There is no doubt about it, email marketing is a hugely powerful tool for your consulting firm. It can help turn your database into clients, as well as getting them to engage with your content too.

Best of all, a vast majority of people have email nowadays, which means that your potential reach is pretty impressive.

The trouble with email marketing is that, whilst it isn’t tricky to understand, it is hard to make sure that you always get it right.

With this in mind, I have put together my top do’s and don’ts of email marketing for your consulting practice. All to help you to reap the benefits of this amazing marketing tool.

Target people that want to hear from you

Have you found that your email marketing efforts are not having quite the impact that you wanted? If so, then maybe you are not targeting the right people. We all know how it feels to have emails from companies that we will simply never buy from. Make sure that you are not another one of these companies that go straight into the delete bin.

So for instance when I first started networking I added all the names of the people that I met to my email marketing list which I soon realised was a big no-no. What I do now is follow up with everyone personally and send them a link to sign up for my email newsletter if they would like – giving them the choice and making sure that my audience is engaged.

You could also consider having an e-newsletter sign-up box on your website so again people can choose to sign up and your audience is engaged. Lastly, I have added a key piece of content to my web page that people can download in return for giving me their email addresses.

Personalise your email marketing

Have you tried our personalising the emails that you send as part of your marketing campaign? If you haven’t then you will be surprised by the impact you can have with this simple approach.  All you need to do is personalise the email with their name. Nothing more intense than that. Personalising your email makes your client feel valued and that you know who they are rather than just keeping it blank. Think how you feel when you receive a personal email, you immediately perk up and pay attention.

You can try using their name in the subject line or the main salutation. Most email tools have the option to insert a merge field either way so worth experimenting!

Experiment with different days of the week

You may not realise it, but the day of the week that you send your marketing emails could have an impact on how well they do. Typically, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are the most popular email sending day, which means that you may find your own content gets lost in the crowd.

So, why not go against the grain and send out on a Monday or a Friday? That way, it is pretty odds on that you are going to get some kind of engagement. Or how about a weekend – for the email campaigns I have sent out in the past Saturdays have been a major performer.

Don’t worry if people unsubscribe, at least not straight away

One of the things that you will learn in business is that you can’t please everyone, and at times, unsubscribes are going to happen. Don’t take these to heart, instead, think of them as a push towards change and creating a sub-engaged list. In the nicest way possible, if they are not interested in what you have to say then unsubscribing isn’t such a bad thing.

Do take note of spam markings

In comparison to unsubscribes, which are essentially your contact telling you that they don’t want to hear about your news. Being marked as spam means that you are making a nuisance of yourself.

So much so, that you are being marked as so. Your reputation is at risk if you are marked as spam, and in some cases your domain could even be blacklisted by email providers.

There is a great article here on how to avoid spam filters by hubspot.

Some of my services: 

Fractional Marketing Management

Marketing Project Management

Need help?

If you would like help with your marketing then bringing on a marketing consultant with a fresh pair of eyes can make all the difference. I work with B2B businesses and professional service firms in London, Kent, UK and Europe as well as specialising as a Legal Marketing Consultant. Please get in touch or book a free 30-minute consultation.