Email marketing is one of the oldest marketing strategies practiced by many business owners. Old school, yes! Effective? A big YES too. Learn the email marketing best practices that works today.
Eighty two percent of companies rely on email marketing as part of their marketing practices. Popular names such as BuzzFeed, Apartment Therapy, and UNICEF New Zealand to pump up engagement, connect with their audience, and convert into sales.
Why does email marketing still work?
Simple. It is effective. Regardless of business size, it helps owners stay connected to their consumers. On top of that, it is inexpensive among other marketing tactics for small business owners.
Email marketing is flexible and easier to use too. You can utilize its email automation features and incorporate it to other marketing platforms like Facebook.
To maximize the benefits of email marketing, here are email marketing best practices that your business can still use today.
1. Decide on email marketing blast software to use.
There are dozens of email marketing softwares available — some paid, some for free. Generally, a paid or subscription account yields more features you can use.
This first tip is very crucial as the software you choose will affect the success of your email marketing. Remember, the software will carry out the task of sending the marketing content to your intended customers.
Different email marketing blast softwares are available for different industries and purposes. For example, Omnisend is best for eCommerce while Active Campaign is ideal for small business.
What to look for? A tool that you can use easily, affordable, ready for customization, and serves its purpose — to send bulk emails. The email marketing software should let you track your marketing performance.
We will come up with a separate guide on how to pick the right email software tool for your business.
2. Build an email list.
Have you heard this popular marketing saying? “The money is in the list.” Email list is a list of your gathered email from prospective and existing clients or customers. The email list can also be from the subscription to your newsletter, blog, or website.
The conversion rate of your email marketing will be affected by the engagement of your email list. Many subscribers change their email every three or five years, so it is important to update and regularly manage your email list.
If you really have nothing, you can start from the scratch. Create an opt-form, newsletter signup, or registration forms or boxes in your site. Pick an email provider, then install the email provider to your site.
3. Customize your email settings and content.
Inspect the demographics of your email list. Content preference may vary on the customers’ data such as age, gender, location, interest, job roles, and income level. Categorize the list based on the metrics then customize the content of your email in accordance to the recipient.
Recipients of segmented and customized campaigns have higher open and click-through rate according to Mailchimp. Maximize email marketing through segmented campaigns.
From the categorized list, you can personalized the message of your campaign. Understand your consumers based on their data and category. Younger customers read more through infographics and 68% of them influenced their purchasing decision.
Fact checked: Seventy seven percent of people from all age groups trust to email promotions more than Facebook and YouTube.
4. Keep consumers interested.
The trickiest part in email marketing is keeping the reader engaged until they make that purchase. Your brand is competing against thousands of brands every day in all platforms — on social media, TV, or email.
Have you heard of the seven-second rule in websites? A website has only seven seconds to capture the interest of a new visitor in your landing page. Within that time frame, your site must be able to convey the important aspects of your brand: logo, services, call to action, slogan, and call to action or contact information.
Marketing experts apply the same rule to email marketing. Your message must be engaging enough from the subject to the closing of the message. The next question would be, how do you create an engaging email content?
Give value to your content, a value your audience can use. The definition of value varies to readers. A valuable content could be a discount, promotion, survey, or a “how to’s.” If you are new to email marketing, below are experts’ tips in keeping your consumer interested in your content:
- Keep your branding consistent through your email design.
- Create an attention-grabbing title.
- A title could be a question too.
- Talk to your audience.
- Personalize your messages by using your readers’ names.
- Identify a problem so your audience can relate to you.
- Offer a solution and make a promise.
It seems a lot but the only point is to snatch reader’s attention and keep it glued to you. Another goal is to prevent the reader from deleting your message or unsubscribing from your list.
5. Track results.
How will you know if your readers are engaged to your messages? How would you measure the effectiveness of email marketing? First, you have to understand the different email metrics.
Open rate is the percentage of readers who opened your email while click-through rate is the percent of readers who actually clicked a link in your message. You can boost your open rate and click-through metrics by creating catchy subject lines and high quality content.
Two other metrics are unsubscribe and conversion rates. Unsubscribe rate determines how relevant your brand or email content is to the reader. Determining the reason for high unsubscribe rate can help you better your email campaigns. You can do this through surveys, polls, or simply ask the reader.
The main purpose of email marketing is marked by the conversion rate. The higher your conversion rate is, the more successful you are in converting your reader to become a customer. Conversion rate is the percentage of readers who clicked on a link in the message and resulted in an action (purchase or fill up form).
Improving your conversion rate will start with increasing your open and click-through rates. A summary of the percentage can be seen at the reports section. You can see the insights of your campaigns and draw recommendations from there.
The Bottom Line
Your business can gain more sales with email marketing. In fact, the return of investment (ROI) is still the highest among other marketing platforms. Think about this: for every $1 you spent, you earn $40.
The tips above will help your brand inside your readers’ inbox. It may be overwhelming but keep in mind the benefits you will reap in this marketing strategy.
If you are interested in putting all these in practice, but too busy to do so, you can talk to us. Talking to us is easy and most of all, it is free!
