This article is part of the school of coworking course through Archie. Make sure to check out the other articles to learn more about how to start a coworking space business.?
If you have a coworking space, chances are you’ve looked into marketing your space. Although it’s one of the oldest technological ways of communicating, email has been a massive tool for many corporations.
Email marketing is immensely used, and that is for a good reason. It has a return of investment (ROI) of about $36 for every $1 spent, which is a huge margin. Bigger than most other forms of marketing, which is why your coworking space should focus on it.
1. How does email marketing work?
Although it may sound easy, email marketing can actually be a lot of effort. There are two different components that you need to be aware of before getting started, which are the mailing list and the email service provider.
After we go through these first steps, we’ll discuss the various ways in which you can create an effective email marketing campaign and any tips and tricks to make your life a little easier.
1.1 Mailing list
This is the most important part of your email marketing campaign. Without a mailing list, you can’t send out any emails.
You will need an active email list. This is a database of emails of people who have expressed interest in receiving marketing communications from your brand. These could be your current members or potential ones.
If you don’t already have a mailing list, there are a few ways of obtaining them. A great one is by offering a discount or promotion upon email sign-up. This is an effective way to get a mailing list, as most people will jump at the chance to get in on a promotion.
You could also create a pop-up or slide-in for pages on your website. This will appear to anyone who visits your website and will give them a chance to sign up for your emails that are filled with updates, promotional materials, and so on.
1.2 Email service provider
An email service provider or an ESP is a software that helps you not only manage your mailing list, but also customize emails and automate them. This is a great option if you are investing in your email marketing, and should definitely think about purchasing one.
- Gmail: Gmail is a classic option that many people might be familiar with. Gmail may be a good option for you if you are just getting started, and are looking to mostly focus on the content you provide in the emails and not the flesh surrounding them. Gmail is also free so if you’re looking for something at a low cost this may be a great option for you.
- Hubspot: Hubspot is another very popular tool that a lot of businesses use for email marketing. Hubspot is great for customizing emails as they have many features for the layout including a drag and drop editor that is easy to use.
- Sendinblue: This is another great tool similar to Hubspot, containing many features for personalization. Sendinblue also uses machine learning to send out automated emails at the best times possible. While it’s a great tool, it tends to be a little pricer than most other options.
- Proton email: If you value privacy, then Proton email might be your go-to. It is known for its encryption and has a great reputation surrounding it. They do have a free version, however, it is not nearly as powerful as the paid version.
2. Personalize emails
Now that we’ve gotten the hang of how email marketing works, we have to look into the best ways to do it. After you’ve got your mailing list down and have picked an email service provider it’s time to figure out the best way to personalize your coworking space marketing emails.
2.1 Email Segmentation:
Before we get into the best ways to personalize emails, we need to talk about email segmentation. If you haven’t heard this term before, it means breaking up your large email list into subcategories that pertain to your subscribers? unique characteristics, interests, and preferences. Basically, not being generic and being more intentional about who you market to.
Segmented emails actually make readers 50% more likely to click on a link within the email, so you can see why it’s so important and crucial.
A great way to segment emails is to think about your audience demographic. If you have a clear distinction between younger people and older people in your space then make a category for each of them. Try to find the natural way in which you can split up your mailing list of people.
Ways to segment emails:
- By location
- By industry
- If they had a prior engagement with your coworking space
- By the language
- By job positions
- By age
2.2 Personalization
This is an important part of creating emails. You want to make sure your tone is friendly and not distant like you’re talking to a friend rather than conducting business. Everyone likes to feel special, even if it’s just through an email, so making sure that every one of your email recipients is feeling that way is a good idea.
? Tip: Did you know that one of the easiest ways to end up in the spam folder of your recipients is to send out very generalized emails? Make sure you personalize all emails and segment them to avoid ending up in the spam section.
Here are a few ways you can personalize emails:
- Have a first name field in the subject line or greeting
- Try including region-specific information when you can
- Send content that is relevant to your lead?s lifecycle stage
- Write about relevant and/or personal events, like region-specific holidays or birthdays, or if you have any upcoming ones for your coworking space
- End your emails with a personal signature (not your company)
- Use a relevant call-to-action to an offer that the reader will find useful, like a promotion or guest pass they can use for your coworking space
3. Make your message clear
You must under all circumstances appear as professional and clear as possible in your writing. The last thing you want to do is to have a spelling or grammar mistake that will be easily recognizable by your clients and make you lose credibility as a brand. The goal is to get your point across and do so elegantly without mistakes and without troubles.
If you don’t feel confident in doing so right away, you have the option of using online tools that can help guide you through your writing. For example, a great option is Grammarly. Grammarly is an extension that you can add to your browser and it will automatically give you suggestions for wording things better or correcting your spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes. This way you’ll avoid any typos or things you might’ve missed when writing out your message.
Even when using software that helps you edit your text, make sure you always double or triple-check before sending it out. There may be something that both the software and you missed, so it’s important that you just make sure for yourself.
4. Send content out regularly
The last aspect of email marketing that you need to keep in mind is consistency. You may have sent out an email that was fantastic in terms of layout and the message and segmented properly, but if you don’t do it consistently your clients are going to forget about your brand.
With that in mind, you also have to make sure you don’t over-send emails so much so that you end up being categorized as spam. You want to send out enough that you are working towards building your brand and keeping things regular, but not so much that your recipients become annoyed.
The sweet spot for building your brand is about four emails a month. Consistency is not only about how often you do it but also about the content and regularity. If you have an ESP then you want to set it to send out emails at the same time during the month. If you are doing it manually then try setting up an alert a little bit before so that you remember the exact time.
However you decide to go about it, just make sure you remember the key aspect: consistency.
Conclusion
Sending out marketing emails is not a difficult thing to achieve and it provides so return on investment, which is why it is a crucial way to build a brand using email marketing for your coworking space.
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