4 Reasons Why You Should Collect Customer Email Addresses.
The best time to start collecting customer email addresses was yesterday. The next best time is now. Why is an email list so important? Because inside that list is power, freedom, and money. The power to build your business on your terms, using your ideas, the way you want. The freedom, knowing that you’ve created the processes and you don’t have to rely on outside sources like Home Advisor and Yelp. There’s money in email campaigns. Email Campaigns can level out the peaks and valleys in your business’ revenue. How would you like a nice steady flow of income throughout the year rather than feast or famine?
When you have your customers on an email list, you can reach out to them at a moment’s notice, you can keep them updated with company news, and most importantly, you can build a relationship. With all the marketing channels available, from traditional stuff like mailers to social media, email stands above them all.
There are Four BIG reasons you should be using email to communicate with and advertise to your customers.
It’s easy.
It’s cheap.
It works.
You own it.
Real-World Examples
Whether you like it or not, your business is going online, and in reality, it should be already. I know what you’re saying, “Of course you’d say that you’re a web designer”. You’re right; I’m biased. But, that doesn’t mean I’m not telling the truth.
A lot of integrators focus on page views or building a social media following (and they should). In my opinion, they should be talking to their email subscribers at the same time. The majority don’t.
Before we get into why you should build your email list, let me give you a few real-world examples. These are true stories with the names left out to protect the innocent.
“My work is slow, I need to start doing some SEO on my site. (Expecting immediate results). Unfortunately, SEO doesn’t work that way. You can’t flip a switch and climb the SERPS overnight. It’s simply not possible, and if it were, my hourly rate would be much much higher.
“I don’t want to be that guy who emails customers”. I hear this all the time, when I hear it, the first thing I think is. There’s a reason you get so many emails to your inbox every day. Because it’s cheap, and it’s effective. It’s the perfect marketing solution for a small-shop integrator.
Here’s another example; You head out to a quote of a takeover job. When you arrive at the home, you naturally ask the homeowner, “Who installed it originally?”
The answer 100% of the time is “I don’t remember”. Do you know why that is? Because he didn’t stay in touch, a great way to do that is with email.
And one more… “Sonos is stealing my customers by emailing them and offering deals.”
No shit? Do you think that any company wouldn’t do the same thing? We’ve seen it time and again in this industry, yet every time it happens we’re all standing around with our mouths open.
I’m not defending Sonos’ action in anyway, I think it’s a really shady move on their part. But they know you’re not going to email customers, so they’re taking advantage of the situation. If you were staying in touch with your customers, it would be nearly impossible for them to pull that off. In fact, many customers have told integrators, “I thought it was you who sent the email”. That tells you all you need to know. Customers buy through email.
Where Do You Start?
First things first, everything online starts with your website. You don’t need to have the biggest website. But it does need to be fresh, it needs to be fast ,and it needs to be free of malware. You don’t want to direct customers to your website, only to pass a long a virus to your best customer, you also don’t want to send a potential customer to a website that hasn’t been updated in over 5 years. This is where you need to look like you actually care about your business, because hopefully you do. (Check out our website packages here).
Let’s Build That Email List
Next, we need to decide what email campaign platform works best for you. No sense in getting into the mud about this, find the service that you think fits best and subscribe. Here are a few of our favorites.
Campaign Monitor
MailChimp
Constant Contact
Get Response
Ok, now let’s start compiling all of the emails addresses. Don’t worry; this isn’t going to be as tedious as you might think. Here are a few quick videos detailing how to extract your emails from some of the most popular email services.
(How to export iCloud contacts)
(How to export Gmail contacts)
Let’s Create Templates!
The next step is to create templates. Templates are a great way to save time and keep everything in your email campaigns uniform and immediately recognizable. Here’s a chance for you to be as creative as you want.
In my opinion, the first email template you create should be your Google Review Template. This is a template that a customer might receive after the installation is complete, asking for a Google Review. (Are you starting to see how all of this stuff is connected? (Almost like a giant World Wide Web..sorry, dork joke).
We won’t spend a lot of time on Google Reviews in this article, but I will tell you this; Google reveals very little about the notorious algorithm. However, in 2019 they shed some light on what was coming down the pike for 2020. Here’s what they said, “The quantity and quality of Google Reviews will account for over 20% of your online ranking”. Wow! 20%, that’s an enormous number, there’s not even a close second to move you in the rankings. Google Reviews are powerful.
Fun Fact: People trust Google Reviews more than recommendations from friends and family. They’re powerful.
Once you create the template, you can add it to a Journey. Think of a Journey like a macro for your favorite universal remote control. One action triggers multiple separate reactions.
An Example of a Journey:
Customer enters New Customer list.
Customer receives a Thank you email with a link to leave a Google Review.
5 days later a customer receives an email asking how they like their system.
2 weeks later a customer receives an email giving them tips and tricks on how to use their new products.
4 weeks later customer receives an email letting them know about the other services you provide.
End of Journey.
A Few Tips To Get You Started
You can create journeys for any number of customers, products, or services. The world is your oyster, my friend.
Here are a few ideas on how you can successfully use email to grow your integration business.
Deals- (When your distributor has a sale, pass the savings on!)
Tips and Tricks- (How many of your customers know SONOS has an alarm clock)
Alerts- Get in touch during special circumstances.
The Value Ladder- Emails are an effective tool for walking customers up the value ladder.
Seasonal- Outdoor TVs, Back To School, Football Season, and more.
Email Pays Dividends
It seems like email has been around since the beginning of time. Platforms come and go, but email has remained the same. When you rely on different platforms, you’re not in control. Overnight they could disappear or change their policy, which in turn could sink your bottom-line. Focus your energy on building an email list as a long-term strategy that will pay off for your business well into the future.
This is a lot to chew on, I know. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. We’re also here to help. If you have questions about how you can get started with Email Campaigns reach out to us at [email protected]
