In the past, email marketing has been the predominant tool used for marketing. It is easy, simple and cost-effective, not to mention that it reaches your target audience directly. What more can one want?
Today, however, with the introduction of more sophisticated forms of digital marketing, businesses may wonder whether email marketing can be as effective as it once was. How many of us let those direct mailers go to our junk folders or click and delete adverts we find in our email Inbox?
But marketing analytics show that this isn’t the case, on the whole. Email marketing can still work its magic if it is used with precision and proper planning.
Clicking into action
Firstly, marketers must understand if email marketing is the right fit for their brand. People think email adverts don’t work anymore based on incorrect reasoning. Knowing your business objectives first is important in the decision to go ahead with email marketing. This includes what your ultimate goal of the marketing campaign is, whether it is brand awareness, lead generation, expansion of target audience, etc., and also how fast you want your campaign to roll out. Whatever the objective, the emails should be designed for optimum viewing on mobile phones (the preferred device today) and Desktops. Litmus says that over 41% of emails are clicked on via mobile phones.
According to business.com, if email marketing campaigns are to be effective, they must be targeted well and purposefully. The website also quotes Litmus in saying that the return on investment (ROI) on email marketing on average, is $36 for every dollar spent.
Email marketing campaigns can span different categories such as newsletters, sales and promotional emails, lead-generating emails, transactional emails and so on, so your options are also varied.
How emails can make your marketing dreams come true
If you market to existing customers via email, it is more likely that they will visit your website more often than they normally would. Furthermore, it has been proven to also draw new customers into your sales funnel. And all this happens at such negligible cost that it makes your efforts even more worth it.
Here’s a helpful hint: address your customer by name in the subject line, and they are more likely to open the email rather than bin it. This makes the customer feel as though the message has been personalized for them. More ways to personalize email promotions is to wish customers on their birthdays, anniversaries, or even their graduation, by offering them special discounts and services in honor of whatever they are celebrating. In order to do this though, you would need an up-to-date database of your customers and also keep an eye on their social media platforms so that you know when a special day such as a graduation ceremony has been posted by the customer.
Moreover, segmentation is also key to the success of your email marketing campaign. This way, you can categorize and direct emails to specific groups of people based on their needs, and where they live (if promotional campaigns are happening in a certain area, etc.).
Mix it up
Emails shouldn’t be boring. Don’t just send out emails notifying customers about products and services. Be creative. Between marketing campaigns send them emails linked to entertainment and informative material.
For instance, if you are a travel company and know that a customer is a fan of a certain music group, send them news items about the group’s tours, etc., with a little bit of information about what’s new in the lives of the band members. Or if your customers love dining out (who doesn’t?) send them emails about Michelin-starred chefs and what new dishes they are cooking up.
Measure it up
Emails are the easiest means by which to figure out how your brand is doing. Email surveys are excellent for feedback and provide quantifiable and qualitative results that you can use to your brand’s benefit.
This will be the creative starting point of new campaigns, new products and also, help you to make changes to existing products and services.
Some tips on what to avoid
Be careful not to make your potential customers feel as though they are being induced into useless sales appointments, which will waste both your time and theirs. Know your customer first and then follow up on a sales pitch so that it is more likely to generate genuine sales.
Furthermore, don’t clutter your emails with useless information. People today don’t have much time to do anything, let alone read long-winded emails. Make it snappy and push your message in the first few lines. In addition to this, read through, edit and ask someone else to edit as well. Nothing is more annoying to some customers (we are the age of the pedantic) than when typos, bad grammar and incorrect syntax have been overlooked.
Also, avoid creating the same email for everyone on your mailing list; as suggested earlier, personalizing emails based on tastes, habits, location and so on, will be better. This will also prevent your emails from going to spam folders.
Your launchpad
For small, text-only and customized emails, Microsoft Outlook will do just fine. For bigger campaigns, you may want to look at outsourced Email Service Providers (ESP) who will do the job for you. The ESP can also give you valuable feedback such as response rate, delivery rate, and conversion rates and even compare costs with different options.
Finally, your email should contain the link to your landing pages, so make these pages attractive, succinct and user-friendly.
Happy emailing!
(Anouk De Silva)