Among the various areas of digital marketing, email marketing is the most effective tool, which is especially true in times of crisis and falling consumer activity. Internet marketers are focusing on the development of email newsletters due to ever-increasing competition and promotion costs in other channels. Most companies have already started doing mailing lists but may have a lot of questions about how to make their email campaigns effective. If you are one of those who do not want to risk taking blind steps, then we have a couple of useful tips for you.
What’s Going on With Email Marketing in 2022?
Despite the fact that email marketing has been used for a long time, it is still popular among business owners and helps them achieve their business goals. It is this communication channel that accounts for 56.8% of all purchases and brings direct visits to the site in 17.9% of cases. Apart from that, some other benefits of effective email marketing are as follows:
- Low prices for using this communication channel;
- The ability to make an up-to-date database of contacts and get followers;
- The possibility to arrange communication between the brand and customers;
- Automation of the mailing process based on database segmentation;
- Increase efficiency through personalization;
- Brand recognition opportunities;
- Possibility of customer retention and additional sales.
There are many ways to reach out to your customers. Social media, content marketing, display advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), affiliate marketing - these are some of the instruments that are available at our disposal. But when viewed in terms of return on investment, email marketing is hard to beat. According to the DMA, email marketing generates an average return of £32.28 ($36) for every $1 invested. It is no wonder that it is ranked as the top digital marketing channel in terms of performance.
Effective Email Marketing in 2022 Is…
Email marketing is a carefully crafted process of attracting and communicating with your subscribers. With the help of newsletters, companies build trusting relationships with their customers, nurture leads, increase sales, and grow customer retention. However, all these can be achieved if the email marketing approach is effective and includes the following:
- Well-developed strategy - A step-by-step email marketing plan helps move a customer down the sales funnel through mailings. To achieve the desired level of conversions, you need to think about the types of email campaigns, the sequence of campaigns, content plan, design, link building, and sending frequency;
- Subscriber base - The effectiveness of email campaigns largely depends on the quality of a mailing list. The more target customers you have interested in the company's products, the higher the level of engagement and conversions will be. Therefore, regularly generate leads and add them to your mailing list. Test different recruiting techniques and plan a customer journey map;
- Reliable email service for marketing automation - It is physically impossible to interact manually with thousands of subscribers, especially considering that in addition to promotional emails, it is necessary to send transactional, trigger and informational ones. An email marketing service, such as Mail Chimp, helps you plan campaigns, track statistics, segment subscribers, and keep your contact list hygienic;
- Segmentation and personalization - Everyone knows that each customer needs an individual approach. There is no personal contact in email marketing, so it all depends on the quality of the content and its relevance. To keep your subscribers engaged and create engaging offers for them, it's important to send content that's as personalized as possible. To do this, you need to group subscribers into segments, and then prepare relevant email campaigns for each group;
- Reactivation of inactive subscribers - An impressive base of contacts is not a guarantee of success. The quality of the mailing list and the engagement of the audience play a huge role here. It is important to take care of the hygiene of the subscriber base, regularly reactivate passive users, and delete inactive contacts. Thus, you will interact only with an interested audience;
- Stats - Track metrics such as deliverability, open rate, click-through rate, and spam complaints to analyze the success of your email campaigns. With stats, you will understand a real picture of the engagement of subscribers, the quality of mailings, and the effectiveness of the email marketing strategy.
Of course, all of the above are extremely important. However, some of these elements deserve special attention and should definitely be considered. Let’s dwell on the key points further.
Segment Your Audience & Personalize Content
You won't achieve your email marketing goals if you send irrelevant content to your subscribers. Segmented email campaigns have a 100.95% higher click-through rate than non-segmented ones, and personalization increases revenue by about six times. That’s just awesome, agree?
To personalize content, first segment your audience. There are different ways to group subscribers into segments:
- By sex and age;
- By geolocation;
- By category of purchased goods;
- By the amount of purchases;
- By behavior on the site or in a letter;
- By interest;
- By subscription duration.
Next, personalized content is created for each group of subscribers to increase the relevance of mailings and sales. Use all available information about clients and make special offers for them. For example, Christmas email campaigns and special birthday emails perform well.
Don't forget to personalize an email subject line. Based on it, approximately 35% of users decide to open an email entry. According to statistics, emotional content increases efficiency by 70%. However, so that there are no errors, be sure to check before sending how the subject is displayed with different email providers.
Experiment with Content & Do Split Testing
The longer a user is a subscriber of a company, the less involved one is. Therefore, in order to maintain the interest of recipients in mailing lists, it is necessary to regularly fight for their attention and create various creative campaigns. Add useful videos, interactive elements, royalty free music, and GIFs to emails.
Consider showcasing your products and making the email more interesting with different types of content. It can be a free video on how to use your product, a short guide, or a funny GIF. Of course, it is better to create a custom video with the help of Fastreel and send it to your audience. But you can also consider using stock video that reflects the email message.
Choose the Right Time to Send
Sending time affects the effectiveness of email campaigns. Dozens of emails accumulate in the user's Gmail mailbox every day. And in order not to get lost among them, you need to know when it is better to send your newsletter. However, there is no exact time because it depends on your target audience, business area, and other factors.
But how to determine the best day and time for your email send-outs? Here are two tips to help you figure it out:
- Analyze site statistics - See which days of the week and at what times the attendance is the highest. Then make a distribution according to the received data and analyze the result in email analytics;
- Look at your competitors' mailing approach - It's not the most accurate way, but it can be useful. Most often, users subscribe to offers from different companies; therefore, in addition to your emails, they also receive emails from your competitors. See when they send out and try running your campaigns a little earlier or later. Do A/B testing to find the optimal timing.
Do not forget to track statistics and analyze performance, which is especially true about e-commerce and restaurant email marketing.
Improve Your Newsletters Regularly
Today, it is difficult to stand out from the competition, but it is extremely important to achieve your goals. Subscribe to newsletters from other companies. Analyze the design of their emails, content, and ways of personalization. Think about what is worth noting and what can be done better. Remember that for successful email marketing, it’s not enough to get a user’s contact – you need to win their favor and keep their attention. Therefore, experiment with design trends, track statistics, test email campaigns, analyze the results, and improve your campaigns regularly.
Get the Maximum!
Employ email marketing to the max and follow the best practices to grow your lead base and achieve high-level customer retention. Only in this case, you will stand out from your competitors and win customer loyalty.
