A single email campaign refers to a set of coordinated email messages sent over a specific time period with one main purpose, such as downloading a report, making a purchase, or rating your services. A successful email campaign succeeds in achieving the campaign’s goal in as few email messages as possible. In the text below we will cover the most important steps in building an email campaign, and draw your attention to some effective hacks.
Use Automation Software
Picture an email campaign that is meant to get subscribers to revisit their abandoned online shopping carts and make a purchase. The first installment in a 3-part email series can remind the recipient of their unfinished purchase. The second one could offer a discount, and the third email will serve as a final reminder. This is already a complicated process thus far, but now imagine having to send this campaign to hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of subscribers? You would need to hire an email marketing team to go through the process manually. On the other hand, email marketing automation solutions could complete all of these tasks for you, for a fraction of the cost.
In the insurance industry, for example, insurance agents have to communicate with clients via email on a daily basis, performing complex tasks such as sending and receiving policy documents, following up on quotes, and issuing renewal letters. To make this process less time-consuming, insurance agencies rely on the services of automated email marketing platforms. These email automation solutions need to be tailored specifically to fit the needs of the insurance industry. This means that all kinds of campaigns can be automated in order to help insurance professionals save time, become more efficient with their day-to-day email communication processes. Increasingly, insurance agencies are using these same marketing platforms to boost their revenues as well by automating upsell and cross-sell campaigns, such as offering additional flood coverage as a part of homeowners insurance to all of their clients with the click of a single button. With the right email marketing platform, brokerages can increase cross-sell open rates by up to 51%.
Relevant Subject Line and Preheader Text
Subject lines and preheader text are the first pieces of information that recipients will see, and they will greatly influence whether or not they will open an email. According to recent research, subject lines inform the choice of opening emails in 33% of email recipients. The preheader text refers to the summary following the subject line that is visible in an inbox, it is typically one sentence long. Knowing this, how can you ensure that your subject line and preheader result in a high email open rate? Two words – relevance and brevity. Avoid ambiguous or downright false advertising in your preheader and subject line at all costs. Here is one example of quality Mother’s Day discount content:
Subject line: Celebrate Mom & Save 20%!
Preheader text: Show your mom that you care with our new “beach in a bottle” perfume line.
Not mentioning the discount, the product, or the occasion (Mother’s Day) would have been a mistake. It would likely cost you many clicks, and subsequently, many sales. Make sure to give your subscribers a taste of the contents of your email.
Email Design
Emails should be optimized to look equally good across all devices; desktops, mobile phones, and tablets. Adapting your email design to various screen resolutions is also a must. Responsive email design is of key importance as a part of your email marketing campaign, being that many people read their emails in-app, via their mobile phones.
Keep in mind, however, that email campaigns are just one communication channel designed to drive traffic to your website. As a part of your digital marketing plan, you should make sure your entire website is responsive. After all, mobile optimization is only a part of your digital marketing trials and tribulations – you also need to worry about loading speed. Anything over 3 seconds can seriously damage your search engine ranking, according to recent SEO insights. Additional tip: Make sure you communicate the main intent of the email with the text alone, as images may not load properly on some mobile and tablet devices.
Personalize Your Emails
Email personalization can be challenging, especially when you have a large subscriber base to work with. Making subscribers feel heard and understood has a positive effect on your email marketing ROI. Moreover, sending the right email to the right people makes you look more legitimate and less likely to be flagged and transferred to the spam folder. The most obvious form of personalization is achieved using conditional merge tags i.e. addressing the email recipient by their first and/or last name. One other way of maximizing your email marketing ROI via personalization is a VIP loyalty campaign. These campaigns can offer special discounts and gifts, such as a dinner for two at a local restaurant, giving your subscribers an incentive to interact with you online.
Monitor Email Performance and Deliverability
How can you measure email campaign performance, diagnose your successes and failures, and learn from them? Most email marketing platforms offer statistical reports that contain important metrics such as email open rates, unsubscribe rates, and much more. You should also keep an eye out for potential deliverability issues, including spam complaints and bounced emails. If you keep your emails short, relevant, and to the point, deliverability should not be an issue.
Additional tip: To be on the safe side, make sure to grow your email subscribers organically. Avoid purchasing email lists and sending out large cold email blasts, this is a surefire way of ending up in the spam folder.
Conclusion
To implement a successful email marketing campaign, you must first know which part of the process should be automated. Then, make sure your subject line and preheader are eye-catching, and optimize your email design. Include a VIP program to reward loyal customers, and don’t forget about SEO marketing tricks such as minding your loading speed. To tie it all together, monitor your campaign performance regularly.