Email Marketing has the highest ROI of all digital marketing channels. With an average ROI of 42:1, there is no reason your Commercial Painting Business shouldn’t be investing in this marketing strategy. Currently, many of the commercial painting contractors that come to use email marketing in some form; however, most are not seeing success. When it comes to email marketing, the devil is in the details. Practice the ABCs of email marketing to ensure your time and money are well spent, and you don’t end up in Gmail jail.
Adhere to Responsible Sender Practices
Email may seem like a cheap and easy way to reach prospects, and used properly, it can be. However, even though sending emails generally costs a fraction of a penny, it can quickly turn into money and time down the drain if your emails just go to spam.
Rule One: Only send to validated emails. Fake, mistyped, or outdated emails are the silent killer of any email strategy. Not only do these invalid emails bounce, but those bounces send a big red flag to email clients, like Gmail, that you are sending spam. Most email sending platforms have a feature built in that checks emails and automatically filters our invalid emails. If yours doesn’t, check out NeverBounce. They can confirm which emails are valid and which are unreachable.
Rule 2: Warm up your IP and don’t let it go cold. If you are just beginning to send emails or if you haven’t sent emails from your email sending platform in a while, it’s important to plan a warming period. During this period, you’ll send your emails in small batches starting with your most engaged list with the goal of nearly perfect deliverability and high engagement. Done correctly, you’ll keep a good reputation to email clients and land your emails where people can actually read them.
Rule 3: Comply with all local and federal laws.
The FTC has a federal law called CAN-SPAM that sets rules for email marketing. In short, this act prohibits businesses from using misleading information in the subject or body of the email and requires easy opt-out/unsubscribe options for the recipient. Be sure that your emails are relevant to your audience and contain an unsubscribe link.
Build High-Quality Email List
Most painting contractors we talk to do not have an organized contact list, or if they do, it’s extremely small (only a couple of hundred contacts). Spending some time building out these lists can pay back in dividends if you do it smart.
First-party contacts: Any lead you directly capture is a first-party contact, and they are the most effective and highly converting leads you can get. They can be customers, sales prospects from networking, or anyone who has filled out lead forms you build for your website or social. Think of your first-party data as the list of people who have already bought or established buyer intent.
Second-Party Contacts (JV Partnerships): There are two ways to get second-party contacts. 1.) As you’ve built your business, you’ve likely built some solid relationships with other trades serving the same market. Building a partnership where you can refer each other or share prospects or customers can be beneficial to both parties. These are generally high-quality contacts, but they can take a lot of legwork as you’ll need to negotiate a partnership agreement and both parties need to deliver. 2.) Another place to get second party contacts is through tradeshows where the operator shares a list of attendees.
Third-party contacts: You can purchase third-party email lists from data aggregators to quickly build up a mailing list of prospects (other business owners) in your local market. This option expedites the process, but you’re purchasing cold leads, so response rates will be lower and bounces likely higher. Because of this, we recommend a minimum volume of 10,000 cold contacts to see a return.
Create Content People Want When They Want It
In email, quality wins the day. Emails that get opens, engagement and truly speak to your customer are what ultimately drive results. Keep a close eye on content, frequency, and KPIs.
Content
The best emails have the following traits:
Captivating Subject Line: Spend most of the time on this. Keep it to 30–50 characters or 4–7 words.
Personalization: Don’t send to anyone if you don’t have their first name. You MUST call this out in the opening of the email body.
Body: Keep the body of the email short and sweet. A few single-spaced sentences will do!
CTA: Your call to action should only request that they call or reply to the email. Avoid estimate links (see below).
Avoid Overusing Images & Links: Using these elements can increase the likelihood of ending up in a SPAM filter.
Simple Signature: Include your name, business name, and phone number. That’s it.
Watch Your Frequency
Sending too many emails leads with low open and engagement rates, ultimately lands you in the junk folder. We recommend sending no more than once or twice a month, especially in the beginning. Consistency over an extended period of time is the key to success here.
Measure Email Marketing Results
Of course, you’ll only know what works for you if you test and measure. Here are some metrics to keep an eye on:
Delivery rates = quality of your domain.
Bounce rates = quality of your mailing list.
Unsubscribe rates = if you’re sending emails too often, or sending a message that does not resonate with contacts.
Open rates = subject line
Response rates = effectiveness of your email content.
Reply/Conversion rate =overall effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns. Assess number of replies or outreach requests over a 12-month calendar year.
Most painting contractors overlook email marketing as an effective tool to drive leads, brand, and sales. Don’t miss your opportunity to leverage this.
About the Author
Austin Houser is the founder and Chief Brainiac at Base Coat Marketing, a marketing agency dedicated to serving painting and coating contractors with unmatched digital marketing experience. To find out more about how Base Coat Marketing can help in your business growth, email basecoatmarketing.com/call
