Michael LeanderEveryone is somewhat familiar with their inbox being full of mindless emails that ultimately end up being skim read and deleted – but imagine the difference it would make if companies mastered their email marketing campaigns to engage customers? It may be hard; however, it most certainly is worth it.
Achieving great results with email marketing is not always simple but the good news is here are some insights and first hand insider tips.
When mastered, email marketing has the potential to outperform all other marketing channels – a surprising statement in today’s age of social media influencers. According to the Markedu State of European Email Marketing Report, social media has an ROI of 20:1, whereas email marketing sits at a solid 30:1. Email has been the king of marketing since 1978 and it doesn’t seem to be giving up its throne anytime soon.
Below you will find a short yet precise list of the top insider tips to consider when creating a successful email marketing campaign:
- Strategic Planning
- The Importance of Tracking and Automation Tools
- Implementing Incentives
- Unsubscribe Funnels
- Interacting with your Customers
- Keeping up with Trends
1. Strategic Email marketing Planning
A detailed, strategic plan is a crucial aspect of mastering your email marketing campaign. This includes several elements such as setting goals, purposes and objectives alongside considering your audience and their needs.
The AIDEA sales funnel, an acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire, Engagement and Action) is extremely useful when aiming to understand your customers.
Think of it this way, a Google study recently found that the average consumer tends to engage with 11 pieces of content before purchasing a product – typically, we research the product and make price comparisons before making a purchase decision. In case of, for instance, non-profit email marketing, donations and support the considerations and motivations are different but the steps stay the same
Understanding the steps between each stage in the AIDEA model allows marketers to think ahead of their customer, providing nurture as they move through the sales funnel.
2. The Importance of Tracking and Automation Tools
Monitoring your campaigns and thus changing your approach according to what is and isn’t working is 100% necessary in email marketing, so say hello to tracking tools!
Unsubscribe rates, conversion rates, open rates, and bounce rates are all aspects that should be tracked to ensure KPIs are successfully reached. By conducting A/B testing and using a sophisticated tracking tool you can determine the best approach leading to a boost in sales and in satisfied customers.
And as for automation tools, would you send the same content to existing customers as you would to new customers? Of course not!
Your newbie customers need content that is specifically catered to them, so a welcome-flow would be created. Automation tools allow for exactly this, saving time and providing accuracy whatever the size of your mailing list.
Automation tools provide room for lifecycle campaigns, trigger mails and reminders/nudges to allow for maximum design flexibility.
3. Implementing Incentives
To stand out marketers need to be innovative with their incentives as consumers get swamped with offers from brands on the daily.
Mixing up your offers via the use of promotions in various forms and using incentives that are always changing ensure your customers are attentive to upcoming offers. If you are using the same tactics too often it becomes predictive for the customer and will ultimately devalue your product.
For example, sending a newsletter advertising a product and then sending a follow-up with a discount for the product a week later is only useful occasionally, as otherwise customers will learn to expect discounts to come through shortly after.
An idea for incentives includes keeping your customers in the loop for upcoming products launches and giving them the chance to pre-order so they feel inclusive of business perks and can take full advantage of your services.
4. Unsubscribe Funnels
When a new customer subscribes to your email marketing you should initially be sending all content to them, this includes promotions for products, teasers to new blog posts, industry news, and incentives. However, providing an option to unsubscribe is important to ensure they do not feel overwhelmed and gives you a chance to see what content is working for your customers.
When a customer decides they want to unsubscribe, give them several options. Would they like to simply mute your emails for 30 days and then re-evaluate? Or, would they like to stop receiving emails from just one segment? Giving power to the customers preferences gains respect.
Always you could go for a “last chance” fun persuasion win-back, like Etsy does in the example above. Source Modgirl
5. Interacting with your Customers
Don’t just stick to email to interact with your customers, as you probably know, social media is massively valued these years. Provide social buttons in your emails, and update platforms with fresh contest to improve user engagement and encourage new subscribers.
The engagement survey is a great way for you and your team to identify what works best when it comes time for some email marketing inspiration. The information gathered from this tool will allow the creator of an upcoming campaign ample insight into how they can improve their strategy, which in turn should lead them towards more successful results.
6. Keeping up with Trends
In today’s digital world things are always progressing. There are constantly new trends and competitors to keep up with, staying up to date ensures you are not left behind in the ever-evolving marketing world.
Understanding your audience and aligning their needs with your content concept are the foundations of any email marketing campaign. Creativity and analytical thinking are major contributing factors to a successful campaign and A/B testing ensures you are engaging with customers to achieve valued results.
Keeping up with email marketing future trends and considering tactical elements such as customer interaction and personalization keep you in the game and help to create a loyal bond with your customer.
Sam Hops
Gaurav Sharma
Anna Lysiuk
