Did you know that per day over 144 billion emails get sent? Sure, the vast majority of those are trying to sell Viagra and enlargement tools, but even if only 1% of those are serious emails that leave a huge amount of competition – and that is something that top marketing experts can all agree on.
And unless you have a well-formed plan, you’re going to struggle to compete in that kind of a marketplace. For that reason, it’s important that you do your research, that you understand your options. Today we’re going to discuss some of the best e-mail marketing strategies out there and how to make them work for you so that you’ll have a leg up on the competition if this is the way you decide to do your marketing.
Personalize your emails
Okay, let’s first get a myth out of the way, personalization does not mean that you’ve got to include the recipient’s name. This can actually be counter-productive. Why? Because there are ever more worried about cyber-security and concerns that your email might be a phishing attack, where you’re trying to get the user’s information.
There are other ways to personalize your email. What do I mean with that? I mean that you make sure you know who your audience is (you’ve done your market research, haven’t you?) and can play in on what is interesting to them and what they want to hear about and mix it right into your email.
For example, if they like cars use car metaphors. If they’re more hipster, talk up how your brand helps communities and the environment. If they’ve got young children, use their sensitivity to babies. It doesn’t have to be blatant. In fact, it’s probably better if they don’t notice it.
It just has to trigger them subconsciously, make them feel as if you know what matters to them, and thereby create engagement.
Use what they bought to propose new purchases
Another form of personalization is to use what people have bought before to offer them things that they might want. Did they buy car mats for BMWs? Then offer them an opportunity to buy tires as well. Did they buy baby clothes? Then offer them a pram.
You’re even able to say why you’re offering this to them. This kind of personalization isn’t half as likely to offend. Instead, the majority will be grateful – particularly if you offer them discounts or free gifts for being loyal customers (we love discounts and free gifts – particularly for the things we need) and you’re well on your way to creating brand loyalty as well.
The subject line
In many ways, the subject line of your email is the most important part, as this is the first thing they’ll look at. In fact, it’s even more important than in social media, as there it will also be accompanied by an image.
For that reason, special care should be taken to craft these subject lines. Be aware that there is a dead zone in subject lines. They should either be under 49 characters (with those under 10 characters doing particularly well) or they should be longer than 70 characters. The worst performing seems to be in the 60 to 70 character range.
What also matters is what you’re trying to do with your email. There are really two strategies that you can pursue. The first of these is to raise awareness. If that’s what you’re after, considering using the shorter email length.
If, on the other hand, you’re hoping for a higher click-through rate, then think about using the longer length.
When should you send?
It used to be that the most effective time to send emails was during the work day. Nowadays, however, with everybody willing to check emails at whatever time they arrive, that has changed. The day is no longer the best time.
Why? Because that’s when we get the vast majority of emails and that means there is far more competition for our attention. For that reason, aim at a different time. What time? From about 8 pm to midnight seems to work well. In this gap, you’re not competing with work emails and it’s not so late that they’ll not open it until morning rolls around.
Of course, what time works particularly well depends on your audience, so a good strategy when asking people about their habits is to inform when they get up and when they go to bed.
The Free Lunch
The person that said there is no such thing as a free lunch clearly wasn’t aware of email marketing. Give away something for free and people are far more likely to open the email. What’s more, through the norm of reciprocity, they’re far more likely to buy your product afterwards as well.
So what should you give them? The advice works well. Tips about how to get more out of the products that you offer, for example. The trick is to that it has to be useful for them first and get them to buy your product second. People are quite savvy nowadays and they will not appreciate a blatant sales email. Sure, they might buy once, but they won’t forget that after-taste.
Novelty
People don’t like to be told the same thing time and again. They want to hear something new and something different. For that reason, make certain that you’re always offering them something that they haven’t heard before. That means keeping careful track of what you’ve put out there already.
You can do this manually, or you can use software. Plagiarism checkers, for example, are a good way to find out if your emails are becoming too samey. Of course, that won’t help you with making sure your content is fresh, but it’s a good place to start.
Remember Mobile
About 50% of emails nowadays get opened on mobile devices. That means that you have to make sure that your emails look good on those devices. That means making sure it’s only one column of text, that the font size is large enough that people can easily read it on their devices, and making certain that buttons are large enough for people with fat thumbs to press (44 pixels by 44 pixels).
So take the time to first send that email out to a few mobile devices before you send it off to everybody.
It’s a small step and simple that can help you double your income from email marketing strategy. So why not do it?
In conclusion
Emails are low cost, but they’re not no-cost. If you don’t do your campaign correctly, then people will consistently and continuously hit that unsubscribe button. And that is a cost you don’t want to bear.
So think carefully about each campaign that you send out. Send them out on the right time. Make certain that they offer something novel and interesting and don’t forget to include free things.
If you can do all that then instead of people unsubscribing, you might find that your email list continues to grow. And that means each email will be opened by more and more people and per email constructed you’ve got more and more sales. Now doesn’t that sound like a strategy worth pursuing?