How Email Marketing Can Fuel Your Overall Inbound Strategy
It’s insane to me how much money companies leave on the table every single day they’re NOT tapping into the power of their inbound email marketing.
So many companies will pour all their time, money and resources into running paid ads to try and earn new customers… when they could be generating MASSIVE sales MUCH faster by just learning how to send good emails.
That’s why in today’s article, I’m going to show you exactly how email marketing can fuel YOUR overall inbound strategy so you can start experiencing incredible results with your business right away.
How Can Email Marketing Fuel Your Overall Inbound Strategy?
What is Inbound Email Marketing?
Inbound email marketing is the practice of building relationships with people who consciously sign up to your email list because they want to hear more from you and your brand inside their inbox.
This is COMPLETELY different from outbound email marketing, where you’re sending unsolicited emails to people who don’t necessarily know you or care about what you’re selling.
Obviously, I MUCH prefer inbound over outbound given all the insane benefits that come with it.
In fact…
Let’s take a look at some of those benefits in the next section.
Benefits of Email Marketing for an Inbound Strategy
Relationship Building
When people join your list, a decent number of them will want to buy from you right away. But others will need time until they’ve gotten to “know, like and trust” you.
That’s why every email you send becomes an opportunity to build a bond with your subscribers so they can become your customers faster.
When done right, your emails will get readers falling in love with your brand and coming back for more and more.
Personalization
One of my favorite things about email is the level of personalization you can achieve with your campaigns thanks to all the subscriber data you get from your email service provider.
With each subscriber, your ESP can tell you:
- Which emails they’re opening and reading
- Which links they’re clicking
- Which products they’ve bought from you
- How much they’ve bought from you in total
- When’s the last time they purchased from you
- And much, much more.
With thise details, you can start getting highly-specific with your email campaigns so you’re sending the right message at the right time to the right person.
Increased Brand Awareness
Not only does email help you generate more sales and increase your profitability, it also does a bang up job maximizing brand awareness with both existing and potential customers.
The more emails you send talking about your brand, your products, your process and your customers… the better your subscribers will get to know you over the competition.
Ultimately, this means you’ll be “top of mind” whenever someone is finally ready to make a purchase.
This is BIG reason why I’m big on sending daily emails.
Since there’s barely any cost to sending emails, why wouldn’t you capitalize on maximizing your exposure and sales every single day?
More Qualified Leads
Ask any business owner if they’d prefer warm or cold leads and I guarantee you most of them will choose the former.
Why?
Well… because warm leads become customers MUCH faster. Duh!
Again:
If someone voluntarily opts into your list, that’s someone who already knows you a little bit.
That’s someone who likes you enough that they WANT to hear from you more often.
I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather work with people where the “know, like and trust” is being built up already versus someone who’s never heard of me.
Better Engagement and Conversion Rate
I’m of the belief that any business that gets good at email ultimately gains the license to print money on command.
Compared to running paid ads to a cold audience on Facebook, it’s WAY easier to sell with email to people who’ve made a conscious decision to be on your list.
Because again, your subscribers WANT to hear from you.
They WANT you to email them.
They WANT to buy from you.
All you have to do is have cool offers and write fun emails that people love to read… and you’ll never have to worry about where your next sale is coming from ever again.
How to Implement Email Marketing in Your Inbound Strategy
If you want to start implementing email marketing into your inbound strategy, I highly recommend you:
Segment Your Audience
Segmenting is SUPER important.
As your brand grows bigger and bigger, you’ll want to categorize your customers into segments so you can start sending them highly-relevant email campaigns.
Most ESPs let you use tags to segment your subscribers based on:
- how they’re signing up to your list
- what emails they’re opening
- what links they’ve clicking on
- what products they’re buying
With that information, you no longer have to “shoot in the dark” with your emails.
Instead, you can send emails you KNOW your segment is interested in.
There’s no faster way to kill an email list than to send people stuff they don’t care about.
So if you want a healthy list full of engaged readers and happy customers that lasts you a lifetime, start segmenting NOW.
Leverage Your Existing Content
You know what’s cool?
After all…
If you’ve got a message, you’ve got a good message.
So why keep it to a single use?
Of course, the flip side is ALSO true:
If you’ve got content from your blog or social media that’s getting a ton of traction, you should definitely consider turning those into emails so you keep getting more juice from that proven asset.
Automate Your Email Campaigns
You can’t be everywhere all at once…
But with the magic of email automation, you don’t have to be!
While you should write and send emails to your list every week (ideally every day), it’s only half the equation.
The other half involves setting up powerful automated sequences that continually work in the background to bring you new customers and sales for your business — every single day.
My book Scale While You Sleep details the 9 automated email sequences any business can use to increase their revenue by 30% in under 30 days.
Use A/B Testing
You can do this to try out new subject lines to see which one gets higher open rates.
You can even use it to test out completely different emails to see which message resonates better with your audience and gets you more clicks and sales.
Track and Analyze Your Results
Every time you send an email, your ESP comes up with valuable data you can use to take your inbound email marketing to the next level.
Whenever we set up email automations for clients, we like to revisit those same sequences a month after they’ve gone live to see what’s working and what needs improvement.
Sometimes it means coming up with new subject lines.
Sometimes it means adding more call-to-actions.
Sometimes it means moving certain emails earlier or later into the sequence OR even replacing them altogether with something completely new.
