Though splashed all over social media and print, stories that bemoan the death of email marketing have no truth in them. When you pore over the statistics in terms of customer acquisition and their retention, email is still the best performer. It remains at the top with 80 percent. Email is here to stay.
Marketing via email may not be the easiest way to build your business, but it’s far from being dead. You only have to give it attention and resources; as many resources as you dedicate to sales. "The idea that sales is still the main ship, and marketing is a small part of that mother ship is laughable", says Marcus Sheridan, author of 'They Ask You Answer'.
Even before you can dedicate resources to marketing by email, you have to audit your strategies and try to eliminate the pain points that render this form of marketing tough.
1. Identify Emails That Miss Their Targets
Do you look at the open rates of emails and the click-through data, and get frustrated? Have you considered the possibility of your emails getting lost even before they reach the target inbox?
Email validation is a vital part of your successful strategy, but it is often overlooked. Email validation makes sure your emails reach their destinations, which improves the accuracy of the statistics presented for a email campaign. Consider seeking the service of companies like Email Checker. It is an accurate service that can validate your mails and have a positive effect on your sender score.
The co-founder of Email Checker, Andrew Blazewicz, explains why email validation is important for email marketing. "There is a sender score for every email server," he says. "It is always a number between 0 and 100. When you have a high sender score, the majority of your emails will go into destination inboxes. But if you have a lower sender score, your mails are going into junk or spam folders". If you have a much lower sender score, you run the risk of being blacklisted by Yahoo and Google.
2. Trace The Tactic That Works Best
Email marketing numbers confound you. The first email work doesn't even get off the ground. What do you make of this?
When your team is not evaluating emails judiciously and deducing what elements work best, inconsistencies in email marketing occur. The solution for this is A/B testing. Ladder.io has software that uses the email marketing platform MailChimp. The software allows A/B split testing and pinpoints all the details that really make the difference. A/B tests can help you see which parts of your email marketing strategy are impacting the target, and identify those that are not working to your advantage.
Ladder.io has seen A/B testing as much as double click-through rates in their own internal email marketing campaigns.
3. Research And Create Content
The question often asked is "Why doesn't awesome content convert at all?" There could be many reasons, but it is usually because the content does not address the target audience's most important concern. You may have to share some knowledge with your prospects before you start with your sales pitch.
In his book, Sheridan talks about this "assignment selling" approach. He notes that assigning the prospect with presales reading earns you "the right to ask more of the prospect". He emphasises looking for ways to educate the prospects even before talking with them, and continue educating them through the entire sales process.
Reference: Creating Fresh Content
4. Easily Readable Emails
As more and more businesses and services come into the fray, competition increases. It becomes a challenge to even get your email opened. In order to stand out from the crowd, your email has to be easily readable and scannable.
Instead of boring your customer with huge chunks of information, split them into smaller, scannable paragraphs. Use whitespace effectively. Write headlines that will intrigue them. Personalize your emails with segmentation.
5. Look Good And Clean
Looks matter, and professional looks matter more. Spam mails have a certain look we all know and hate. So try to keep your emails clean and professional in the eyes of your target audience.
Do not overwhelm your customer with huge volumes of information that will be impossible to assimilate. Use headlines cleverly. Use short sentences and separate paragraphs with interesting and clickable images. Look inviting.
6. Automate And Convert
When companies use automated email services, they observed a whopping 53% conversion rate. When you automate the outreach process, it becomes a lot easier on you and your teammates.
You could use automation for writing a welcome mail thanking a new subscriber, reminder email for sales and promotions, thank you mails after a purchase, and emails for customer surveys.
The only way to keep your email marketing strategy alive and running is by inundating your customer with exciting and creative content. To make your email content recognizable and memorable, use the same distinctly creative language everywhere - your design, copy, email, social media, brochures, ads on TV, and in all other communication with your audience.
On special occasions, you can depart from the usual and work overtime with your creativity. Use special fonts, festive images, a different shade of color and grab the attention of your regular email recipient.
7. Dispatch With Discretion
Personalize and dispatch emails. Don't send your email communication to every customer on your database. Rather, separate your customers into groups depending on age, gender, interests, etc. They may be interested in different products and offers. Dispatch emails accordingly.
It is important to develop a persona for each of your target groups. Remember to use the location and time to make a connection. When relevant, talk about local businesses and locations. During special occasions such as Christmas or New Year, don't forget to greet your customer.
8. Timing And Frequency
Contrary to popular belief, reaching out to a potential customer in the early morning may not be a great idea. You'd probably be pitting yourself against those in an already overcrowded inbox. Try to send your email sometime in the afternoon when your customer is checking his mail in a more leisurely manner. Early morning emails are usually reserved for one-day sales, and their subject lines have to sound equally urgent.
The frequency of your email needs special attention. Having a rigid schedule for sending out emails has its advantage and disadvantage. You can keep your customer informed regularly regarding new arrivals, sale alerts, and updates. But you will also fall into the trap of not having much to say. So it is important to maintain an optimal frequency.
Conclusion
Rather than declaring the death of email marketing, it is time to intensify your efforts on making it a successful one. Writing an email is an art in itself. Employ some pragmatic and thoughtful tweaks. Use the right tools. Very soon, you can reap the immense benefits of email marketing.
Are you tired of seeing plummeting conversion rates? Do you crave that surefire success recipe for your email campaign? You are in the right place!
