If you believe that email marketing is ineffective in the social media age, you are wrong. One of the best strategies for promoting your goods and services and establishing your brand is via email marketing.
Email marketing is quite effective. Customers will want more and be encouraged to remain on your list if they get helpful and engaging emails. If you want to learn more about how email marketing can help you increase sales, then keep reading.
What is email marketing?
Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy that aims to attract new customers and retain existing ones by using emails to promote business offerings and create connections with customers.
It is one of the most effective and low-cost marketing strategies. It helps you build brand awareness and customer loyalty while providing you the ability to customize your content, track performance, and build a lasting relationship with customers.
Benefits of email marketing
Email marketing is still one of the best marketing strategies available, even though social media and other forms of digital marketing are making headway nowadays. There is a good reason for this since email marketing has so many benefits. Let’s explore the top 5:
1. Cost-Effective
Compared to other digital marketing strategies like social media and paid advertising, email marketing is a more affordable approach to reaching a wide client base. You don’t have to keep paying to reach the same prospective consumers or to distribute your adverts, unlike paid advertising.
2. Reach the right audience
You run the risk of platform and algorithm changes when using other kinds of digital marketing, such as social media marketing and sponsored advertisements. On one social media site, your company could be getting a lot of attention one month, but the next month, the algorithm might change and your interaction might decline. You won’t be able to maintain contact with the individuals who were previously interacting with your brand since you’re not attracting the right audience.
No matter how social media platforms and other digital advertising platforms develop, you can be sure that email marketing will always reach your audience. You can also monitor how each subscriber interacts with your emails, so you can focus on your target audience, and eliminate those who are not interested in your business.
3. Adapt your material to your intended audience
Customer data collection and audience segmentation are made considerably simpler with email marketing. You can group your clients based on what you believe they could require from you and send them emails tailored specifically to their needs. This highlights the significance of email marketing since it is quite difficult to do with certain other marketing initiatives.
4. Brand recognition
Email marketing may be seen as a continuous dialogue. Customers may easily find a business they like online, then quickly shut their browser and never see the brand again. However, with email marketing, you can carry on the dialogue beyond that first visit, give your audience time to get to know your company and develop trust and brand awareness—all of which finally result in sales.
5. Measurable Outcomes
You may use email marketing to monitor what clients are and are not reacting to, and then use this data to better your outreach approach as a whole. Additionally, you may utilize this data to divide up your audience into groups according to engagement and particular interests. Customers who read your emails every time, for instance, are much more likely to wish to get them more often than those who only do so sometimes.
How to use email marketing to increase your sales
1. Establish a brand
To use email marketing or any form of marketing, you first need to have a product to sell that will provide value to customers. The first step to be successful is to establish a brand. Ensure that you have a clear selling point, and that your product or service truly solves a consumer problem.
2. Have a plan
To be successful in any endeavor, a good plan is a prerequisite. When you venture into email marketing, ensure that you have a clear plan for what you want to achieve and a time frame.
By how many percent do I want to increase sales? Which type of email marketing will provide the best value to my customers? Who are my customers, and what type of messages will resonate the most with them? You need to ask yourself all these and more when creating an email marketing plan.
3. Perform A/B testing
You want to provide your customers with what they want; this doesn’t apply to just your product offerings but the type of messages you send to them also. A/B testing is the most effective technique to maximize your Open Rate and CTR (Click-through rate). To determine what works best for your email marketing, it is always advised to experiment with multiple styles, subject lines, and contents.
To determine what may be altered to enhance the outcomes of your email marketing, it is ideal to send out two copies of the same campaign. The email that gets the most interactions is the winner, and the rest of your emails should adapt to the style of that email.
4. Know your subscribers
Monitor the performance of your email marketing and the reactions of your subscribers to each email. Keep a close eye on your list by regularly updating details and eliminating some subscribers.
5. Divide your subscribers into groups
Depending on whether you are speaking with a new customer, a loyal client, or a previous customer, your content approach and offers should ideally change. You may reach your targets with messages that are as relevant to them as possible by segmenting your email list. The likelihood that the receiver will open, read, and act upon an email increases with its relevance.
6. Request feedback
Asking for feedback is a highly effective method to build engagement with prospects, customers, and audience members. Potential customers could appreciate the chance to explain their reasons for wanting to buy and the obstacles they face.
Asking customers how you can make your goods and services better will undoubtedly be appreciated. When the email arrives promptly, audience members are eager to share their webinar or event experiences while they are still vivid in their memories.
7. Make changes
You will learn a lot about your customers and how your business is faring if you follow the steps above. However, it is all useless information if you don’t use it to improve your product offerings and the way you market it. Make changes to your business and marketing style each time you learn new information.
Best practices
Email marketing is a powerful to promote your business and build a strong customer base, but only when done correctly. If you want to develop an effective email marketing strategy, then you need to keep the following best practices in mind:
1. Find ways to keep your current clientele
Email marketing is about building a strong and loyal customer base. You should focus more attention on retaining your existing customers than gaining new customers. Customers who have previously purchased from you will more likely do so again in the future than those who have not.
2. Ensure that each email has a single objective
Each email you send should have a clear objective; don’t just send emails because you feel like it. Your customers should expect value whenever they receive an email from you. However, you should try not to confuse your customers by killing multiple birds with one stone.
If your email text offers both a discount and a reward in return for a review, subscribers won’t know what to do next. A single objective that provides value to your customers is enough.
