5 Ways to Improve Your Email Marketing Game
May 17, 2019
Email may not be the newest form of marketing, but it’s the ultimate form of digital communication, especially for business customers. While many young consumers are messaging mainly from smart phones and social media apps, your high-end business clients are more likely to shoot out an email when trying to contact another company. So, what can you do to make your email advertising game more modern and likeable? Here are 5 tips for 2019 email marketers to ramp up their ad game.
1. Regulate Your Sending: Email marketing only works if you send just the right amount. It’s kind of like Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, in that if you send too much, you’ll scare a client off, but if you send too little they forget about you. You must find that number that’s “just right” to hold interest and retain a customer. To do this, consider the type of news you’re sending, it’s relevance to your customer, and whether you’d want to read it daily, weekly, or monthly. The magic number is different for every business, but most experts suggest a weekly email rather than a daily or monthly correspondence.
Weekly keeps you in the minds of clients checking emails every Monday morning after the weekend but doesn’t bother those who aren’t looking for your brand every day. It’s also just enough that nobody will look at the email and think…”who?”
2. Make the Most of Your Subject: your subject line makes a first and lasting impression on your reader. In fact, it’s so important that in some cases, it could be the reason that the current email and all future emails are deleted or read. The line needs to sound genuine, relevant, and interesting. You also need to connect your customer to your brand and avoid sounding pitchy, salesy or spammy.
Email content which comes off as spam is sent directly into the junk filter and never retrieved again. All those carefully crafted emails never seen or heard from – what a waste of time! To avoid this, make your subject line look natural and include the main reason for the email. For example, if you’re sending a client a coupon for a product, say so. Something like, “25% off coupon code inside.” It’s quick, to the point, and includes the major information your customer needs to know. They can get a discount, and the code they need is in this email. In other words, don’t throw out this email without giving it a read or you could miss out on the sale.
Not every subject line is going to be a winner, but this is another place where you can test your theories on what makes consumers tick. Take your time, plan your subjects strategically, and always use your brand as a guide.
3. Get Personal with Your Audience: Generic emails are the worst way to approach a customer, especially when you’re trying to woo them into becoming a repeat buyer. Personalizing each email is the key to genuine sounding engagement. To do this without spending long hours behind the computer screen, create a template and a contact list. Most CRM software provides areas to add this information manually before the automation process takes over. This makes each email look like it’s dedicated to the precise client without the need of typing everything by hand.
You can also add customizable touches to each client’s email depending on their business or previous shopping. This is a programmable function, which again can be achieved through any good CRM dashboard.
4. Make an Email Specific Landing Page: The landing page your standard website visitors see should differ slightly from that which email customers visit. This is because the customers you’re emailing are usually looking for something specific – like the main content in the email you’ve sent.
Having dedicated landing pages for email customers vs. social media customers, for example, also makes A/B testing easier. This allows you to determine which marketing method is seeing more success and should be continued.
5. Don’t Write About Nothing: As a marketer it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that you just need to send regular content on time to stay on top. While being regular is important, it’s not the only thing you need to worry about. Customers want substance, and they aren’t going to find it in generic copy designed to fill a stated word count. Don’t get caught looking like a bland and un-relatable writer. Instead, make every single email count by filling it with information you know your customer wants to see. Be the brand that makes consumers go, “Oh great! Another email from so-and-so, I love these things.”
Another way to improve content substance is by including a personal anecdote or company related story. Get personal with your customers by sharing something funny that happened at the office today, an interesting story about the product you’re showing off, or anything else that might humanize your brand and make the email sound natural. If you can create an email that sounds like it’s between two friends, when really, it’s a marketing tool for a client – you’ve hit the jackpot.
Email marketing is like any other sort of marketing. It requires research, planning and delivery. Keep the customer in mind when creating your content and you shouldn’t have any problems. Consumers can tell when an email is forced and when it was written by someone who enjoys writing. So, have fun with it, or delegate the task to someone who will.