Are you ready to graduate from our Get Schooled series? Let’s toss these caps in the air and walk across the podium to accept our email marketing diploma.
There’s nothing quite as inspiring as a commencement speech; the dreams they inspire, the endless possibilities before you, the world is your oyster of opportunity.
Just like graduation day, learning something new and embarking on the journey of investing in your email marketing as a revenue channel requires DREAMS.
Today, we’re going to share how important the dreaming phase is in your email marketing planning process. If that seems too woo-woo for you, don’t worry. I’ll give you practical steps to help you actually do the dreaming. Keep reading to make your next best email marketing dreams come true.
We’re about to embark on yearly planning, both for our Email Mavens business and for our clients who work with us on a 12-month contract. Our planning process involves four steps:
- Review
- Dream
- Calendar
- Finalize and Execute
Do you want to know our favorite step?
DREAMING
Dreaming requires you to think beyond what you’ve already done. It brings an element of fun and possibility. If you dream, you’ll uncover things in your psyche that have been itching to be released. If you don’t dream, you’re doomed to repeat the same thing as last year, over and over, trying to inspire customers with the same old ideas.
Today’s lesson is a short but powerful one. It will help you harness those dreams and create a plan to make them come true.
When It Comes Time to Dream, Ask These Questions
1. What would be so fun to do?
We worked with a winery that wanted to incorporate interactivity into their email marketing campaigns but weren’t sure how to do it. During the dreaming phase, we came up with a back-to-school quiz-style campaign. We built a quick, fun quiz and incorporated it into the email creative. It was such a fun way to bring a dream to life and delight subscribers.
2. What revenue number would blow my mind?
You might write down $50,000 for this quarter or $500,000 for the year. Then, your brain might immediately object. That’s okay. Write it down anyway. Let all those objections come out, and write those down too. Each obstacle to that revenue number can become a to-do on your path to a record-breaking email marketing year.
Example: you might think, “Oh, my email list is too small.” If so, then your to-do is to focus on growing your email list. We’ve got an entire episode (in fact, a three-part series) on how to grow your ecommerce by growing your email list, so we’ve got you covered.
3. What would be a dream come true for my customers?
If we aren’t considering email marketing through the lens of WIIFM, “What’s in it for my customers?”, then what’s the point? (We wrote a whole post on making your customer the hero of your emails.)
What would make an offer irresistible? Often, we don’t ask this question because we focus on objections like “We can’t do free shipping because we can’t afford the cost.” But what if you could offer a pickup pop-up in key markets and host a party for customers who spend more than $500 on wine? That could be a dream come true for both you and your customers!
4. What have I always wanted to try?
Or, put another way, what have I seen other industries doing that I could emulate in a unique way?
One student forwarded me an email campaign from Hermès with a heat map of France (watch the episode for the visual). It was interactive, with glowing elements throughout the email. When you clicked on a section of the heat map, it took you to a landing page with a collection aligned with that region’s vibe.
Ever since I saw that, I’ve been dreaming of ways to incorporate a similar tactic for one of our clients, or even for Email Mavens. I wouldn’t have been inspired like that if someone hadn’t shared that example with me.
TAKE ACTION
The next time you sit down to plan your marketing emails, give yourself time and space to dream. Use the four questions above to guide you. Let the objections come. Write them down. Then, find ways to turn them into to-dos you can accomplish. (When you’re ready for the Calendar step, here’s how to plan your emails and transform your winery business.)
You have a brain in your head and feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. So, like my boy Dr. Seuss says, “Oh, the places you’ll go” when you get email marketing with us!
Keep pressing send on your next best email.
