If content marketing is king, email marketing is boss. Email is one of the oldest types of marketing (born in 1971) and although marketing trends come and go, email’s not going anywhere. It’s still the most effective way to reach your audience.
There’s no better way to build a relationship – and trust – with your customers. People like to do business with companies that they know, like, and trust. Think of your email list like a courtship. You’re essentially courting your audience, sharing information about your company and warming them up to you over time.
Unlike other marketing platforms, you own your email list – no one can take it away from you. Social media sites change all the time and are owned by third parties, but your email subscribers belong to you, baby.
If that’s not enough to convince you, consider the return on investment. The ROI for email marketing is huge – a whopping $42 for every $1 spent. There’s really no other tool that has that kind of payoff.
But how do you make sure your email campaigns are actually effective? Here’s some hot tips for amping up your email marketing strategy.
Make it mobile
With the explosion of mobile, there’s no way around this. “Mobile first” isn’t just for website and app design – you need to embrace it for email as well.
Most people are checking their emails from their phones these days. In fact, 67% of people use phones to open emails while less and less people check from their desktops. In order to have a strong email marketing campaign, you need to make sure it will look good on mobile, or your efforts are pointless.
If you’re using a platform like Hubspot, Constant Contact, or Klaviyo, you have the advantage of using templates that are already set up to be responsive by default. However, make sure to preview your email on different screen sizes before sending it out.
Remember, mobile screens are small, so make the most of what little space you have to work with. Be sure to use legible text, appealing fonts and images, and snappy headlines that inspire opens.
Revel in relevancy
In marketing, relevancy means that your messaging truly appeals to the audience you’re targeting. What do your customers really want? What are they looking for? Your goal as a marketer is to bring them information they’re actually seeking.
You never want to come off sounding spammy, sleazy, or irrelevant. Online consumers get frustrated when they’re presented with content that has nothing to do with their interests.
The best thing you can do to strengthen your email marketing strategy is take the time to really get to know your buyer persona. Then, practice writing to that one person rather than the masses you’re sending your emails to. Remember, these are real people. Write to them as such.
Heat up your headlines
Nearly half of email opens are for subject line alone. That’s kiiiinda a big deal…Your email subject line is your big chance to get someone to open or ignore your message.
You can absolutely use psychology to your advantage here. There are a few tactics that are known to be effective for getting those clicks. Some of the most compelling subject lines use one of these techniques:
- Call out a reward
- Use a strong call to action
- Incite FOMO
- Hit on a pain point
- Inspire curiosity
- Make someone laugh
Bonus tip: personalize those subject lines!
Yes, it’s true, people like to see their names. Personalization in a subject line increases open rates by 26%. It’s a simple thing that you can do to boost your efforts right away.
And don’t forget about that preview text! Why not take advantage of the extra text space?
Adopt automation
You gotta set up a flow, yo. With email marketing automation, you can be sure to capture customers that you may otherwise lose. Automated emails have conversion rates that are 180% higher than batch emails. There’s a few automation series you need to set up – abandoned cart, welcome, and winback.
Abandoned cart emails have really high conversion rates. A series of three automated emails for abandoned carts has shown to bring in 69% more revenue than a single email.
A welcome series is super important, plus welcome emails have some of the highest open rates (82%, in fact). It’s your chance to introduce yourself, show how trustworthy your brand is, and inspire people to follow you on social media.
Winback series are for those customers that have bought from your company before, but have gone dormant. Forty-five percent of customers who receive a winback email end up opening a subsequent message from the brand. Just make sure you’re segmenting so that you target the right customers.
Start segmenting
With a 760% increase in revenue from segmented email campaigns, segmentation needs to be a big part of your email marketing strategy. The thing is, you not only have different types of customers, but they’re in different stages of the sales cycle. The messaging you send to someone who’s not familiar with your brand yet is going to be quite different than someone who’s been purchasing your products for years.
It makes sense why this is so effective. When these readers are continuously receiving emails that are valuable and relevant to them, they’re more likely to open future emails. Plus, you’re giving them what they actually want, which makes it a lot more likely they’ll turn into paying customers.
You can also use an opt-in form to segment your audience by their interests. That way, if you have different products, you can send pertinent information to the people who care about specific products but have no need for others.
Apply analytics
If you’re using automated email marketing software, you have access to analytics. Numbers are absolutely your friend. They’ll tell you what’s working and what’s not, and they’ll be even more insightful if you’re doing A/B testing.
Once you start digging into analytics, you’ll find patterns. Email open rates, click through rates, and conversions are direct confirmation as to whether your marketing tactics are working. Dig in deep, my friend, and you’re sure to strike gold.
Monitor & magnify
You’re not done just because you’ve got your email flows set up and your analytics active. As time goes on, you’ll want to continue to keep any eye on how your emails perform, and make improvements as needed.
Check out what worked well with your A/B tests. Change the time you send emails after analyzing. Play around with your subject lines. There’s always room for improvement.
Well, that should get you headed in the right direction! Once you implement these tips, your email marketing strategy will be solid in no time.
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