Targeting Prosepctive Higher Ed Clients with Email
Generating new business via marketing emails and sales prospecting emails is nothing new. Companies have been doing this for over 2 decades now. To this day email is seen as one of the most effective ways to generate new business. With an estimated 205 billion emails sent in 2015 alone how do you ensure your emails are seen in what is most likely a crowded inbox.
The answer is to make your emails something your prospect actually wants to read. Optimzing your emails and avoiding mistakes can help you build a potential relationship with your prospects. They might even look forward to your communications.
5 Problems with Your Company's Marketing Emails
#1) They're Way Too Long
When people open your emails, they don’t want to read long paragraphs or continuously scroll down. They may even see a long email and just decide it’s not worth the effort to read.
Fortunately, writing long emails is one of the easiest mistakes to avoid. Just keep things short. Short emails take the pressure of writing off of you, and they lower the effort required for your prospects to get through the message.
Additional benefits of short emails include originality – short messages look less like cookie-cutter templates that are sent out to everyone. You can still include more in-depth content by adding a link or two to longer posts, offers, or your website. Links give your prospects the opportunity to learn more if they’re interested.
#2) They're Not Mobile Friendly
Your prospects are reading your emails on the go, and if it’s difficult to view on their chosen device it’s less likely that they’ll put in the effort to read your message.
To make your emails more mobile-friendly, remember to focus on brevity. With less copy, short emails are easier to read on smaller screens. You should also use a single-column email template to ensure that your message fits on smartphones and tablets. Select a font that’s large enough to be easily read, and include smaller pictures that can be viewed in full on mobile screens.
#3 They're About You
While the goal of your prospecting emails is to get people interested in your company's services and products, they shouldn’t focus on your company. If all you talk about is your company, then prospects won’t see how your product is relevant to them. To be more effective, focus your emails on your prospects.
- How can your products help your prospect?
- What problems can you solve for them?
Emphasize not how great your product is, but how great your prospects’ lives and careers will be when they use it. To do this, provide information or offers that help your prospects. If your industry is changing, for instance, explain how your prospects can adjust to changes with expert advice. The HEUG.Online is another great resources to gain access to better understanding your prospect's pain.
#4) They're Generic
Blasting your entire prospect list with the same information doesn’t work. People today expect customized online experiences, because if the information you provide isn’t relevant to their lives, why should they care?
To get away from generalized content, target your audience and personalize your prospecting emails based on what each potential customer is interested in. Use your HEUG.Online subscription to set-up a targeted email to specific groups within the community.
Take any information you have and use it to send your prospects the most relevant, helpful information. Send the prospect interested in your consulting packages a few short sentences or an overview of the process, for example. The more relevant the information you provide, the more likely it is that your prospect will open, read, and click on your offers.
#5) They're Not Actionable
If emails aren’t actionable, then prospects read your message, and then what? Nothing. They have nothing to lead them back to your association. For your emails to be effective, there has to be something your prospects can do after reading the email.
Make your emails actionable by including a clear call-to-action that gives prospects a place to go after getting through your short, personalized email. The call-to-action might take your prospect to a resource, such as a forum, blog post, or ebook download that they might be interested in.
Your emails and their calls-to-action should help prospects learn about your value and eventually decide to do business with you. Showcase your relevancy and expertise, as well as how they help your prospects, as much as possible.
Takeaway
Sending the right prospecting emails to your potential new customers takes work. In addition to proper formatting that makes emails easy to read, the information they contain must be relevant, helpful and actionable.
The more helpful your emails are, and the easier the information is to access, the more likely it is that you’ll get through to your prospects. You’ll be able to build an effective email recruitment campaign that fosters strong relationships and eventually leads to membership.
The HEUG.Online Sponsorship Program is a great way to gain access to data about your prospects and all sponsorhip levels include targeted emails in the package. To learn more about the HEUG.Online and ways to leverage your sponsorhip schedule an overview and receive a free targeted email for signing up as a sponsor!