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Email marketing is definitely an old-school strategies in the digital marketing world. Yet it’s also considered one of the most effective in delivering top results for many businesses. This method to this day still drives a good return on investment.
81% of small and medium sized businesses still leverage on emails to help them retain customers and turn prospects into clients. Relatively cheap and affordable for many business owners, emails also reach people quickly. However, doing an email marketing campaign requires effort, skill, and knowledge in order for it to be successful.
What is Email Marketing?
A highly effective strategy in online advertising, email marketing is sending out emails containing a promotional or informative message to customers and potential clients. These are also used to send an opening announcement, press releases, newsletters, surveys or to do quick follow-ups.
Make Your Email Marketing Strategy a Success
If you have been wanting to try email marketing or have just started your business, here’s how to make sure your emails will not be immediately deleted, marked as spam, or ignored completely.
1. Build Your Subscriber List
Your email marketing strategy will not be a success if you only have ten recipients on your email list. Should you have already a long list of emails of clients and potential customers, it does not mean that you should stop scraping for more prospects. This is essential as you need to prune your email list from time to time. Remove those email addresses from your list that did not open your email in the last few months. Retain only your active subscribers.
2. Use Attention-Grabbing Subject Lines
Your subject line will define if your email will be opened or not. It will be the reason your subscriber decides it is worth it to open and spend time to read it or just another junk-worthy mail. Make it irresistible for them to ignore and speak as if you are directly talking to them. Make it stand out, and make it sound like it is coming from a real person.
3. Personalise Your Content
There’s a paradigm shift in customer behaviour these days and it is about personalisation. Customers tend to lean on companies and brands that personalise their messages in reaching out to them so they do not feel automated.
While the majority of brands fail to personalise their emails, it will help you stand out and beat the competition. Many Email marketing tools like Mailchimp or Mailerlite allow you to personalise emails or email service providers (ESP) allow you to personalise emails, including personalised subject lines and greetings that give your email a higher chance of being opened. If you’re looking for inspiration, you can explore the following 15 top lead nurturing examples that can provide valuable insights into effective lead nurturing strategies that can help you build stronger relationships with your customers.
4. Segment Your Email List
To take your email personalisation even further, you should not forget to apply email segmentation on your list. Not all your contacts should receive the same as this will affect your open and clickthrough rates. Segment your emails based on customer demographics, interest, geographic location, purchasing behaviour, position in the sales funnel, and by their engagement.
5. Mobile Responsive Design
As more people began ditching their laptops and desktop computers to use their mobile phones instead, your email must be mobile-friendly. It be should be noted that 44% of emails are now viewed using mobile phones while only 33% are viewed on desktop. If your email is not optimised for viewing on these devices, you will lose several potential clients. Optimising your email for mobile use will bring more potential leads as it will be easier for them to read an email that fits their screen.
6. Encourage Reply With CTA
A call-to-action is key to making your email effective. It will be your driving force to encourage your recipient to do something. While most email marketing campaigns are done to encourage them to visit your website, it is important to include obvious buttons that will urge your customers to interact with you more or try to build a connection.
7. Create a Content Calendar
Like any other digital marketing strategy, your email marketing should have its content calendar. It will help you organise your email content and maintain consistency with your campaigns. This will also help you plan out your strategy better and have an effective campaign over time. Your calendar may include holidays, busy seasons, special occasions that can provide buying opportunities like Mother’s Day or Easter; gifting seasons; events; contents; news; offers; promotions; blog posts; featured products; a product of the month; and many more.
8. Test!
Before sending anything out, make sure to test your email to ensure it is all working properly. You can send a sample email to your employees, colleagues, or yourself to make sure that your message contains the look you want. It is important also to check if your email is working on every device –especially mobile phones– to make sure that you will not lose a hefty amount of potential clients.
You can also conduct an A/B test. This means sending out two versions of your email to see which tests as more effective for your niche market. Try a different design, different subject lines, body text, or even a different call to action.
9. Avoid Spamming Your Subscribers
Bombarding your email recipients by sending out emails to all addresses on your list without the proper segmentation is a recipe for ending up in their junk folder. Do not flood their inboxes with all the promotions you have, as this will overwhelm your subscribers. Email them on a regular schedule, weekly or twice a month to help ensure they don’t unsubscribe.
10. Track Your Data
Measure and monitor your data. Knowing your analytics will help you improve your strategy if you do not see positive results. Learning about details like the number of opened email messages or the time of the day it was opened will tell you about your email marketing strategy performance. This will be essential in optimising your campaign and making sure that it will do produce an amazing result for your business sales and growth.
Final Thoughts
Email marketing may sound easy but it takes a strategy to make it work. It is essential to make sure that your emails were opened, people were engaged by its content, and that they have clicked on your links. It may have been on the market longer than any other digital marketing tactic, yet it is still one of the most effective to bring your business success.
John Ocampos is an Opera Singer by profession and a member of the Philippine Tenors. Digital Marketing has also always been his forte. He is the Founder of SEO Guru, and the Managing Director of Tech-Hacker.com. John is also the Strategic SEO and Influencer Marketing Manager of Softvire Australia – the leading software eCommerce company in and Softvire New Zealand.
This article does not constitute legal advice.
The opinions expressed in the column above represent the author’s own.
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