Rohan Mendiratta
Bulk Email, you know what I mean. We all get bulk emails. Some emails (sent in bulk, but done right) can intrigue you. Others…. are delegated to the spam folder, no questions asked.
Sending out bulk emails is an art, either it could be beautiful or just superbad. Let’s have a look at these bulk emails, what they are, and how they work well. Or is the age of bulk email over?
When did bulk emails first come into the picture?
Sending of bulk emails really began in 1978 when the “father of spam” Gary Thuerk, an eminent manager at Digital Equipment Corp. sent an email promoting his company’s machines to 400 recipients in one go.
Note this is 1978! It worked out very well for them, the tactic got $13 million worth of sales!
Marketers and salesquickly caught on. Soon, bulk emails weren’t seen as a novelty any more, but as an important tactic to reach big audiences. The Data Protection Act of 1998 ensured that email marketing campaigns need to include an opt-out link by law.
Starting with bulk email, isn’t so simple
With time, marketers realized doing bulk email right, wasn’t so simple. It doesn’t work so well to “spray and pray”, send a bulk email blast and hope for conversion. Marketers had to be more strategic with their email sending. And already a lot of improvement can be made with a bit of user data to work with.
So, bulk email sending has changed over the years. Email defined how companies are able to reach large target audiences online. By flipping the script on one-to-all, mass bulk email now includes mass personalisation to get the right message across.
Planning on sending out emails on a bulk? This article will certainly give you a perspective!
Why is bulk emails sending so popular?
If you’ve been wondering whether bulk emails work or not, it is a good question to ask. Stats say 20% of all marketing emails don’t reach their intended recipient, so those aren’t getting opened.
There is value in sending out email blasts in bulk, if done right. You won’t be one of those spam guys if you get opt-ins. And companies are able to increase revenue from the mass audiences that receive your mail… Additionally you’ll also receive another valuable asset – customer data.
Based on how your customers respond to your emails, you can gather their data and then use it to hyper-target and more importantly, personalize your campaigns. Emails that are relevant to your audience drive home 18x more revenue than just general broadcast email campaigns.
Does bulk email really work?
From a financial perspective, email marketing generates an average $38 for every $1 spent, so it does make sense to send them out.
As email marketers, you should be aware of the various industry jargon, from drip emails, triggered mails, A/B Subject line testing, email segmentation, and so on. As the number of customers in your database increases, it becomes more interesting to keep tabs on how your bigger and smaller segmented groups are doing. Your segments are now also mass mails!
What you need to know to get the most ROI from bulk emails
By segmenting your bulk emails into different sections, you’ll be able to generate a higher ROI. There are so many essential aspects to a bulk email – subject line, timing, content of your email itself and the landing pages that are attached to them. Finding the right mix of all is crucial if you’re looking to ensure a successful return on your bulk email.
We’ve listed the types of emails to make it easier to get an idea. You’ll find that with time and offering enough value, your audience begins to respond positively to your emails, and this makes a world of difference.
Whether it’s money, subscriptions or just for web traffic, we’ve made it simpler by showing you the different types of bulk emails:
1. Bulk email newsletters
Newsletters are the most popular form of bulk email, with close to 83% of companies send out a newsletter. Newsletters generally inform your audience about upcoming products, events, news from your company, how to’s, share tips and more.
Newsletters are also a great way to engage your audience during dry sales periods or just after a massive sale.
If you’re able to keep your audience interested though relevant content that’s useful to them, you increase the chance of converting a purchase as well. Sending out relevant content will also ensure people are not unsubscribing from your newsletter.
Always double check your newsletters being timed correctly. A marketing calendar helps to make sure they don’t clash with other emails.
2. App promotion and cross channel updates
It is a busy world. Which makes it harder for the users to keep track of everything going on. Promoting how other channels are doing. If you have an app for instance, you as an app developer should let the crowd know new features, that you’re up to something exciting and game-changing.
New app update emails are a great way to grab the attention of your crowd and let them know that you’ve introduced some new things in the mobile apps segment. The new features could be a game-changer for some of your inactive users and just this email can get you back a lot of active users.
While a lead-nurturing email can gather around 8% CTR compared to a 3% on a general email, the content can sometimes be ambiguous. You can merge an app update with a lead nurturing email to let new customers know that you’d love to have them on board with a discount offer or other incentive.
And hit two birds with one stone.
3. Bulk job opening emails
Another form of often seen bulk emails are job openings. These are a great way to get your customers to join your company?! These emails often don’t make a lot of sense on its own. Why do you want your potential clients to work in your company? Can you imagine a travel agency sending out a mass email asking people to come work at a vacation park? 😀
Job openings mails with headlines such as, “We’re Hiring!” and “Come, work for your favorite company” are some that are used. In some occasions it does make sense though to get the engaged audience of people interested in the themes to see job openings.
Once you’ve captured a certain number of email IDs and have sorted your target audience age, sending a specific age group job opening emails could work in your favor.
You could also provide a link to the “Careers” section on your site and get them to apply for these jobs and also capture more information in the process for those who don’t eventually make it.
Mass campaigns for job openings, if done right can attract a pool of great candidates – that already know you and a bit about how you work.
4. Bulk event invitation emails
Getting people to register for events is not always that easy. Imagine your company is hosting a webinar or bigger online or live event. Sending out a bulk email invitations is a good way to get people’s attention.
Most companies host events that cost a bit of money, so if yours does too, then your email can be one of the primary registration driving channels. By including all the details and offering a direct registration link, your audience has an easy way to register.
Your email can focus on the advantages that attendees enjoy. This gives them a fair idea about what the event is about and will manage the expectations. Make sure you don’t make the email too long. Short and sweet is great for an invite..
5. Bulk email for product updates
These are one of the most important emails you could send to your audience because, at the end of the day, emails are all about selling. You could nurture and entertain your audience with other types of bulk emails, but product or service updates will make the crucial difference when it comes to selling online.
There are various ways you can promote your products on emails. These include adding images, creating an exclusive opt-in list for your customers and with the help of timely emails sent every few weeks or months to promote your company’s product.
Bulk emails, the final verdict
Emails have shown that you cannot just engage your customers online, but also sell and make a profit. Your bulk email should always have a goal. Are you sending it to inform your audience or trying to sell something?
Either way, personalization is the key to making bulk emails work. Just send them what they would like, not some sales email. With so many different types of emails, it can be hard to segregate your list to know which one to send.
Using great email marketing software will certainly help with that. There are a lot of alternatives out there which will help you get started with no risks at all.
Do a bit of research on how your customers are behaving on the site and what they’re browsing, and you’ll soon begin to realize the importance a great bulk email strategy can have on your business.
Yauhen Zaremba
Rukham Khan
Guestpost
