PPB November 2019

I recently got about five quotes to repave my driveway. Driveway paving services are very aggressive competitors because each asphalt company essentially provides the same type of service and paves with the same equipment. But I did notice one thing: none of the salespeople or contractors who came to my house to quote ever took down my email address or followed up by email. Most were in touch by text or phone. This is typical for the renovations industry and for home service contractors who work out of their car or truck and don’t turn on their computer on a day-to-day basis. It’s a texting world when it comes to home renovators, and I get that. But by ignoring email, home service business owners are missing a huge opportunity to market to already qualified clients. These small businesses spend so much money attracting qualified leads, advertising in flyers and in weekly direct mail, running Google AdWords and eventually sending a salesperson to the house to provide a quote. But they then fail to take down contact information they can leverage in the future. A promotional email to advertise seasonal specials, to request an Angie’s List review (after a job is done) or to keep in touch for future business and referrals, is much more valuable to the business than a text message in a salesperson’s phone. Even without getting express consent, under CASL, you are also allowed to email clients for up to two years if they have indicated interest in your services with a quote request. So why not take the opportunity? 3 Do include photos, images and videos in your email. Once you do have their email address, make the email marketing you send out engaging and interesting with images and video. While some businesses and professionals have done quite well with text-only email, we would advise that unless you are building a “guru-based” business, where you and your personality are the “brand,” most businesses can benefit from having images on their email. Note that we differentiate between emails used by salespeople and emails for marketing and lead generation. Sales follow-up emails can be basic text-only emails or only contain a logo with the salesperson’s signature at the bottom. But most marketing emails benefit from at least a header image. A more visually engaging email will get more opens and pass-alongs and will help grow your list organically. 4 Do make your emails mobile responsive. As a Mailchimp email marketing and web design shop, most of our clients’ emails are automatically responsive due to using the Mailchimp platform. However, I still get asked Here are two client samples of mobile-responsive email templates developed by napkin marketing. 78 | NOVEMBER 2019 | THINK