The Power of Email Marketing: How to Drive Customer Acquisition and Retention

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 Thank you for tuning in to WedPro Business Solutions. I'm your host, Kristina Stubblefield. I'm going to be tackling one of my favorite topics of all time, email marketing. Now, for those out there that may have just rolled their eyes, or you're getting ready to click the button to turn this off, or you're just like, you know what? No email marketing.
 
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 It doesn't work or it's dead, well, I encourage you to listen to what I'm going to share with you. I want to explain to you my background as far as email marketing goes, I'm super proud of this. I have been a partner with constant contact at least back to 2008. Yes, I really just said to 2008, maybe a little further than that, but that's at least what I can document. And why is that important?
 
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 Because you've heard me probably say I've lived through many digital ages when I was doing websites all the way back to before they were websites in the AOL community. Email marketing, I have been around since it's really started, and it's interesting how it's evolved over time, or how it's taken shape over time. And I constantly hear, oh, email marketing is dead. People aren't using it as much, it's not as effective as it used to be. Everyone can have their own opinions.
 
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 But with my marketing background and expertise, I'm here to share with you. Every wedding professional should be utilizing email marketing as part of your entire marketing puzzle. You see, there's not one magic piece to the marketing puzzle. I hope that's not breaking news for you, because it's not. Email marketing allows you to build a know like and trust factor.
 
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 It also allows for great brand recognition. Now, you know I'm a numbers person, so, you know, I'm going to share with you some statistics. And if you've not heard me say this before, I'm all about saving people time and money. So if I talk about using software or resources or technology, there's a reason, and in my opinion, I always liked statistics of reporting to back up why you invest your time, energy, effort, or money into something. So just a couple of things I'm going to share with you about this.
 
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 First of all, 91% of US. Adults like to receive promotional emails from companies they do business with. 91%. The other thing is, email is almost 40 times more effective ready for this than Facebook and Twitter combined in helping your business acquire new customers. 40%.
 
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 40 times. I'm sorry, let me say 40 times. According to 80% of professionals, email marketing drives customer acquisition and retention. That source is from email marketer. I didn't list the other sources, but this is all information that is available to you.
 
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 It builds credibility with your customers. Email marketing builds credibility with your customers. People do business with people they know, like and trust. Email gives you the ability to build credibility with your audience by sharing helpful and an informative content, you get more people to call you to do business or take the next step. Whatever your calls to action are, schedule a tour, book an appointment, actually calling you on the phone, whatever that may be.
 
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 I've mentioned it before about brand awareness. You can really strengthen brand recognition with new and potential clients and extend your reach when people forward or share your message. You can also increase traffic to your website. It's a great way to get people to take the next step. Also, you can include, let me get it right, relevant links to your site.
 
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 Maybe that's to your other social media, maybe it's to your website, maybe it's to a booking link or a blog. And the key with this is we're talking about driving people for booking more events. At the end of the day, you're wanting liens and booked events. And in order to generate leads which then convert into sales, you have to build that know like and trust factor. People have to know your brand and email marketing can really help you with that.
 
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 And these are just some top reasons about email marketing. Now, I'll get on my soapbox for a few minutes. I have seen over time how email marketing allows you to build your database, to even build your followers, how you can actually utilize it so much more than just generating leads and sales. And so many times when I start talking about email marketing, what am I going to send out? Well, what do you have to share with people?
 
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 What do you have to share with a potential client? You probably have tips, you probably have resources, you have knowledge in your niche, in your industry that you can share to build the know like and trust factor. And I'm going to give you some examples. First of all, if you participate in wedding shows, most of them, you get a list of the people that registered or attended. I cannot tell you how many times people say to me, I don't do anything with that list.
 
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 What? You paid to participate in a wedding show and you're not doing any follow up with this list. And by follow up, I mean actually nurturing them by sending them emails. And I'm not saying spam them and I'm really not saying sending out an email that hey, I'm a great photographer, you should book me for your event. Those sales emails, I know people do them and I'm not going to say that they don't work, but in my opinion, you should use information that you have to share with people.
 
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 Tips, resources, all of that information to build that know like and trust factor. Let's be honest right now, if you participate in wedding shows, you're probably not booking someone right there at your booth. They've just met you, they've asking you some questions, they need a follow up. And top of mind, they go to these wedding shows and they're meeting, how many other vendors. It's a lot to take in.
 
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 And this is just one example that I'm sharing with you for email marketing. There are so many ways you can use email marketing. Let's just say it could be a monthly newsletter that you share out information about your business. You throw in a tip, you record a video to put in the email. Maybe you have specials going on.
 
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 Maybe you have available dates that you're wanting to fill. So many times people don't realize what that email database or the email addresses that they have is worth. And I've mainly been talking about engaged couples or potential clients. But let's hop to another way you can utilize email marketing. Nurturing your relationships with vendors, venues, other wedding professionals, not just the engaged couples.
 
