How I Use Email Marketing to Promote Sewing Classes
As the school year is progressing here in the Eastern US, all our sewing classes are slowly but surely getting up and running (both for kids & adults). As the chief marketer of my sewing business, I find myself sending a lot of emails.
Over the years, I have discovered that sending strategically targeted emails to my mailing list makes a ton of difference in acquiring sign ups to my classes. And according to these statistics I found about email marketing, that totally makes sense.
According to US Marketers, June 2016, here are the median ROI (return on investment) for select marketing channels
- Email – 122%
- Social Media – 28%
- Direct Mail – 27%
- Paid Search – 25%
- Online Display 18%
According to US Marketers, June 2016, the CPA (cost per acquisition) for select channels are the following:
- Direct Mail $27.53
- Social Media $21.95
- Paid Search $21.50
- Online Display $19.50
- Email $10.23*
*Side note: If you’re using Mail Chimp and you don’t have a large list (I believe under 2000 people), it’s free to use! So that CPA would be the time it takes you to write the email.
SEW – now that we know email marketing is the way to go (and in most cases can be done for free, or little money) how do we get started using email marketing?
You need a list, but how do you start accumulating email addresses?
–Website – Add a pop up that captures peoples email addresses and adds them directly to your subscription list.
–Classes/Birthday Parties : Have “email address” as one of the fields on your waiver.
-Free events like street fairs & networking nights: Have a list displayed so people can sign up spot for your list.
–Free promotional workshops: Invite people in for Easy free workshops. It not only is a way to build your list, it give people a taste of sewing and wanting to learn more.
What should the email say? Try to remember the 4 U’s:
The four U’s represent the following words:
Urgent – Try to include something that’s time sensitive and is going to get people to act on something. To buy something, download something, attend a class or event, etc.
Unique – Try to make your email interesting and different. Everyone get’s tons of emails. Make yours stand out so it gets read.
Useful – Offer a benefit, solve a problem, or provide some sort of value for your audience.
Ultra Specific – Include as many details as you can. Date, time, pricing, location, etc. Do skimp on the details!
