Email Marketing Provides The Best Online ROI For Design-Build Construction Firms. Period.

With a $41 return on every dollar spent, email marketing is still one of the best online marketing channels you can invest in. This is nearly double that of Pay Per Click (PPC) and display or banner advertising ($22.24 and $19.72 respectively) and over three times better than social media ($12.71).

To get the most out of your email marketing campaign you must follow one major piece of advice:

Don’t Ever Buy an Email List! Unless You Want to Risk being Banned from Emailing Forever

Email list providers promise reliable contact information yet sometimes can deliver out-of-date or incorrect information (i.e. wrong name or bad email addresses). 

Inaccuracies in your email database will cause those who receive your emails to question your credibility and legitimacy. Email campaigns with bad names are a common example of this. Sending e-mails to a contact that has the name David but your list labels them as D., or Davis will harm your brand and damage your credibility. Minor mistakes in your database will cost you revenue.

You should instead attempt to establish your home improvement business as an industry thought leader. Create content your prospects will be interested in. Write emails that include information and advice such as; "Five Questions To Ask a Design-Build Contractor Before Signing a Contract" or "How to Prepare Your Home For An Extensive Renovation," etc.

What happens if your email doesn’t arrive at the intended destination?

There are only three places your email may end up after being sent.

• Successfully delivered to the recipient’s inbox.
• Routed to the recipient’s junk or spam folder.
• Captured by an ESP gateway (email service provider) and not delivered.

This third option won’t appear as a bounce or an error message on your statistics – giving you a false impression of your statistics.

Do Your Best To Ensure Your Email Gets Delivered

Email deliverability is a serious issue. Many organizations don’t realize how important it is and, therefore, ignore the problem until a crisis occurs. It is the senders reputation that determines where your emails are delivered to. ESPs monitor email activity for a number of different signals that can affect your reputation, including:

• Sending emails that are relevant and properly formatted.
• The frequency and volume of emails you are sending.
• How often your emails have been marked as junk / spam.
• Your bounce rate.
• Buying a purchased list and then sending out a high volume of emails is bound to have your email system marked as potential spam. Even if that does not raise the warnings with ESP – a high bounce rate and unsubscribers would mark your email campaigns as a concern for ESPs.

If your account is flagged, it can have severely damaging results on the future email deliverability. There have been cases when businesses have had their ability to email customers completely blocked.

Thoughtful Design Will Increase Lead Gen From Your Email Marketing Campaigns 

Your emails should be structured in such a way that they naturally create a high lead generation. There are several aspects you should consider for this.

1- Subject Line:  With the exception of the sender ID (i.e. your name) this is the first aspect that a reader will see of your email. A captivating subject line will encourage the reader to open your email. Create titles that are personalized to your audience or require an action from the user.

2 - Length: Attention spans are not what they used to be – they have decreased to just 5 minutes. Therefore keep your email concise and engaging – after all consumers expect to receive many emails every day.

3 - Imagery: Images are processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than text. Therefore having a real image that can reinforce your email’s message will increase the uptake of your message.

4 - Social Integration: Have your information shareable on Social Media sites with sharing links. This will bring new prospects to your blog and website – generating new leads and further contacts to your leads.

5 - Call to Action: Direct your audience down the sales funnel with a compelling call to action. The best method is to have your contacts read more content that you have published. Direct them to your ebooks, webinars, case studies, etc. with action words like download, register and read.

Email marketing is an extremely effective marketing tool, especially for build design businesses. Connect with your readers with an effective Email marketing campaign.