As digital marketing counts for more than a decade, email marketing continues to be heavily debated on whether it still impacts and is relevant to desired markets. How can businesses create a strong email campaign?
Digital technology is constantly evolving.
Because of this, the label dubbing email marketing the old school has left a fair share of misconceptions and myths.
The most common of these misconceptions are:
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Email Marketing is spam.
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Email isn’t as effective as social media.
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Emails must be highly designed.
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Emails don’t generate leads.
But even with the staggering breakthrough of social media, Email Marketing remains KING when it comes to being one of the best ways to market a subscription to budding buyers.
Having a well-thought-out campaign is debatably the best profitable means of marketing. It generates more opportunities for your business and drives a better return on investment.
By planning an email marketing campaign and correctly executing an email marketing strategy, businesses can have a deeper relationship with a more extensive audience at a portion of the cost of traditional media.
Given the amount of expertise, information, and creativity, email marketing should be considered simple:
- Write
- Add images
- Find email lists
- Send
However, creating a good and successful email marketing campaign requires a more thorough approach.
Here are six factors to consider in creating a good campaign:
Know your goals
Effective email marketing starts with setting goals that achieve the following:
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Welcome new subscribers and tell them about your product/service
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Enhance engagement through content
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Nurture existing subscribers by providing value
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Re-engage with inactive subscribers
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Segment subscribers to deliver more targeted email marketing campaigns
Understanding email types
There are different types of emails:
- Promotional Emails talk about sales and offers
- Relational Emails are weekly newsletters and the like
- Transactional Emails include sign-up confirmations, welcome messages, order confirmations, and acknowledgments of changes to the information
Know your audience
If you’re new to email marketing, you’ll have to make educated guesses to target your content.
Consider gathering data from Google Analytics or your social media profiles to give you an overview of who your customers are and what their interests are.
Image source: Marketoonist
Use the right tools and services
Look and understand the available tools and services to help create a successful email marketing campaign.
Essential features to consider are easy campaign creation and automation, familiar software (i.e., WordPress), ways to section your audience, and in-depth analytics on campaign performance.
Create great opt-ins
Experiment and create attention-grabbing opt-in help to encourage people to sign up.
Plan emails and follow-ups
Once you know which email to send to your audience, planning your email campaign is more accessible.
Make sure that when creating your emails, they should be timely, relevant, engaging, and valuable.
Whip up an eye-catching subject line
The subject line is vital for people to open and click your emails. The subject line must be short but compelling as a good starting point for any successful email marketing campaign.
Content
Keep your email content short—allow them to get comfortable before pitching your offer.
Personalize your email by addressing them by their name and making an emotional connection without losing your main points and objectives, leading them to click on your call-to-action (CTA).
Focus on your email's design
Always keep your users in mind—it’s essential to consider that people read emails on mobile devices and tablets.
Your email template should be responsive so that content is resized automatically. It is also worth mentioning that your design should reflect your brand.
Test, collect, and track
Before sending out your emails, TEST EVERYTHING—from the design, layout, content, subject lines and call-to-action.
Once sent, make sure to monitor your email analytics.
This can help you figure out what successfully works and what doesn’t.
Lastly, manage your subscriber list by re-engaging inactive subscribers and eliminating them if attempts have failed.
It’s worth remembering that it's better to have low open and click rates rather than a few active subscribers and a significant number of inactive ones.
Image source: WordTracker
Now that you’ve considered all these factors for your email marketing campaign, the next question is:
How will email marketing benefit my business?
Marketing your products or services by email can be quicker, more flexible and cost-effective. It also allows you to personalize your messages, which helps build a better and more meaningful relationship with your customers.
Since email marketing is permission-based, you’ll be able to see which of your users have actively chosen to receive your emails. It is also scalable, so you can reach a larger audience or target a smaller list.
Since email marketing doesn’t require printing and actual media space, it’s both cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
Lastly, it’s real-time marketing and time-saving as you can trigger emails based on their actions on your website and reach the right audience at the right time in the right place with the right offer.
Image source: Alternative post
Despite being considered the most effective marketing tactic, email marketing has overcome its share of obstacles. And just like any challenge, there’s always a solution.
Here are a few:
1. Getting new subscribers
Solution: Clearly state your value proposition to your customers.
2. Increasing open rates
Solution: Always focus on your subject line since this is the first thing your recipients will see. It should always be short, concise and eye-catching.
3. Refining deliverability
Solution: Avoid getting sent to the spam box by not using spam words.
4. Keeping subscribers
Solution: Send relevant content to ensure that your subscribers stay subscribed. This means correctly segmenting your email list so you can address the different pain points of their buyer personas.
5. Low click-through rates
Solution: A benefit of segmenting your email list is it also helps with click-through rates. A way to increase your click-through rates is by running a re-engagement campaign annually. This sends out emails asking if your subscribers would still want to receive emails and offers.
Image source: IndustNet
6. Achieving measurable ROI
Solution: Closed-loop marketing can help you measure your ROI by requiring you to follow a subscriber from the first point of contact to their final conversion into a paying customer.
Takeaway
There will always be a place for ever-evolving technology to introduce newer and better ways to market your products and services.
Email marketing may not be the most entertaining and exciting avenue, but never underestimate its exceptional function to enhance your brand loyalty and drive revenue.
Thinking of starting your email marketing campaign?
We’d be more than welcome to share the best practices to make your campaign successful!
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