3. Resend emails to customers who did not open it
Many people won’t read your emails the first time you send them, most of them won’t even know your email arrived in their inbox. There may be several other reasons why they didn’t open your email. Maybe they weren’t interested in the offer or the subject line didn’t appeal to them. So, resending emails is a good practice in email marketing.
However, customers will see it as impolite and spammy if you send the same email twice or more in a single day. So send another email three days later and again a week later. Use a different topic line and phrase the message differently. You can even use another email address.
4. Steer clear of spam terms
Like most people, you most likely get a ton of spam emails every day. You are most likely guilty of doing the same to your clients without even recognizing it.
Some terms may cause spam filters to activate. Additionally, these emails will raise red flags for your subscribers and discourage you from boosting purchases.
Some examples of spam terms to avoid include: 100% free, best price, free access, free gift, free trial, lowest prices, and so on.
5. Explain clearly why you are contacting them
Customers often have doubts about how or why you obtained their data. Telling consumers up front how and why you obtained their personal information, however, may relieve their reluctance and boost purchases.
Keep your explanation of the reasons and methods used to collect consumer data brief and simple to comprehend.
6. Remove some subscribers from your list
Because of the apparent value you provide, your email audience signed up for your list. However, there may be subscribers on your email list who will never become clients.
Find unengaged subscribers—those who haven’t made a purchase from you or clicked on a link in your email during the last three or six months. To increase revenue and win back disengaged subscribers, start a re-engagement email campaign. If it doesn’t work, mark these subscribers as inactive take them from your list, and focus instead on your existing customer base.
7. Test the value of your emails
Testing your emails often is the best way to ensure that your email segmentation is effective.
Develop the practice of regularly determining if the appropriate individuals are receiving your segmented email marketing.
There are several ways to do this. You can ask your readers for their opinions, monitor your open rates and other important indicators, and test various emails on various subscriber groups using A/B testing to see how each group reacts to your communications.
8. Make the email “fun” by gamifying it.
Tests, surveys, and quizzes are excellent methods to increase email click rates and revenues. Provide gamified incentives for customers in place of straight offerings.
9. Thank your subscribers
Not every email you send should be about trying to make sales. Just check in with your email list once in a while. Express gratitude, give them praise, or just inquire about their well-being.
As a company, you may establish a stronger connection with your subscribers by speaking to them like a person or by complimenting them.
Make your “cross-selling” emails unique.
Your interaction with customers doesn’t have to stop when a consumer completes a purchase or ignores attempts to reclaim their cart. Make cross-selling emails that encourage customers to come back to the business and buy something.
Make product recommendations depending on what the customer is looking at, has in their basket, or has previously bought.
10. Send them “coming soon” emails to keep them intrigued
A successful email for a product launch can solidify your brand in the eyes of your target audience, arouse interest that would otherwise come off as too promotional and lacking context, and assist you in enhancing how you want to keep in touch with your audience.
11. Avoid writing dull email text
Don’t write your marketing emails like you would write a cold pitch to a prospective employer, instead make it skimmable. The shorter the time customers will spend reading your email the better, as most people would find long text boring and just skip it.
Your emails should not just be short but also interesting. Use creative storytelling to get prospective clients to stop scrolling. You may also draw customers in using powerful images and bold text.
12. Make the experience interactive
The most important connection you need to make with your customers is an emotional one, and the best way to do this is by showing them that you care and their opinions matter. Have conversations with your subscribers, or at least give them the impression that you do.
Instead of “talking to,” the objective should be “talking with” subscribers. There are several ways you can do this:
- Provide opportunities for requesting assistance via live chat or one-on-one shopping
- Send customized emails after live sessions and leverage live broadcasts
- Inform subscribers that they have the option to respond to your emails.
13. Customize the emails you send
One way to reduce your deliverability—which also impacts your sales—is to send subscribers pointless emails.
Unless the email is relevant to them, subscribers will not be interested so you shouldn’t send it to them. Instead of sending the same email to everyone, establish different flows for each customer group.
14. Improve your email UX
The experience your users have while interacting with your emails will determine whether they will have a positive view of your brand or not. Your emails should be accessible and have a good user experience regardless of the device your viewers experience your product in.
Here’s how you can improve your email UX:
- Keep it brief and to the point; include the most crucial information in the email’s first fold.
- Craft product descriptions that are optimized for mobile devices.
- Make intelligent color choices to shorten conversion routes and lessen cognitive burden.
- Check how your photos load on mobile devices and think about enlarging the typography.
15. Give your consumers advice and pointers
You could think that by educating your clients on certain aspects of your work, you diminish your value to them. However, this is far from the truth.
Since you have shown them that you are an expert in your field, you increase your value to them and they will continue to choose you.
16. Use a Catchy Subject Line
Your email marketing recipients will always read the subject line first, therefore it’s important to write it correctly. An email with a well-written, captivating, and exciting subject line will typically stand out above all the other emails your receiver has gotten in their inbox and encourage them to read the rest of the email.
17. Add a straightforward and unambiguous call to action
Composing a concise call to action might be the difference between an email campaign that is effective and one that is not. Never attempt to overwhelm or perplex the people you are emailing.
Keep your attention on only one call to action at a time. Additionally, make sure that the top portion of your email effectively highlights your call-to-action material. A solid call-to-action makes it clear to the receiver why and what they are clicking on in the email’s subject line.
Conclusion
Email marketing is a highly effective method of marketing. With the right strategy, you are on your way to creating a loyal customer base and increasing sales.
