Does Email Marketing Actually Work for Printers?
We’ve been working with commercial printers for years and are constantly asked by potential customers, “Do I need to use email marketing? Will it actually do anything for my business?”
Our answer is always YES. But we find that those companies utilizing email themselves often throw together an email with too many different products, too much copy that feels like spam, zero calls to actions and it’s completely impersonal.
More than ever, people’s email inboxes are flooded with emails so getting the right email to the right person and the right time is important. Email marketing can not only bring in new business, but it also allows you to stay in front of existing customers to drive repeat business.
Email marketing is an easy and effective way to stay in front of current and potential customers with potentially less one to one interaction up front. In fact, without email marketing, you are 3 times less likely to close any leads generated online.
Keep it Simple
When putting together your email, keep it simple, relevant and action driven. It’s tempting to want to highlight all of your flags, banners and wraps but to someone receiving that email, it’s overwhelming. Pick one product or product category to promote and focus on just that. Keep seasonality in mind as well. You don’t want to send an email promoting outdoor event banners in the middle of winter when there aren’t many events.
Also in your email needs to be some sort of action you want the person receiving the email to take. Whether it’s clicking on a link to the product page, filling out a quote form or picking up the phone to call, make it clear to your contacts exactly what you want them to do.
The layout and experience of email marketing drives the success of the effort.
The Power of Email Automation
Have you ever filled out a form on a website and for the next week you received emails that felt very personal to you and what you were looking for? That is the power of email automation. While routine email blasts sent to your contact lists are a great way to stay in front of your leads and customers, email automation gives you the opportunity to better nurture your leads without spending hours typing out emails and keeping track of who’s been sent what email.
When a lead comes into your system from website forms, social media or search, email automation can immediately move them into the sales funnel to begin nurturing them. Using automation, you can share additional information about specific products/services you offer or easily set up phone calls.
Email nurturing makes email feel more personal again which makes for a better overall experience.
Email marketing DOES actually work in this industry when done right. Using our years of working with printers on email marketing, we’ve put together pre-written emails, email topics guaranteed to convert and email automation templates to help you start generating more sales.