am. Yet do some research just to make sure.
Second, determine your content for each email. One of the ways that we like to recommend to our clients is to find out online industry magazines that their clients follow. So if you’re a financial advisor, and your clients read articles from Forbes magazine find an article that has a lot of likes comments and shares on it. This way you already know that the article is a hit and popular with people who are like your clients. You simply copy the title and link of that article and you can send that out to your clients in your email newsletter!
This is called curated content. There could be some recent development in the industry, tax change, new regulation that’s been passed, etc. and you sharing it with your clients and prospective clients, keeps you top of mind with them, builds your brand with them and continues to build credibility and a relationship with them.
You could simply send 2 curated content articles each month in your email newsletter. Also, ideally in the body of the email, include your opinion on the article. This way you still position yourself as an ‘Expert Authority’. Always finish by having some line inviting them to contact you to talk about something in the article, or something they may have heard somewhere else or if they have a question in general.
By far the best option is to have owned content. This is content that is on your blog in your company’s website. It can be article, a video, a podcast, an audio book, a transcript of a conversation, etc.. You get far more benefit from having owned content than curated content. With curated content, you’re still leveraging another expert authority’s owned content and piggybacking off of it. The danger is that you’re promoting a competing authority and not yourself!
With your own content, you are the sole, undisputed heavyweight champion, expert authority in the eyes of your clients and prospective clients. Your own content and your blog is actually the workhorse of your entire email newsletter marketing campaign. Research has proven that the more time people spend on your website, the more likely they are to buy from you. This is why blogs are built as integral parts of companies’ websites in the first place! They want to have a reason for clients and prospective clients to keep coming back each month to visit their website.
Now you understand the importance of having your blog and having your own content in it. When you’re sending out VALUABLE emails with articles (that obviously are professionally written), both clients and prospective clients will read them, enjoy the knowledge that you share with them and keep coming back for more. They will perceive you as being the go to ‘Expert Authority’. This is what helps to retain your existing clients and not lose them to your competitors AND to convert prospective clients who are slow to move forward with you.
How Can You Tell If Your Emails Are VALUABLE?
One of the things that we teach our clients is that with every email that they send out, they should answer this one question… How is this email worth $50? We call it the ‘$50 test’. The moment you start approaching your email marketing with this philosophy, everything changes. Gone are the days of sending out meaningless content just to engage with your email subscribers. No more sending out meaningless BS, or poorly disguised sales offers.
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In essence, what you’re sending is a $50.00 bill to each client and prospective client with every edition of your email newsletter. If what you’re planning to email out doesn’t pass the ‘$50 test’, then don’t send it!
Your clients and prospective clients should feel as if they paid $50.00 to receive the information that you sent in the email, that they’ve got there’s money’s worth and wouldn’t want a refund. PERIOD. As long as every email passes the $50 test, you’ll have the right idea and keep your clients happily engaged and buying more of your services. Plus, convert more prospective clients, who are slow to buy, to become happy and willing clients themselves.
