Email marketing is one of the most underutilised strategies when it comes to growing your business and generating sales. With consumers seemingly spending all their time scrolling through Facebook and Insta feeds or searching on Google, it’s no surprise that business owners are putting their money into these channels. Add consumers’ growing awareness and disdain of unsolicited spam, and you can see why many people assume that email marketing is dead.
But is email marketing dead?
On the contrary, there has never been a better time to benefit from email marketing. The proof is in the pudding (or rather in the data):
- 58% of consumers check their email before checking social or performing a search
- Email has an average open rate of 22.86%
- 3 times more people signup via email to receive promotions than liking a page
- Email marketing has a very high ROI (up to 4400%)
If you were to put $1 into your business and get back $44, this would be a fantastic result, right?
So how can I make the most of email?
As with most things, it all boils down to implementing the right strategy for your campaign. Here are 8 crucial tactics to put your email marketing on the right track:
1. Spend the time on your subject line
This is perhaps the most important part of an email. Getting someone to open your message is half the battle and if they don’t make it inside you don’t get to start the conversation.
The subject line should capture a reader’s attention and create curiosity. It should be informative without giving everything away. Using power words in your subject line or a cliffhanger that generates FOMO can compel more people to open your email.
2. Don’t forget about the preheader
The preheader (also known as the Preview Text) is another place where you can strongly increase engagement with a few little tweaks. Again, using certain words to evoke a response from the reader is very important.
3. Succinct or it stinks
Humans are busy people. They don’t have time to read thousands of words. Opening an email only to be confronted with a huge slab of text will mean “delete” for the majority of readers.
Keep your copy succinct and get to the point early. Less text will also ensure your CTA’s are prominent and more likely to be clicked.
4. Put the reader first by highlighting benefits, not features
Not only are humans busy, they are also selfish. When online, they consumers will almost always take a “what’s in it for me?” viewpoint.
As a business owner, appealing to their interests is crucial. You may think the features of what you’re selling are awesome, but to a consumer, all they care about is how it can make their life better.
Switch your messaging focus from features to benefits and it will resonate a lot stronger.
5. A/B test as much as you can
Like with all digital marketing, there are optimal ways that will work better than others. Every niche is different, so testing is key to ensure your email marketing functions at its best.
Items to split test include your:
- subject lines,
- preview text,
- copy and
- CTAs.
With ongoing refinement, your emails will convert better than ever before.
6. Segment your list for better targeting
Recipients of your email will likely be at varying stages of your sales process. Some will have just signed up to your mailing list, others will be long term customers, with lots of others in between.
Your message will vary depending on the recipient which means you must segment your list so you can customise specific emails to target the desired audience.
There are many ways to segment your list:
- New vs existing subscriber
- Purchase history
- Abandoned cart
- Age
- Gender
- Geographic location
- Click behaviour
- Channel they came from
7. Use the ‘double opens’ strategy
This is a really cool strategy to boost open rates that takes very little work. Basically, you resend the same email to subscribers who didn’t open your first email but using a different subject line.
On average, 75% of people on your list won’t open your email the first time. Creating better subject lines and trialling different send times will turn many of these initial non-openers into readers of your email.
Note: it’s best to wait 3-5 days before re-sending.
8.Avoid beautiful templates
This may sound like a weird strategy. After all, who wouldn’t want to receive a beautifully designed email? Actually, most people.
The key to successful email marketing is being personal and creating a connection with your recipients. When they receive an email from a friend, it doesn’t come through as this gorgeous template with lots of fancy formatting. A mate sends an email as simple text.
Simplicity is the key when it comes to email layouts and getting your audience to see you as a “friend” that they trust. US President Barack Obama was incredibly good at engaging with his followers via email.
An added bonus: other experts share their secrets
If the above tips aren’t enough to get your email marketing on the right track, here are some extra secrets from other industry experts.
“Personalisation goes beyond adding someone’s first name in the subject line. Marketers should be using the information they know about their customers to provide them with emails filled with relevant content.”
– Shane Phair
“Maintain a clean and healthy email list. Ensure your emails actually reach your intended target by using an email verifying tool.”
– Sujan Patel
“Periodically send out emails asking people to unsubscribe if they’re not getting any value. Proactively eliminate people who will never, ever get value from you. You’ll not only keep your software costs down, you’ll also keep your list healthy, active, and interested.”
– Joel Klettke
“Relevance is perhaps the most important factor in successful email marketing. Sometimes, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that you’re writing to real people. Before sending out every single campaign, put yourself in the shoes of the target audience. Do you want to open it? Do you want to read it? And if you do open it, do you enjoy reading it?”
– Max Modl
“Write your emails as you might talk to a friend. Make it personal. Add a joke. Say something heartfelt.”
– Val Geisler
To summarise
Email marketing has been around for many years but only a small percentage of business owners have truly mastered the strategy. When done well, it can generate a fantastic ROI.
For more information, book a strategy session with Temerity Digital by calling Elliot on 0413 334 699.