Email is one of the most popular methods of communication available, with 5.6 billion active email accounts in existence as of 2019. Because of this widespread use, it’s no surprise that email marketing can be a valuable component of your business’s marketing plan. 59% of consumers say that marketing emails have influenced their purchasing decisions. What’s more, according to HubSpot, email can generate as much as $38 in revenue for every $1 spent—a 3800% return on investment!
We’ve written in the past about why your business needs to take advantage of email marketing. There are many types of emails you could send, each serving a different goal, including newsletters, promotional deals, abandoned cart emails, event promotions, confirmation emails, or even simple welcoming emails. But how do you set your campaign up for success? No matter which type of email you’re sending, there are a few practices you should utilize to ensure you’re making the most of your email marketing.
1. Know Your Audience
As with any marketing initiative, the first step is to know who you are targeting. Having an idea of your ideal consumer will help you determine your content, voice, imagery, and even how often to send updates. Imagine you are a bookstore sending monthly book recommendations to your consumers. If you tailor different recommended books to different demographic groups, you will likely see more engagement with the email. For example, parents of young children will be interested in children’s books, whereas college students might be looking for GRE prep books. Alternatively, if your core audience seems to be all the same demographic, such as a teen clothing store, you can create general messages tailored toward that demographic—in this example, teens and young adults.
2. Pay Attention to the Sender and the Subject
The first goal of your email should be to have people open it. This starts with the sender. Research has shown that choosing a sender that is a person’s name, rather than a brand name, encourages engagement. If the sender seems inauthentic, the user may delete it—or worse, it will get stuck in a spam filter and never even make it in front of the recipient!
Once you decide on a solid sender name, turn your attention to the subject line. There is a fine balance between an informative tone and clickbait, so choose your words carefully. It is important to be succinct and relevant. However, it’s okay to be a little vague to encourage your reader to click and see more!
3. Choose a Schedule
One of the most important things to consider for any email marketing campaign is how often you want to send emails. Sending emails too frequently can annoy readers into unsubscribing, but not sending them often enough may lower brand awareness and impede campaign goals. There is no magic number that dictates when you should email your contacts. Instead, you must consider the type of content, the message objective, and the audience to determine what is right for you. For example, one-day-only sales should be sent by email one week before, three days before, and then twice on the day of the sale. Long form content such as newsletters can go out weekly or even monthly. Some emails don’t need a schedule because they only go out once per user—for example, welcome emails. No matter which rhythm you choose to keep, the key is to stay consistent.
4. Curate Relevant Content
So, you’ve chosen a target audience, honed your subject and sender, and decided how often you want to send emails. The next component to consider is perhaps the most important: the content. The first three steps are designed to encourage email opens, but this step is about retention. Having strong content that the reader can engage with will keep them in the email. Therefore, they will interact with your brand longer.
What denotes strong content? Content that is easily skimmable, personalized to your audience, and includes clear calls-to-action typically yields the best results. Above all, you want to share content that provides value to your readers. If readers feel like they learn or gain something from your emails, they will continue to open them.
5. Utilize Effective Content Layout
As with a website or a social media post, the content of an email must be well-organized or consumers will be less likely to engage with it. You’ll want to include any branding elements such as your logo and colors so the email is easily identifiable as being communication from your business. Other good practices in email layout are sticking to a one-column, mobile responsive design and maintaining a good balance of content and imagery. The key is to make the information look attractive, but still accessible.
Dive Into Email Marketing
If executed well, email marketing can be an invaluable tool for achieving goals from increasing brand awareness to driving sales. Media Venue uses these tactics and more to develop successful email marketing campaigns of all sizes for our clients. Are you ready to start an email campaign of your own? Contact our Social Media Manager Michelle Dunaway at michelle@mediavenue.com or 502-855-4795. Enhance your marketing investment with Media Venue!
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