Think Your Business is Hard to Market? Think Again!

Jill BastianTraining and Education Manager

VerticalResponse@VR4Smallbiz

Agenda

• Email Myths

• 5 Winning Email Types

• Examples

• Tools to Help

• Resources

• Q&A

Mighty myths about email marketing

• It’s not worth it – no one wants another email in their inbox

• It’ll take me a long time to learn how to get started

• It only works for the big brands

• It takes too much time and creativity

• Who want’s to hear about my business?

Common reasons SMBs don’t try email marketing

• I’ve started an email list, but it’s really small

• I’m not sure what types of emails I should send to my audience

• My products/service are too ‘boring’ for email marketing

• I’m afraid I’ll eventually run out of things to say

‘Boring’ industries that often shy away from email marketing

• Insurance

• Accounting (outside of the annual tax season)

• File & Self-Storage

• Oil & Gas

• Regional real estate

• Quirky/Niche retail

• Trade services (Plumbing, roofing, etc).

Four Winning email marketing content types

1. The ‘Problem Solver’ email

2. The Promotional email

3. The Customer Segments

4. Newsletter

1. The Problem Solver email

Or the ‘We’re here to help you succeed’ email

Help answer common questions about your industry

Provide info or tools to make things easier

Free guides or webinars

2. The Promotional email

The ‘You need this now’ – hard sell

The ‘Persuasive’ - soft sell

• Specials/Sales/Offers

• Programs/Classes

• What your business is about

3. Specific customer segments email

• Special deals/offers

• Purchase history

• Interests – car type, housing

• Seasonal needs

4. The Newsletter email

• Recent updates/changes to your industry

• Articles/blogs related to your business

• Important notifications

• Seasonal update

• Something fun

‘Boring’ Big Brands with impressive email marketing skills

Little Guys can do it too!

Terri Davis CPA

Tools that can maximize your email marketing efforts

• Use social media platforms that fit your target audience

• Personalization – Name, purchase info, car type

• Infographics – Visual.ly, Pinterest

• Blog posts – Yours or industry

• Call To Action buttons –Buttons.verticalresponse.com

How do you get started?

• Brainstorm

– What can you share?

– What do your customers need?

– What would differentiate your business?

• Start slowly

• Test!

• Check reporting

Resources

• Verticalresponse Blog blog.verticalresponse.com

• Buttons.VerticalResponse.com

• http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2013/01/exciting-content-marketing-boring-industry-case-study/

• http://contently.com/strategist/2014/04/25/3-brands-that-make-the-boring-absolutely-awesome/

• http://www.inboundmarketingagents.com/inbound-marketing-agents-blog/bid/292499/7-Boring-B2B-Brands-With-Amazing-Facebook-Content