Mary Lee Ptacek – Page 2 – The Flocksy Blog

The Power of Email Marketing

You’ve come up with a brilliant idea for your next marketing campaign. You know exactly how you want to sell your product: the features you want to highlight, the unique selling proposition you’re going to emphasize, and the marketing copy you’re going to use.

But there’s just one problem: you don’t have time to develop the campaign for multiple platforms. Your to-do list is a mile long, and adding more marketing tasks to it is going to over complicate your life. You can’t delegate the task to anyone else: it’s all up to you. Where should you focus your marketing efforts?

Should you write the campaign for Instagram? Facebook? Twitter? TikTok? Or email?

Taking a look at the statistics can help you to find out exactly why you should prioritize using email for your marketing campaigns.

Do Customers Open Their Emails?

We know that email has been around for years. But is it the most effective way to reach customers?

What’s the first thing you do when you log on to your computer? For many people, the answer is that they immediately check their email. In fact, 99% of email users check their inbox every single day.

Statistics show us that not only do 99% of consumers check their email every day, but workers spend, on average, 28% of their workweek reading or responding to emails. That’s a lot of time spent looking at their inbox.

However, sometimes marketing emails are prevented from reaching consumer inboxes. Why? The spam filter sends them straight to no-man’s land.

Don’t give up on email yet, though: there’s good news. Email clients have become more effective at separating spam messages from genuine marketing communications. Therefore, nowadays it’s more likely that your outreach emails will land where they’re supposed to be: in your customer’s inbox, ready to capture their attention.

Email vs. Social Media

Some people might be tempted to think that, even though emails are landing in customers’ inboxes, there’s still no comparison between the power of email marketing and the power of social media. To find out for sure, let’s take a look at the statistics.

According to Hootsuite, 45% of the global population is active on social media. That’s a good chunk, but it doesn’t quite compare to email users.

What’s even more interesting is that on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, companies are seeing an engagement rate of less than .6%. People will see an ad, or the word “Sponsored,” and just scroll past the post. Even if they’re following your business account, they might not read your posts.

On average, customers open their emails at a rate of 22.86% and click-through at a rate of 3.71%. That’s much better than the social media engagement rate of less than .6%!

Social media might be flashy and fun, but it’s not as reliable as email. Algorithms might work in your favor; or, they might bury your carefully-crafted messaging so that it never reaches your potential customers’ eyes.

You’ve spent precious time and energy working your marketing campaigns. Don’t waste your effort by relying on social media algorithms to convey your message to the right customers.

It’s also important to realize that a social media platform can delete your account at any time (remember those pesky Terms and Conditions you agreed to?). That means that you might lose all your followers, and all those potential leads could disappear.

When you build your email list, you own it. Customers can unsubscribe (and they do), but ultimately, you are still in control.

How To Leverage Email To Your Advantage

We know that consumers consistently check their emails and that you have more control over email than you do over social media.

So, how do you take the power of email and put it to good use?

The first step you should take is to analyze your email list and create a segmented version. Segment your potential leads into groups based on the factors that make the most sense for your business. Consider their purchase history, geographic location, demographics, industry, occupation, position or seniority level, past engagement activity, location in the sales funnel, and the amount of time since the last brand interaction.

Once you have your segmented email list, you can change your messaging. Don’t use a general, vague sales message. Craft your marketing email so that it specifically appeals more to each segment.

Then, after you have your email crafted just for each segmented list, you should further personalize them as much as you can. Fortunately, there’s software available that can help you easily personalize the subject line, preview text, email body, call-to-action, and sign-off.

Keep in mind that recipients are 26% more likely to open emails that have subject lines tailored specifically to them.

Remember, above all else your emails should be valuable to your customers. Don’t give them a reason to unsubscribe by sending too many emails or emails that are worthless!

Conclusion

Ultimately, email is an extremely powerful tool because people check their inboxes daily, because social media is unpredictable, and because emails can be usefully tailored to segments of your customer list.

Don’t believe the pessimistic and incorrect idea that because email isn’t trendy, it’s not worth your time. Email is a fantastic way for companies to communicate with their customers and to prove how their products can meet their customer’s needs.

