It may be hard to believe, but email marketing is still one of the most effective strategies for driving sales. I know I’ve spent a fair amount of time deleting irrelevant marketing emails from my inbox (and I’m sure you have, too). But, I also open the ones that interest me and that often leads to me buying something!
According to Hubspot, “Email marketing remains one of the most effective ways for your business to connect with customers and build lasting relationships.” (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)
How can you implement email marketing effectively?
1. Share relevant and interesting information
Helpful information and entertaining content creates the impression that you care about your customers and aren’t just trying to sell to them. Knowing your customer and what they’re concerned about is key.
Don’t write emails just to write them. This is a great way to get people to ignore your emails in the future. If you want to stay on top of your customers’ minds but don’t have anything great to report, add a sale or something else that will interest them. You can write a newsletter if it’s interesting to your customers, but don’t create a newsletter just to write one.
Email subject ideas:
- Advertise sales or events
- Introduce new products
- Introduce new services
- Solve a problem: Your customer has an issue and your product is the solution! Show them how.
- Helpful tips and information that your customers are looking for
- Fundraiser events (nonprofits)
- Case studies (nonprofits)
- Photos, videos, or stories that entertain
2. Write enticing subject lines
When a customer is deciding whether to open your marketing email, the subject line is the first thing they see. If it’s just entitled “newsletter” (and you haven’t already gained trust), then they may just delete it! People also don’t love announcements about new employees or employee promotions either, unless these are relevant to them.
Here, I recommend thinking about what makes you open an email. Don’t tease your customers. The subject line should always relate to the contents of the email.
Make sure the length of your subject line fits the average email program. The recommended maximum number of words is 9 (or 60 characters). Since email programs vary, I recommend putting the most important words in the beginning of the subject line.
3. Keep your emails short
If you want your clients to frequently open and engage with your marketing emails, make sure you let them know you value their time. When your emails are too long, they get skimmed or worse, just deleted. You can direct them to your website (and sometimes to other content) to read more information.
In addition to keeping your emails to the point, use headings and subheadings to allow your readers to intelligently skim. This way you can direct them to the actions they’ll want to take.
4. Build a good mailing list
First you’ll need to build a list and make sure you have everyone’s permission to send them emails. We often put an email signup form on websites, but they don’t get a lot of use. You can entice people to join by giving away something free that they’ll enjoy. Other ways to build recipients are:
- Make sure everyone who buys from your website is added to your mailing list.
- Put the sign up form on your blog pages.
- Offer something for free for signing up to receive your emails.
Email marketing programs can send an email that says something like “Are you sure you want to sign up?” But those often get missed. We like to make a notes or checkboxes that say things like:
- “By signing up here, you agree to receive emails from us.”
- “We promise not to overload your inbox.”
- “You can unsubscribe at any time.”
Evaluate your list regularly to make sure your recipients are relevant.
5. Use a solid email marketing program
You can just use your email service to send out your newsletters and sales emails, but there are better options for email marketing. This keeps things clean and helps to get your emails through to your customers. Providers like MailChimp or ConstantContact give you the ability to:
- Store subscribers in a database
- Create custom forms
- See how your subject lines fit
- Personalize emails
- Allow customers to unsubscribe and share
- Create branded email templates
- Segment your groups
- Conduct A/B testing
CRMs provide even more tools to manage your subscribers and customers. There are a variety of email marketing platforms and CRMs out there to meet various budgets. Ask us if you need help choosing one.
6. Brand your emails
By creating a branded templates for your marketing emails, you promote brand recognition. Use your colors, logo, and a specific layout so that your readers automatically recognize your style. (Note: We can help you with this!)
7. Set up domain authentication
All the email marketing tips in the world are no good if your emails aren’t being received. Make sure you set up domain authentication so email servers recognize your emails and don’t automatically move them to spam. You can also encourage your recipients to add your email address to their contact list to avoid your emails getting lost.
8. Always link back to your website!
Your website is the foundation of your marketing efforts. You spent a lot of time and effort creating that website. Now it’s time to get people to it.
Don’t just link to the home page. Link to blog articles or pages relevant to your content. If you’re having an event or sale, create a dedicated web page called a sales page or funnel. (Note: We can build you an effective sales page or sales page template!)
For example, if you write an interesting blog post, email your subscribers, put the first couple paragraphs of it in the email, and send them to read the rest of the post with a link or button.
9. Analyze your results
After you’ve sent out emails for a while (at least a quarter), sit down with the data. Email marketing services make this easy. Which emails had the highest open rate? What links (if any) were people clicking? Has anyone unsubscribed? You can use this information to tailor your email marketing strategy for the next quarter.
10. Use social media to attract new subscribers
You can use your website lead catcher to get new email subscribers, but there are other avenues available. If you’re posting regularly on social media, you can use those posts to gather subscribers. LinkedIn is a great source of potential clients. You can post articles on LinkedIn which can encourage users to engage with your business.
Email marketing doesn’t have to be hard or scary
It can be a valuable tool in your business for gaining trust, developing rapport, and letting your customers know what they can expect from you. When your marketing emails are short, informative, and of value to your client base, you can expect them to drive sales.
Looking for some more help? Let’s chat about how we can make email marketing work for your business.