The point is you should ALWAYS be tracking and analyzing your results so you can optimize for better results consistently.
Tips for a Winning Inbound Email Marketing Strategy
Sending good emails isn’t really as hard as most businesses make it out to be.
If you want to start crushing it with your inbound email marketing while keeping it as simple as possible, I suggest you:
Get a Good Copywriter
One of the biggest mistakes I see brands making with their email marketing is putting ALL the emphasis on the design and branding of their emails.
But when working with clients, the data is almost always the same:
People respond MUCH better when the emails use copy to deliver a message.
That’s why if you’ve got the capital, it’s worth investing in a copywriter who can write awesome emails that builds a relationship with your readers AND generates massive sales for your brand.
Now, of course…
You don’t NEED to be a skilled copywriter to make email work.
If you know how to type words into a box and hit the “send” button, you can manage just fine.
But in my experience, a lot of brand owners just don’t have the time to run a company AND come up with emails to send their list every single week.
In those situations, I recommend going over to Copy Chief, the #1 community for finding and hiring a professional copywriter.
Write Catchy Subject Lines to Boost Open Rates
You can spend all your time writing the best email copy in the world…
But what good is that if no one ever actually opens up your email?
That’s why you NEED to nail your subject line.
Because your reader isn’t just getting your emails… they’re getting emails from EVERYONE they’re subscribed to!
So you NEED to stand out somehow in their crowded inbox.
You NEED your subject to hook your reader into opening up and reading the rest of your email.
A good subject line will draw on your reader’s curiosity and promise a benefit to them for reading your email.
Basically, your subject line should answer the question:
“What’s in it for me?”
As a rule of thumb, I recommend coming up with multiple subject lines (3-5) and choosing the one that stands out the most.
Create Incentives
Using the subscriber data found inside your ESP, you can come up with powerful incentive campaigns that builds up customer loyalty for you and your business.
For example, you can identify your top buyers and target them with a referral campaign that provides them with cool gifts for bringing new people over to your brand.
You can even come up with a VIP campaign that acknowledges and celebrates those same customers by rewarding them handsomely for their continued spending.
I go over how to implement these strategies in much greater detail inside my book Scale While You Sleep.
Personalize Emails
For example, if someone abandons their cart mid-purchase, you can have an automated sequence help them complete their order.
If it’s someone’s birthday, you can set up an automation that celebrates the occasion by giving that person an exclusive discount.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
Really, the possibilities are endless once you start digging into your ESP’s data.
Add Calls to Action
If you’re emailing your list, it’s YOUR job to provide clear next steps on what someone should do if they’re ready to take action.
That’s why you need to include a CTA that’s VERY easy to spot.
You can do this by stylizing your CTA links so they stand out from the rest of your copy… or even turning them into a huge button.
If it’s a long email, I recommend including CTAs at the top, middle and bottom of your message in case someone doesn’t read until the very end.
Allow Audience to Unsubscribe
*cracks knuckles*
I’m going to say this once (and only once):
👏YOU 👏WILL 👏NOT 👏 WORRY 👏ABOUT 👏UNSUBSCRIBES.
Because guess what:
It’s gonna happen.
If you’re sending emails on a regular basis, you WILL get unsubscribes from time to time.
My advice?
Only focus on the positive feedback you’re getting AND keep on emailing.
Examples of Inbound Email Campaigns
There’s no shortage of email campaigns that can power up your inbound email marketing strategy (more than I can really cover within the scope of this article).
But if you’re looking to get a solid foundation in place, you’ll want to start by focusing on:
Welcome Emails
Welcome emails are arguably the MOST important emails in your email marketing kit.
After all, when someone joins your list, it’s your opportunity to make a solid first impression AND start building a proper relationship with them right away.
The WORST thing you can do is let a new subscriber join your list and sit at their desk all alone while nothing happens.
Instead, this is your opportunity to celebrate their arrival and start introducing yourself along with any cool stories about your brand, your products and your customers!
Newsletters
While setting up automations is definitely key to winning big with your inbound email marketing, you’ll still want to connect with your customers regularly by sending them newsletters.
Abandoned Cart Campaigns
In 2018, it was estimated that ~$4.6 trillion worth of goods are left in online shopping carts every year.
That’s an ABSURD amount of money!
If you haven’t already, you should get on it ASAP.
My Cart Abandonment Annihilator template pack provides the exact 3-email sequence I’ve used to help my clients recover lost sales on auto-pilot month-after-month.
Lead Nurturing
As I said earlier, some people will want to become your customers right away and others will need time to “know, like and trust” you first.
It could take weeks. It could even take months!
What’s important is for you to keep building on that relationship using a combination of email automations and broadcasts.
Because at the end of the day, it’s YOUR responsibility as a marketer to build confidence in someone’s desire in becoming YOUR customer.
Reactivation Campaigns
Even though you’ll want to spend most of your time focusing on your brand’s best customers, that doesn’t mean you should completely ignore the people who haven’t bought from you in a while.
Instead, you can set up automated reactivation campaigns that’ll try to “win back” those customers and get them back to buying from your brand.
My book Scale While You Sleep goes over how I set up high-converting reactivation campaigns for e-comm brands.
Fuel Your Inbound Strategy with Email Marketing
I hope today’s article inspires you to start fueling your inbound strategy with email marketing.
Because it WILL revolutionize your business.
When I was still a copywriter, I “sort of” saw the power of email when working with clients with big lists.