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 It's all in how you utilize your email marketing, the content that you put in to your emails. And that's one other thing is so many times people just throw together an email and send it out. What's the call to action? What do you want people to do when they get this email? They open it.
 
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 Whether they read or they watch a video. What do you want of them? Put a call to action in the email. Now, it's really important that I share with you when I talk about email marketing, I am not talking about utilizing your email address, whatever, at your domain.com to send out bulk email. CCS, BCCs honestly, I've been doing this a long time.
 
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 I've shared with you that I've been a partner of one of the main email marketing companies out there for many, many years. It is so important to use an email marketing software. Why? Number one, it's about not going into a person's spam. Number two, it's about tracking how many people are you sending the email to, how many people open it, how many people are clicking on links that you put in the email.
 
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 How else are you going to know if people are really taken in? Are they reading? Are they watching a video? Are they clicking on a link that's in your email campaign that you send out if you don't use a software to track it? Sure, most of these have some type of fee to use this software, but it's putting the information in your fingertips to help you in your marketing efforts.
 
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 Let me give you a scenario. You have a list of 1000 people that are potential clients. You're going to send out an email campaign to them. In this email, you've put a video, you put some tips in there, and a link to your website. You send it off to 1000 people with a software that tracks through insights or analytics.
 
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 I call it reporting. You will know out of that thousand, 300 people opened it. Okay? That's an open rate of pretty darn good when we're talking about email marketing. Open that, 300 people out of the thousand opened that email.
 
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 Now, let's just say that 1000 people is a list from a couple of wedding shows that you've participated in. Do you think that they might have been interested in your business, product or service if they took time to open that email? What follow up email do you send out to just those 300 people? Not to the thousand people, just the 300 that opened your email. Maybe you didn't think about that, but what's the follow up?
 
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 Is it maybe two weeks later? They were obviously interested in something. Hey, I saw that you opened my email. I would love to have a conversation with you about your event. Here's my booking link to schedule a free consultation.
 
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 You just went back to the top of their mind. That reporting and that data is there to help you with your next steps. It can save you a lot of time and even more money.
 
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 But it's doing something with the data, with the information you get to do that follow up piece to those that were interested. So many times when I'm talking to people and they have leads come in, I sent an email, never heard back from these leads. However many there are, do you ever follow back up with them? Because maybe they didn't choose you as their wedding vendor, but are they going to have an anniversary party? Are they going to have a birthday party?
 
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 Maybe they do a corporate event. So many times people think about the right now, not building relationships and the know like and trust factor for the future. And that's where I come from. When I work with people on coaching, consulting, I really like to look at the whole picture and how is your time and money best for your business for today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year? The full picture.
 
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 If we constantly operate from a right this second, oh my gosh, I'm going to send an email blast out because I need to book X number of events right now. You're missing so many opportunities to book way more business and email marketing can be that one piece of your marketing puzzle that generates stuff for however long to come. Now, does there need to be thought put to what goes in those emails? And how are you using that strategically with your marketing? What time of year is it?
 
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 Are we headed into engagement season?
 
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 Are you gearing up for the next year of weddings or the next couple years of weddings?
 
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 Those email blasts, those email campaigns, those can be turned into blog posts. Those can be used for social media posts. If you put three pieces of content in one email blast, that could be three different social media posts on whatever different platforms you use. That email newsletter could then go as a link on your website.
 
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 It could also be a blog post. There's several things I could sit here and list out. For example, my email list. I send out an email with a recent podcast episode. Normally a resource as well as tip information.
 
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 If I have a workshop or something like that come up because I want it to be just chock full of information that is there and can help people, wedding professionals, especially with solutions in their business. And I know, hell, you're juggling all kinds of hats in your business and now she's saying, well, I should be doing this. It's really sitting down and coming up with a strategic marketing plan. And I know that word's thrown around a lot, a detailed marketing plan. What can work best for your business to help you reach your goals.
 
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 And I think if you're not already using email marketing actually, let me go back. I know if you're not already utilizing email marketing, it can be very beneficial for you. Whether you're new in the industry or you've been in it for 30 plus years, email marketing is not dead. It is working to build know, like and trust, as well as brand recognition. Because most of the time, engaged couples, when you meet them, they don't book you after necessarily a two minute conversation.
 
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 They want to know about you. They want to read or watch testimonials about your business. They want to hear about other people's experiences. Those are all things that I just shared that can go in an email blast to send out. And there's so many different opportunities, scenarios, strategies.
 
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 This is just scratching the surface with email marketing, but I felt like it was so important to share with you all these statistics and this information. I work with several clients, helping them with their email marketing. It works. I hope that you found this episode beneficial. If you are not already part of my Facebook group, I encourage you to join.
 
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 You will be able to get a link, just visit my website, kristinastubblefield.com and you can get resources. You can join my email list. You can also become part of the Facebook group. Thank you so much for tuning in. Take care.