In addition to a wide range of other online and offline marketing efforts, email marketing remains one of the best tools for businesses to use. The beauty of email marketing is that it can connect with people at every stage of the buyer's journey. You can reach audiences from the moment they become leads to when they're in the market for additional products or services as repeat customers.
The following are some insider email marketing tips that can get you started to help you get the most from your email marketing strategies.
1. Stick to a Day and Time
One main ingredient of a successful email marketing campaign is consistency. Try to stick to a strict posting schedule, which will help you remember when it's time to reach out to your audiences. Find out when your audience is most likely to check their emails. For example, you may find that an audience consisting of professionals may be more likely to check their emails throughout the week during the day. If you can pinpoint the best days and times to send emails, your audience will also come to expect those posts regularly as your brand becomes increasingly familiar to them.
There is no proven formula for the best day or time to post, as activity and engagement will vary from business to business and audience to audience. Interestingly, Tuesdays tend to see the highest email open rate, but Tuesday is also the day of the week with the highest unsubscribe rate.
2. Stay on Topic in Your Emails
Every email you send should have a specific focus. Nobody likes to receive an email that floods them with information, only some of which seems relevant. Try to keep your emails concise and to-the-point without losing the reader's interest. Consistently engaging and relevant emails will keep people anticipating your subject line in their inbox, whereas weekly emails that feel more like aimless ramblings could lead to more unsubscribes.
If you're informing readers about DIY home improvement tips, as an example, make sure those emails provide only the most essential details. Relatable anecdotes leading into the how-to can be helpful, but veering too off course will make readers feel like they're wasting time.
3. Utilize Animation and Video
Instead of relying on blocks of text in the body of an email, try to change things up with animations or videos. Helpful and informative videos can engage recipients more and make your emails more digestible, similar to the effect a killer TV commercial would have.
Take the home improvement example discussed: Rather than sending long lists of text guides that don't visually show how to complete a project, consider including a demonstration in a more in-depth video that details each step. You can then use this video to supplement your written content. You can also send product and service videos, which convince around 84% of viewers to make a purchase.
4. Include Educational Resources
You can build a lot more trust and respect for your brand if you come across as a valuable source of knowledge for your customers. You'll convince your audience that you have their best interest at heart while providing an exact value to them.
Think about what pain points are bothering your customers and address them in your content. Provide helpful guides to solve those problems, such as adapting to and getting out of times of crisis. Educate them about potential solutions that businesses can provide, leading you to establish why your specific solutions are right for them over your competitors. Knowledge will always be power, so spread it to your audience while proving that you have a wealth of it.
5. Link Out to Your Website and Social
It's easy to integrate email campaigns with other marketing efforts. You can use your emails to increase traffic to your website and social media profiles by including plenty of links in your content. You can add social media buttons to the email's footer while directing recipients to specific pages on your website.
Linking to your social media pages can also lead to increased engagement for posts on those profiles along with additional followers, giving you another way to connect with your email leads. Directing people to your site can also be crucial for increasing conversions if they're unsure where to go after reading an email.
6. Create Sequences Depending on Actions
Every action that email recipients take should lead them further along the buyer's journey to a sale. To facilitate this, you should create specific email sequences that correspond to particular actions. Generally, a series of three emails are more effective than a single email: You can get 90% more purchases by using welcome emails, 63% more when emailing after someone has abandoned their cart, and 75% more when encouraging customers to reactivate their accounts.
For instance, a lead may wind up visiting your product page through a welcome email and add an item to their shopping cart. If the lead neglects to complete their purchase, you can send an email reminding them to come back. This will remind them to make that purchase when they're ready to complete the order, when they otherwise may have forgotten entirely.
7. Give People Something to Look Forward to
Your emails need to provide consistent value to recipients. While sending educational blog posts and other helpful content can give them some knowledge, consider different ways to get people excited to see your emails. For example, you could send coupons and discounts to customers around the holidays or notify customers when items are on sale that fall under their interests. Inspire people to spread the word about your business with referral programs.
In any case, try to generate as much excitement around your email campaigns as you can, which will keep people subscribed and lead to increased sales and loyalty.
See the Success of Email with a Complete Email Marketing Campaign
Keeping these insider email marketing tips in mind, you can develop a winning email campaign for your brand. With comprehensive email strategies behind your business, you can take full advantage of this lucrative channel and amplify your other marketing campaigns' results.