How Alone Time Can Increase Your Creativity

The image of the solitary artist, painting alone in her studio or typing away by herself at a writing desk, is a familiar one. But how important is alone time, really? It turns out that alone time is actually critical to creative success. Studies have shown that spending time alone leads to many benefits, including better memory, focus, creativity, and mood.

Better Memory

Research has proven that, when you spend time alone, your memory works better than when you spend time with others. When you’re alone, your brain doesn’t have to focus on others’ needs and actions; it only focuses on remembering what you’re trying to recall. Studies show that you will most likely remember facts you’ve learned, associations you’ve made, and ideas you’ve come up with better when you’re alone.

For the creative process, this has enormous benefits. You can better remember your past creative projects and the steps you took to get to your final product. Alone, you’ll also better remember the mistakes you made, which will help you know how to avoid them. Alone time empowers creatives to fully utilize their past experiences when completing a new project.

Better Focus

Similar to improving memory, increasing focus is another benefit of spending time alone. Again, you don’t have the distractions of others’ actions and needs diverting your attention from the project at hand. When you spend time alone, you can zone in on exactly what needs the most of your focus, time, and energy.

If you’re researching a copywriting project, for example, it’s much easier to focus when you are the only person finding articles, reading them, and taking notes on their content for your project.

When there is another person sharing your space or assisting you with the task, you might be sidetracked by their ideas. When you have a creative task at hand, focusing in on your own resources and ideas saves you confusion and time.

Better Creativity

Collaborating with others can often lead to great ideas, but not always. Studies show that when we brainstorm with others, we don’t put all our ideas on the table because we are afraid of judgement and limited by the group’s thought process.

Creative tasks require idea generation that leads to results. If you aren’t coming up with ideas, or if you aren’t following through on the ideas that you’ve thought of because of the group, then you’re reducing your creativity.

Let your ideas flow unchecked. Come up with a list of ideas for your next creative project on your own. You’ll be surprised by what you’re capable of when you work independently.

Better Mood (Long Term)

The research about the effect of spending time alone on your emotions appears to be contradictory, but actually makes sense when you consider the big picture. Here it is: in the short-term, alone time has a negative effect on our emotions, but in the long-term, alone time puts us in a better mood.

When you’re in a better mood, you’re more likely to trust yourself and your creative process. Better moods lead to better relationships and more satisfaction with your work. While it may feel lonely in the short-term, in the long-term, spending alone time will actually make you happier.

One Disadvantage of Alone Time

However, there has to be a balance. While research across the board shows that alone time is needed for creatives to thrive, it also shows that spending too much time alone can lead to negative emotions.

Make sure you are regularly connecting with others outside of your creative hours. Keep in touch with family, friends, and others in your field. Don’t spend too much time completely alone.

When you balance alone time with meaningful connection time, it is ultimately is more helpful than harmful for creatives.

The Benefits of Alone Time

Studies have shown that alone time leads to better memory, focus, creativity, and mood. Having the mental space to work out your problems and generate new creative ideas is key to leading a fulfilling life.

Nowadays, though, it’s easy to get caught up in constant online communication. Whether you’re connecting with friends, family, or coworkers through email, text, chat, or social media, it’s easy for our alone time to become internet connection time. And that’s not really alone time at all.

Here’s how you can make your alone time a truly solitary space.

A Beginner’s Guide to Alone Time

Set limits.

Tell everyone that you won’t be available at a certain time because you need to focus on deep creative work. Put your phone in a different room. Turn off your WiFi (unless you absolutely need it). Isolate yourself as much as possible from the internet.

Stick to a time.

Research has shown that our brains function best in 90-minute blocks. Find an hour and a half to put your phone in another room, block all distracting sites, and sit down and truly focus on your creative work.

Create a solitary space.

If you can, set aside a corner of a room and designate it the place where you’ll spend your alone time. Make it as distraction free as possible. Keep it clutter-free and stocked with all the tools you need for your creative projects.

In Conclusion

Alone time is critical for creativity. Protect your alone time from intrusions (whether they be people, pets, or the internet) and rely on just your brain for your creative tasks. While it might feel lonely in the short-term, in the long-term, alone time will lead you to fantastic ideas.