How to run automated email campaigns to promote your trading referral program
Even though it’s been around far longer than most other forms of digital advertising and promotion – and despite social networks commanding most of the headlines these days – email is still one of the most powerful mediums for online marketing.
In this article we’ll share some of the key things to know about how to make the most of email marketing campaigns to boost your referrals.
- What is an automated email marketing?
- Automated email campaigns for referrers
- How to set up your first email campaign
What is an automated email marketing?
An email marketing campaign is when you set up automated, often personalized, email messages for the purpose of promotion. These emails are set up to be sent at scheduled or predetermined points to help achieve a specific goal, such as getting a person to subscribe to a service or buy a product.
Automated email campaigns for referrers
As a referrer, a lot of the value of an automated email campaign is in helping generate leads then converting those leads into clients.
When you break down the whole sign-up process for a referral, you’ll find that many leads follow a similar journey. This can be advantageous from an email marketing perspective as it allows you to create a campaign that automatically targets specific touch points of that journey to help nudge your lead towards becoming a client.
Whether it’s sharing details of a new product, upselling a service, or promoting a limited-time offer, automated emails can be very effective at providing the right marketing cues at the time the potential client is likely to be most engaged with the process.
How to set up your first email campaign
Choose a platform
The very first step is to find an email service that’s going to work for you. There are a lot to choose from – Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Aweber, Encharge and Acumbamail are some of the most well-known – but which one you pick is up to you, your goals and the features you want. Do some research, ask around – maybe even check out which platform is used by one of your favourite email subscriptions. Doing even some very low level investigation will help give you an idea about what’s going to be possible when it comes to putting together your own campaigns.
Verification
One of the most fundamental things to get right in email marketing is verifying addresses. All reputable email service providers are bound by strict data quality rules and if you fall foul of them, it’s hard to come back from. Essentially, if you want to run a legitimate campaign, you need your subscribers to confirm that (a) their email address is correct and (b) they want to receive emails from you. Even though it may be tempting, never skip this step – it’s just too important!
Don't sell, add value
Your underlying strategy for automated email referral campaigns should involve adding as much value as possible. Think about it like this: if you’re interested in a new product, what’s going to be more appealing to you – receiving messages that simply say, “Buy now!”, or well-crafted content that presents a genuine solution to a problem?
Whether it’s writing your own structured content, linking to an interesting article, using testimonials or anything else, it’s ultimately up to you how you want to shape your messaging. But if you’ve got something good to offer, people are more likely to stick around and read what you’re sending. On the other hand, spamming people is a fast way to end up on their unsubscribe list.
Drip feeding
It should be obvious, but don’t send all your campaign emails at once. At best, the recipient won’t have time to read a full inbox and your messages will get ignored. At worst you’ll be flagged as spam and end up on an unsubscribe list.
The key to an effective campaign is timing. Set up automated triggers that send emails depending on where the email recipient is on your journey. For example, if they opened your first email, you could set your second campaign email to be sent the following day. But if they didn’t open it at all, set a reminder to be sent a couple of days later. These subtleties matter.
You can get very creative about how you structure your campaign content, depending on the message and the underlying aim. As another basic example, if you sent an email with two calls to action – one for a new trading tool and another for a new trading product – you could set a specific product-related follow-up email to be sent depending on what the person clicked. This means they’re getting targeted with content they’re most interested in, thereby increasing the chances that they’ll convert.
Analyse and refresh
Automated email campaigns can be set up to run for days, weeks, months or even years. Whatever your timeframe, just remember to analyse the results regularly so that you’re constantly optimising the campaign and ensure it’s not getting stale. Some things will remain relevant for a long time, others will need tweaking. You just need to monitor your content to make sure you keep hitting the right messages at the right time.
The information is not to be construed as a recommendation; or an offer to buy or sell; or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security, financial product, or instrument; or to participate in any trading strategy. Readers should seek their own advice. Reproduction or redistribution of this information is not permitted.