When it comes to digital marketing for your interior design or home furnishings brand, you may be asking which platform is best. You might be surprised to hear that after 20+ years and counting, the leader of the pack is still… email.
That being said, the success of email depends on whether you’re using email marketing in a strategic, effective way.
Here’s the good news: Email newsletter creation for your interior design or home furnishings brand doesn’t have to be hard. Let’s dive in on everything that you need to know.
Email marketing: What designers and home brands need to know
Social media platforms will come and go for years to come. On these platforms, you can create a presence and have people follow you, but don’t have much control over when or how much your posts get distributed.
Your posts are at the mercy of an algorithm, which is a fancy word for the behind-the-scenes engineering each platform uses to determine how and when your posts show up in your audience’s feed. Every platform has its own unique algorithm that can – and will! – change over time.
Furthermore, you have to compete with everyone else’s posts (hello video posts!), and platforms like Instagram and TikTok are becoming more and more saturated as time goes on, decreasing the chances that your posts will be seen by your audience or stop them in their scroll to catch their precious attention.
Email marketing, on the other hand, doesn’t have these same issues. With email marketing, you can reach your subscribers directly whenever you want, regardless of how much other stuff is going on in their feed.
“But I never read email!” Here’s the thing: Your subscribers don’t have to read your emails for your email marketing to make a difference. Just seeing your name on a regular basis can be enough for readers to become familiar with you.
Email can make bank as well. According to a statistics roundup from OptInMonster, “email subscribers are 3.9x more likely to share your content on social media.” Email is not only important for visibility; it also makes a big difference when it comes to getting the word out about your promotions, events, and sales.
Why frequency matters in marketing
It can sometimes feel like we are being nags when we promote ourselves and our services over and over again. However! Repetition is the name of the game in marketing and advertising – and has been for over a hundred years. This is a marketing technique known as effective frequency, and one of the most popular pieces of marketing advice today is the “Rule Of 7”: The idea that it takes an average of seven interactions with your brand before a purchase takes place.
As it turns out, this idea of frequency has been popular for over a hundred years! In 1885, Thomas Smith released a book called Successful Advertising. The book continues to be quoted to this day for its references to effective frequency, particularly with this passage:
- The first time people look at any given ad, they don’t even see it.
- The second time, they don’t notice it.
- The third time, they are aware that it is there.
- The fourth time, they have a fleeting sense that they’ve seen it somewhere before.
- The fifth time, they actually read the ad.
- The sixth time they thumb their nose at it.
- The seventh time, they start to get a little irritated with it.
- The eighth time, they start to think, “Here’s that confounded ad again.”
- The ninth time, they start to wonder if they’re missing out on something.
- The tenth time, they ask their friends and neighbors if they’ve tried it.
- The eleventh time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads.
- The twelfth time, they start to think that it must be a good product.
- The thirteenth time, they start to feel the product has value.
- The fourteenth time, they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time.
- The fifteenth time, they start to yearn for it because they can’t afford to buy it.
- The sixteenth time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future.
- The seventeenth time, they make a note to buy the product.
- The eighteenth time, they curse their poverty for not allowing them to buy this terrific product.
- The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully.
- The twentieth time prospects see the ad, they buy what is offering.
As you can see, what feels like repeating yourself or going overboard may actually be what you need in order for prospects or website visitors to even remember who you are and what you do.
This is why email is so powerful: With email, your message reaches everyone on your list at the same time and can help establish this effective frequency.
When email is at the core of your marketing strategy, you can get in front of your readers again and again for free. You can even automate the emails you send; according to research from Campaign Monitor, automated emails generate 320% more revenue than non-automated ones.
Email is great because you’re able to see what works and what doesn’t in real time. Do your readers prefer subject lines that ask a question, or subject lines that have an emoji in them? Or both? 😍
With email, you can do what’s called split testing – an A/B test of subject lines or even whole emails – to see what works and what doesn’t. It sounds technical, but it’s no different than asking a client if they prefer a blue wall or a green wall.
When you have data and feedback, it’s easier to make informed decisions that will move the needle in your business.
Email marketing: Tips for an effective growth strategy
So how can you ensure you’re taking the best approach with email marketing and your strategy behind it all? Here are a few things to keep in mind.
- Give people a reason to sign up. Consider offering a discount or a free gift in exchange for signing up for your email list; this is a common strategy in retail marketing and the money you’ll save on advertising costs far outweighs the initial discount.
- Create a regular rhythm. Your email content doesn’t need to be original; it can be repurposed from other social media posts and blog content you create throughout the week . You will want to send an email newsletter on a regular basis, though; once a week is an ideal frequency.
- Make subscribers feel special. Your email subscribers are often your biggest fans, the people who are most interested in hearing about who you are and what you do. Consider offering special discounts, offers, or opportunities to your existing subscribers first to encourage them to stay signed up and active on your email list.
Email marketing may not be as flashy as other platforms when it comes to fancy video or sharing features. It does, however, continue to be a reliable platform when it comes to measuring a return on your marketing efforts.
Get into a regular rhythm of using email to grow your interior design or home furnishings business and you might be surprised at how quickly subscribers can turn into leads, sales, and opportunities.
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Thanks for reading. Want to take a deeper dive into the possibilities of email? I’ve created this video guide to walk you through everything you need to know to get started with email marketing for your brand. Business of Home magazine called it “required viewing for anybody regularly sending newsletters”.
💥 Or, maybe you’re ready to learn what the best brands know about marketing that you don’t? Watch our free marketing masterclass right here.