Email marketing as a digital marketing strategy usually serves one or more of the following purposes: sales, increasing brand awareness, or building a loyal customer base. However, many people think it has lost its power a long time ago. Is it true? Is email marketing really outdated?
Not at all.
Believe it or not, its popularity and effectiveness hasn’t changed at all when it comes to digital marketing. It is one of the greatest online marketing tools. However, finding the right email marketing strategy for your business (and your subscribers) is not an easy task.
We’ve all received emails that were thrown in the trash almost immediately, marked as spam, or were just opened to make it disappear from unread emails. If the same thing happens with the emails you send to your subscribers, you certainly have to dig a little deeper into things. You need to understand what you’re doing wrong, why you can’t grab your audience’s attention. So let’s see what you can do to improve the results.
1. Are you sure you know your target audience well?
What is the basis of effective email marketing? You have to know your target audience. Then you will know what they want to hear from you, what their problems are. And you will offer them the solution via emails. When they receive your letters, once or twice a week, they will know that the content of those emails will be genuinely useful to them in some way.
Besides, knowing your target audience will help you with a lot of other important things. You will know how to address them, which CTAs to use. And you will also know what objections they make when it comes to sales. So you can incorporate your responses to the most common client objections into your email marketing strategy.
2. Can you buy email lists?
No. You should never have a ready-made e-mail list. You always have to build one for yourself and by yourself.
Why is buying an email list a bad idea? People on a given list have consented to receive emails from a particular business, brand, or website. And it was not yours! The recipients will not recognize your name when they first receive an email from you, they will know they have never been in contact with your company. So your emails will most likely end up being labeled as spam. If you buy an email list, you’ll want to knock on people’s doors who haven’t invited you into their home at all. In fact, they never even told you to visit them if you’re around.
Most of the time, these lists are offered as quality lists where the leads fit perfectly into your target audience. However, when we talk about effective email marketing, you want email addresses and leads that have already met your business, who are interested in what you do, what you write, and you are dealing with potential customers. In the case of a purchased list, you may get lucky with some of the leads. Some may order something from you. It’s the law of averages. But that will not be enough. It is not worth the money and time invested.
Anyway, good lists are never for sale!
Not to mention the fact that probably you won’t be the only person to get a particular list. Maybe sellers will contact another business in the same niche and pass on the same email addresses. What happens then? People see that 4-5 marketing or spam messages land in their email account every day. It’s something they have never agreed to. As a result, people may start shutting down their email accounts for good and they open another one instead. This is their only way to get rid of the constant marketing noise. Of course, you will not know their new contact details. Your list will slowly disappear, you will barely have any customers, and you will realize it was like throwing money out the window. And in the end, you will have no other choice but to take the time and build your own list.
3. You may extend your list with paid advertising and social media
Your website is not the only way to collect subscribers. Social media, Facebook ads, and Google Ads can also help you. All you have to do is direct people to your page where they can subscribe to your email list.
How to make them sign up? Offer them some free product which is interesting and useful to your target audience. It can be an e-book or a video tutorial you’ve created. Remember to give them value. However, to do this, you will have to know your target audience pretty well.
4. Sending personalized emails is an important element of effective email marketing
Whenever possible, send out personalized emails. It is now quite natural that the name of the subscriber will be included. But there is various software that allows you to segment subscribers and target the different groups with different offers, articles, or videos. If you have a business that has customers from multiple industries, you can send different emails to each segment with information about each industry.
It’s also important not to send emails from a do-not-reply email address. Instead, allow communication to run smoothly.
5. Share links and CTAs
You must share links and include CTAs in the emails you send out. If you happen to send an email that does not focus on selling, go ahead, and share a link with your subscribers to read your blog posts, join your Facebook group, or subscribe to your YouTube channel.
When including CTAs, it’s a good idea to use colorful buttons. They are eye-catching and appealing to people.
Remember that you need to convince subscribers to click on the link/buttons, so you need to come up with a really good text there.
6. Create an easy way to unsubscribe from emails
We all know from personal experience that it’s quite unpleasant when we are looking for the unsubscribe link but it’s nowhere to be found. It’s terribly annoying.
There will always be people who want to unsubscribe from your email list, so don’t be afraid of that. If someone wants to get out, just respect their decision and make things easier for them. Transparency is important and this is also part of effective email marketing.
Anyway, people who want to unsubscribe would not purchase anything from you, so at least you can keep your email list clean and focus on people who are potential buyers.
Oh, and by the way. Don’t forget about GDPR either. All subscribers have a right to unsubscribe and have their data deleted from the system. And part of your duty is to respect their requests.
7. Run tests
When it comes to email marketing, you have the option of running A / B tests. As an example, you may send emails with different subjects and during the test you’ll see if the email you sent to Group A or Group B was opened by more people. As a result of the test, you will see which subject was more engaging.
It’s important to check all emails before sending them to subscribers! It’s best to send the email you’ve already completed to yourself or a member of your team and check if everything is going well and everything is working. Check them on different devices (mobile, laptop, tablet) and make sure that the email looks the way you want it to.
8. Track and analyze data
Always analyze the data you’ve collected. This way you will see plenty of useful information. Optimize as much as you can. If you pay attention to little details, you will be able to improve your email marketing strategy a lot.
9. Above all, give value to subscribers
The essence of effective email marketing is to offer your target audience something valuable to them, which will help them cope with their challenges. At least a little bit. Whether it’s about articles, tutorials, or sales, all information should serve them. Make sure that each email has a purpose. If you help your audience, they will trust you. If they trust you, they’ll know who to turn to when they are ready to buy.
10. Don’t exhaust your customers
I know sometimes one can come up with a lot of ideas at the same time but don’t send out all of your ideas in one day. People shouldn’t be bombarded with multiple emails a day and experience a flood of promotional messages. This can easily upset them and make them unsubscribe.
Rather, write down your ideas and design an effective email marketing campaign in which you do not only sell but also help and educate your audience.
Good luck!
If you need help, feel free to contact us. Our email address is info@shapemarketer.com. You can read more about our online marketing consulting service here.