Email marketing is the most effective channel in digital marketing. Even with the advent of social media, instantaneous messaging, and other click communication outlets, email is still one of the most direct, tailored and efficient means of getting your message across to your target audience. When used correctly, the goal of email marketing is to engage customers and generate more business for a company of any size. It’s an all-in-one guide for the most comprehensive information on email marketing strategies for your first campaign or for enhancing your success rate.
- Why Email Marketing Matters
Email marketing offers several advantages:
High ROI: The Data & Marketing Association reported for every dollar expended on email marketing in 2022, the average return would be $42.
Direct Communication: While using this format of communication you can directly target your audience without being influenced by algorithms of the various platforms.
Personalization: Users behavior, preferences, and demographics information, and it can segment the e-mail lists in order to send customized messages.
Measurable Results: Ideally, email platforms offer good tracking statistics hence enabling the business person track the open rates, Click-through rates, conversions among others.
- Building Your Email List
Before you can start sending emails, you need to build a list of subscribers. Here are some key strategies for growing your list:
a. Opt-In Forms
Add opt-in forms to key places on your website, such as:
Homepage: A simple, eye-catching form on your homepage can encourage visitors to subscribe.
Pop-ups: Timed pop-ups or exit-intent pop-ups can capture visitors’ attention before they leave your site.
Content Upgrades: Offer exclusive content like eBooks, guides, or templates in exchange for an email address.
b. Social Media Promotion
Leverage your social media platforms to promote your email list. Share links to your signup form, run contests, or offer incentives such as discounts for new subscribers.
c. Lead Magnets
A lead magnet is something of value that you offer to visitors in exchange for their email. Common lead magnets include:
Free eBooks or Whitepapers
Webinars or Online Courses
Exclusive Discounts
Free Trials
The more valuable your lead magnet, the more likely visitors will provide their email address.
- Picking a Provider for Email Marketing
The market is full of various email marketing platforms and almost every service differs from each other concerning its functionality and prices. Some of the top options include:
Mailchimp: How it grew: A fabulous tool for novices owing to its highly intuitive control panel and a free tier for up to 2000 subscribers.
Convert Kit: Best suited especially for the creators, bloggers, and some small companies that might closely use a form of list segmentation and automation.
Constant Contact: Admirable for small business who require features related to event management and customer support.
Kavion: Popular for eCommerce, the ability to segment, automate, and integrate with platforms like Shopify.
The areas that will define your choice of platform are the level of automation, the size of your list, and your finances.
- Where, When & How to Build Successful e-Mail Campaigns
So once you have your email list and your platform set up it is time to create your first campaign. Follow these steps for a successful email marketing campaign:
a. What Is in a Name: Funneling Readers into Your Message
The subject line is actually the first material that your recipients come across. Subject line is one of the most powerful factors that can have a positive or a negative impact on your open rate. Here are some tips:
Be concise: This should be less than 50 characters so as to ensure that the information is fully displayed on all the mobile devices that is in use today.
Create urgency: Add to this the use of phrases such as ‘limited time offer’ or ‘only a few hours left’ that might encourage people to open an email.
Personalization: It is also advisable to include the recipient’s name or location if you want your email to look more friendly.
Example: >”John, Save Big On Your Exclusive Offer – Don’t Wait Till It’s Too Late”
b. Developing Good Content for the emails
The overall look of your email should be eye-catching, the body text should be quite simple and informative for the recipient. Consider these elements:
Header: Start your email off with a compelling header to alert the receiver on the general message of the email.
Body: After reading as much as the student can the copy, pause the passage by using images and bullet points or switch to small paragraphs to add variety. Use informal language while writing.
Call to Action (CTA): The second thing is to leave no doubt as to which action the recipient of the mailing must take – whether it is to visit a website, make a purchase, or download an offer.
Example: Any headline can be used like “Shop Now for 25% Off” or “Get Your Free Guide Today”.
c. Using Images and Video
It is more effective to use images, infographics, and videos to increase the rates of readers’ engagement. Just make sure to:
Use F4V format for video and keep the image sizes small for faster loading of pages.
Insert the description for images in case they did not load, in the HTML code.
Video should be used sparingly but it can increase click through rates greatly.
- This strategy can be further divided into two categories; segmentation and personalization.
Fields and interests play a big role in the engagement of customers to different products. Rather than sending the same message to your entire list, segment it based on:
Demographics: Age, gender, location, etc.
Behavior: Buyer’s history, website, mail open rate and click through rate.
Preferences: Topics and contents of interest, aspects and forms of subscriptions.
Personalization can involve using names, suggesting products based on the recipient’s previous actions, or sending an email wishing the customer a happy birthday and providing them with a limited time discount code will all go a long way in boosting responses.
- Automation: Reducing Time as Much As We Can, But Boosting Engagement
Email automation is a system in which you can set up/save messages that you will send to other users at predefined instances or times based on a particular usage/case circumstance. Some common types of automated emails include:
Welcome Series: The next type of e-mail can be sent fresh subscribers to familiarize with brand, values presented by it and the offered products.
Abandoned Cart Emails: If a customer has selected products but hasn’t made a purchase, he/she should receive a reminder with a discount or an incentive to buy.
Re-engagement Emails: If you have a subscriber who had not opened or clicked on your emails frequently, send him/her another email with a special offer.
- The Measurement and Analysis of success
However, incomplete data is not as helpful when you want to know whether your email marketing is useful or not, thus, you should consider key metrics. Some important metrics to track include:
Open Rate: The ratio of people who received your e-mail and actually opened it up. A good open rate is one of 15-25%, although some industries fall outside this range.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): Out of everyone on your email list, the percentage of people who actually clicked on a link you provided. The average click through rate can range from 2-5%.
Conversion Rate: The proportion of the targeted audience that actually responded to the call and performed the intended action of the called.
Unsubscribe Rate: This represents the actions of how many individuals are scrubbing off your list after receiving your messages. And the low unsubscribe rate show that the content being delivered by the newsletter is timely and interesting.
Always perform A/B (or split) testing on subject lines, layout, CTA, and content under experimentation. In time this will allow you to evaluate what works best with them for you to know their satisfaction.
- Ensuring Compliance: GDPR and CAN-SPAM
Email marketing is legal, but many countries have laws that control user data to enhance the users’ privacy. To avoid legal issues:
Obtain consent: Do not send any e-mail to anyone without their consent.
Include an unsubscribe link: Prior to each email you send, you should have an ‘unsubscribe’ link available to people who are receiving your emails.
Follow GDPR rules: If you are marketing to people in the EU, be careful about GDPR regulations like where and how you specify to the user how their data is to be used.
Conclusion
This is why email marketing is still one of the most effective and universal trends among commercial businesses that aim for audience interaction, sales increase, and further communication. Email campaigns can be immensely useful when it comes to engaging the audience and keeping them in the loop: here’s how to make the most of it.
Do not forget that becoming successful in email marketing doesn’t happen immediately. Regularly, refine the authenticity and efficiency of your emails and also, match the extent of the upgrades to the specifications of the audience.
If you’ve got more reading in marketing tips you would love to share kindly drop them on the comment section below I’ll be happy to read them.
Join Content Alchemy for tips, tools and best practices to enhance your digital marketing campaign. Stay tuned for the next Asymmetron blog post, wherein we will discuss more detailed marketing tips to help you build even better email campaigns.