Tamsin Talks Savvy Secrets for Email Marketing

Tamsin Fox-Davies is a small business evangelist with Constant Contact. She joined a panel of industry experts at the WSI Digital Summit to talk about her speciality within Digital Marketing. With a passion for both Digital Marketing and small businesses Tamsin gave a great talk on the power of Email and Social Media in the changing world of marketing.

The last few years have been a tough time for many small businesses. It’s left a lot of business owners desperate to get more bang for their buck when it comes to marketing. It’s also left a lot questioning why tried and tested methods seem to no longer be returning the results they’re used to.

Tamsin started by reiterating exactly what marketing means to her.

Defining your audience, the people you want to reach with your campaign
Reaching out to that audience
Eliciting a response that is measurable. A call, a sale, a referral. An action that represents a direct decision to respond to your message

There are many mediums for affecting a response from your audience. Social Media is a channel that has seen huge growth in the last 5 years. Most businesses use Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Many use Instagram, Youtube and Pintrest. Email is something everyone uses and it was Email that Tasmin focussed heavily on through her talk. 91% of people check their Email daily. It is one of the most powerful ways to stay in touch with your customers.

Email Constant Contact

Email has been a key part of Digital Marketing for well over a decade now, but marketing as a whole is changing. The top down funnel model is being replaced. Marketing is no longer about throwing message after message into the ether and hoping for a response. In the modern world where people are bombarded by advertising everywhere they go this kind of marketing is increasingly less effective.

The focus now needs to be on delighting and exciting your existing customers. Making these people your undercover sales force. Even in a digital age word of mouth and it’s digital counterpart are hugely powerful marketing forces. Social visibility and proof through Social Media essentially qualifies you to a potential customer. Friends of fans on Social Media are a huge pool of potential customers that you can leverage and engage.

Social Contact Marketing

How is this done? First you must promote contactability and engagement. Invite customer to sign up for newsletters and Like and Share your pages on Social Media. Secondly, engage with those who have chosen to keep in contact with you. Create interesting and engaging content that will make your customers want to interact. Special offers or educational content that is valuable is a great way to do this. Depending on your business area you can even think about attempting to create viral content.

Tamsin laid out the 4 mainstays of a good Communication Plan
1. Grow your Mailing List
2. Communicate with your lists regularly
3. Seasonal and time sensitive campaigns
4. Social Media plan, be active and engaging

And Tamsin finished with a few challenges to everyone in the room:
>Plan a days Social Media posts for tomorrow
>Plan a seasonal campaign
>Identify why people should join your list
>Action a growth idea based on your findings