In this digital age when so much attention is placed on the value of social media, blogs and personalized apps, email marketing still holds a placeholder as one of the most valuable marketing tools to communicate and drive sales with customers and prospects.
Email is a dominant communications tool, with more than 200 million emails sent out every minute, says Adweek. With so many people using email, it only makes sense to market your products and services through this popular communications channel. In fact, Direct Marketing reported that a whopping 91% of consumers enjoy receiving promotional emails from companies they do business with. Still not convinced? Direct Marketing Association reports that 66% have made a purchase online as a result of an email.
Take A Marketing Approach
Now don’t think that these impressive statistics mean that you should email your customers and prospects as you would your coworkers. Your cube mate, John, may love being constantly updated on your daily schedule (or at least he pretends to), but your customers would prefer you kept your email discourse professional.
If you’re too casual with your email campaign or go overboard and flood their inbox, you may see opt outs and reduced click-through rates over time. While you should regularly communicate with customers or pitch to prospects, email campaigns require a marketing approach. Email marketing is only effective when executed properly. Taking a marketing approach includes planning ahead with your emails. Before you send out any emails, you should ask yourself these questions:
- What is its purpose?
- What is the message?
- Who is the target audience?
- How are they viewing my message?
- How will I track results?
Based on these answers, you can develop email campaigns that generate the best results and support the overall goals of the company.
Content is King
Email content must target a database of recipients based on their interests, location, income, industry and other relevant factors. In other words, write to your buyer’s persona. Interesting and relevant content - that is not too salesy - is a top motivator for readers to take advantage of your call-to-action.
You want to drive the right message to the right audience. An appealing subject line (50 characters or less, please) and format also lead to better engagement. And as mobile marketing continues to develop, emails must be creative enough to gain attention on varying mobile devices. According to HubSpot, 48% of emails are opened on mobile devices. But if emails are not optimized, HubSpot also reported that 69% of mobile users delete them.
Integrate Other Social Media
Integrating other social media channels in emails such as LinkedIn and YouTube can provide an enhanced user experience while driving traffic across different marketing platforms. According to Econsultancy, emails sharing just one social medium generated 30% higher click-through rates than emails with none. And that click through-rate increased to 55% with more social share options. At the same time, never duplicate the same message on different platforms as your customers most likely are viewing both of them.
Personalization
Engage the recipient and establish one-to-one communications by addressing them by name. You can also use email as a follow-up to other marketing engagement by addressing specific interests and behavior for more in-depth engagement. Statistically, personalized content and recommendations can increase sales conversion rates by 15-25%, and click-through rates by 25-35%.
Track Results
Always send email campaigns through a platform that can track results. A number of effective marketing tools are available on the market. In addition to tracking the effectiveness of the overall program based on opens and click-through rates, it’s important to know which contacts actually opened and clicked on your email links for follow-up. Analyze and use your results to make improvements for even better returns next time.
Ready to start or optimize an email campaign? Stratus can help you select the right email platform, create targeted content and monitor your results. Schedule your no-cost, no-obligation problem solving session today.
