Email Marketing Strategy - Tips & Tricks

Every marketer these days uses email marketing. Using it the right way can generate great results for your campaign, whether it's a sales or brand awareness campaign.

When talking about a sales campaign:

Email campaign → Website visit → Product purchase.

It's a very efficient way to improve the ROI. Email marketing is neither expensive nor time-consuming.

Since you can send customized emails to a designated audience, it is a decent method for converting leads into sales. It can likewise be utilized to remarket pre-qualified leads.

Email marketing is powerful at each phase of the client lifecycle:

• Awareness: Customers perceive their concerns later which you can teach them how your brand can settle them. Example - Share the newsletter with customers (5 important skincare products that everyone should have).
• Consideration: The customer is focused on searching for relevant products (Solutions) and compares the product with similar ones. Example - Send relevant emails to promote your product (Discover the perfect moisturizer for your skin. This product: Smoothens your skin, Hydrates your skin, Contains SPF 20).
• Purchase: Encourage your customers to purchase the product by giving offers. Example - Give discounts via Emails and encourage your customer to purchase your product (20% off on this moisturizer till [DATE]!).
• Retention: Nurture your relationship with customers to ensure they remain loyal to your brand. Example - Send emails to only active customers (Exclusive offer just for you: But a combo pack of facial kit at just $39 and get a sunscreen with $10 for free!)
• Advocacy: Convery your active customers into brand advocates. Example - Send emails to customers to promote your products (let’s focus on saving lives today. I'm giving all the profits from the sales of my site's Lip care item to instruct helpless kids. Assuming you are interested, purchase a lip care item from my site and help the penniless.

Email marketing setup:

1. Identify target audience and create a segment
2. Set up your campaigns using the right CTA
3. Test your emails before sending
4. Send campaigns immediately or schedule a time
5. Analyze performance (Open rate, CTR, response rate) and optimize campaigns.

Image credits: Pixabay.com

Things you must do before starting a campaign:

1. Creating and adding a contact list
2. Creating your first campaign
3. Selecting the list (Either we can send it to all contacts, or you can select the recipient list)
4. Choosing a suitable format for your campaign
5. Modifying the template and updating the subject line
6. Finally, you can send our emails to relevant customers.

• Exactly like in other social media channels, you must do A/B testing in Email Marketing as well. There are many elements that you can play with like senders’ names, subject lines, email copy, CTA, Email designs, Images, etc. The A/B testing never ends because there is always another option that will perform better than the previous one.

How to optimize the subject line?

• Include a number in your subject line because numbers tend to perform better.?
• You can include an emoji in your subject line (Highly recommended). According to Experian, subject lines with emojis can increase open rates by 45% especially if they are positive emojis.?
• You can also personalize subject lines for better open rates. It can improve CTR and open rates as well. It has been found that personalizing your subject lines increase the email open rate by up to 50%.
• Another thing is to prefer title case subject lines like Game Of Thrones Is My Favorite Show.?
• Make sure that your subject line is not too long (17-24 characters)! According to Campaign Monitor, the ideal length of a subject line is 17-24 characters as they are more likely to boost email open rates.?
• Another important thing is to create a sense of urgency (Hurry up, offer expires, limited stocks, limited time offer).

Optimize your email content:

• Send content that is relevant to customer expectation
• Use bullet points to make the content readable
• Follow a logical structure (Like if you were talking to that person). You must try to read it out loud and see if it sound like a human conversation or not. If not, then you must improve the email content.
• Use compelling images
• Prefer to design emails with responsive designs
• Avoid grammatical mistakes
• Personalize emails for your readers
• Choose the right fonts and colors for your emails (Like in the A/B testing).
• Assemble compatibility with clients by sharing bits of knowledge they esteem
• Use recipient names
• Add a clear CTA at the end

Automating emails:

Triggered emails are sent to customers based on an event, date, or user behavior (Events - Occasions, Date - Birthdays, Anniversaries, User behavior - Cart abandonments, Product recommendation).

Autoresponder emails are sent at frequent intervals based on the behavior of subscribers.

Image credits: Pixabay.com

Different types of email campaigns:

• Newsletter: With email newsletters, subscribers are connected and informed about the product updates. How to optimize? Stack your email content, Create a compelling header, share a different variety of useful content (Videos, articles, podcasts, webinars, etc.) with recipients, follow a consistent schedule.
• Promotional emails: Drive revenue by sending special offers through promotional email. How to optimize? Personalize your campaigns, include time-sensitive offers, prefer to send offer emails on holiday.
• Abandoned cart emails: These emails are shared with customers who have added products to their cart but failed to complete the checkout process. It’s an effective way of sales recovery.

How to optimize?

Use a simple abandoned cart email template, personalize your abandoned-cart recovery emails, send a series of email remainder (Example: Email 1 - You left something in your cart, can we help?, Email 2 - Hi [Name], items in your shopping cart are selling out quickly, a gentle reminder, Email 3 - [Name], 20% off on your cart! Valid until [Date]). Offer on your favorite product, in your email remainder add a product image.

• Re-engagement campaign: It is a series of emails sent to inactive email subscribers, it boosts engagement and helps to maintain a high IPR (Inbox Placement Ratio).

How to optimize?

• Prefer gamification to re-engage subscribers
• Prefer subject lines like “We have been missing you”
• Run a poll or competition to re-engage with your subscribers

How to engage with new subscribers:

• Thank your subscribers for joining

Example: Hi Sam, thank you for subscribing. Below is a discount code for you...

• Create a clear and compelling subject line

Poor example: Thanks for joining - Here’s what’s on sale

Good Example: Hi [Name], Save on your first order

• Know the ideal time to message them
• Avoid the ‘no-reply’ sender name. According to HubSpot, most customers do not open emails from unfamiliar senders (like [email protected])
• Let your subscribers know your company’s privacy policy.
• Prefer an attractive email design
• Include an unsubscribe link

Article by: Barak Zamler

Sources for this article:

1) https://lettoknow.com/career-opportunities-in-digital-marketing//

2) https://krishdigitale.com/blogs/

3) https://www.slideshare.net/Simplilearn/email-marketing-email-marketing-tutorial-what-is-email-marketing-how-does-it-work-simplilearn/

4) https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/digital-marketing-tutorial/what-is-email-marketing/

5) https://www.websolutions.com/blog/how-to-improve-your-email-marketing-performance/

6) https://www.simplilearn.com/harnessing-the-power-of-email-marketing-article