How to use email marketing to expand your propane operation

Photo: iStock.com/PonyWang

An age-old technology in the digital landscape, email is an increasingly complex tool. Inboxes are crowded and best practices change constantly. An effective email marketing strategy for your propane business is imperative to increase sales and retain customers.

Here are four guidelines to follow for your email marketing campaigns that will set you apart from your competitors.

Plan with purpose

Each email sent should have a clear intention. What you’d like your subscriber to do after reading your email is called the “call-to-action.” That message should be concise, clear and prominent.

Email should not solely be used for marketing. Your business also should be sending transactional emails, or automated emails that are triggered by a specific activity, as well as operational emails informing the customer that your office is closed, or there is a change to their service call. Each are important and should be a part of your email strategy.

Be the expert

The most successful email marketing campaigns are highly educational. If your goal is to get your current customers to enroll in profitable programs, first build trust by positioning your company as an expert in the industry.

Customers are more likely to increase their spend with a company they consider specialists in their field.

This is also an area where you can inform your customer about industry news and trends. Business decision-makers are more likely to spend their dollars when they feel confident in their understanding of the market.

Change it up

Don’t be afraid to test out-of-the-box creative ideas, send dates and times, and subject lines. Grabbing a potential customer’s attention is the most important part of the email, and if you don’t draw them in right away, chances are your email could be lost in the shuffle.

Use A/B testing to send two emails with the same message but different content or subject line.

The shorter, the better

Emails should be to-the-point. If your goal is for a subscriber to enroll in a program or increase their purchases, emails are not the proper avenue for a lengthy, hard sell like you would have on the phone.

The best part about email: You can measure its success by tracking how many subscribers opened your email, where they clicked, when they opened it and much more.

While those are general guidelines, keep in mind your audience is unique. You can learn so much more about their behavior by testing various email campaigns. Find your niche in the email space and dominate your email delivery.

Joelle Harms is the digital media manager at LP Gas’ parent company, North Coast Media.

*Featured photo: iStock.com/monkeybusinessimages