A Crash Course in Email Marketing
So, what is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is the use of email to promote products or services while developing relationships with potential customers or clients. It is essentially direct mail sent electronically instead of through the postal service. (Ward, what is email marketing?)
Email marketing continues to be the preferred written communication to share information about any product offering, give updates and stay in contact with the subscribers.
The golden rule for email marketing to work well is that it should only be sent to those who have explicitly agreed to the communication and given their permission. That way the message is seen as relevant and of value to the recipient.
After the permission is sought, by way of opt-in confirmation request, or double opt-in confirmation, the effort to share a message that has value to the subscriber should be a priority in every email outreach. This will ensure that the email message is viewed as relevant, and the reader views the message backed by the trust of the value it has to offer.
Email is an important part of the B2B world seen as the most prominent form of communication for 73% of businesses.
A HubSpot survey states that 91% of consumers use email.
Email messaging presents an incredible opportunity to reach customers without disturbing the routine that a sales phone call does when it comes in the middle of the workday. Email messaging on the other hand is unobtrusive.
It is easy to send and receive and easy to set up on a mobile device or desktop or laptop. It is easy to measure and know if the receiver has seen or opened it. It allows for targeted communication and increasing the brand awareness of the product or service or offering.
A good email marketing strategy is to encourage customers to share offers as much as possible. It can provide the subscribers with discounts, specials, new products, and more.
To put it together the benefits of email marketing are:
– You can collect data like an email address or phone number, which is far more comprehensive and targeted than the standard address book. This also allows for far greater response rates.
– The technology is easier to use, more intuitive, and cheaper. And, there’s the question on many marketers’ minds, why are email campaigns expensive? It’s expensive because of the time, effort, and money it takes to build your database of contacts.
– It’s simple and fast to send information out to a huge database of people who have permitted you to contact them. Email marketing makes it possible to market to your audience very rapidly because of the ability to send information to them in very quick succession, once you have compiled your information. And, of course, it’s quick to review it and respond. (Why Email Marketing Is Important, 2021) (Aiken, 2020)
Email Marketing Best Practices:
- Experiment and deliver your emails at the right time
- Establish the appropriate email frequency
- Give subscribers compelling reasons to click
- Plan ahead for special dates
- Use the curiosity gap in your subject lines
- Create an email drip campaign (onboarding)
- A/B test your email campaigns
- Write engaging email copy
- Use high-quality visuals
- Optimize the preview text
- Have clear CTAs
- Use storytelling to build trust
13. Build your list
14. Segment your email list
15. Use double opt-in
16. Keep your email list clean by removing the dormant subscribers
17. Allow your audience to unsubscribe easily
18. Personalize your email campaigns
19. Automate your messages
20. Avoid ‘no-reply sender address and increase legitimacy
21. Make your emails time-sensitive
22. Remind subscribers why they signed up
23. Make a promise from Day 1 (and keep it)
24. Optimize your landing pages
25. Reward loyal email subscribers
26. Integrate email marketing with social media
27. Send emails with a sender’s signature
Five Best Practices in Detail about Email Marketing
1. Build Subscribers network by confirm opt-ins –
In order to build a reliable and healthy email subscribers it is useful to contact people who have opted to receive your communication rather than any random purchased email database. The open rate of these emails will always be better and also the engagement from the subscribers.
2. Use a reply-to in the sender’s email address –
Using an email where the receiver can reply to, as it is seen as trustworthy and increases chances of the open rate by the receiver. It also enables in creating chances of conversation when the subscriber choses to write back for further information or any sort of feedback. However, by disabling the reply to option, or sending from ‘do not reply to’ email address it often creates doubt and disappointment to the receiver and breaks trust.
3. Include sender’s email signature-
What be the communication, email messages that carry signature of the person on whose behalf the message is being sent inclines the receiver to be attentive to its message and acknowledge the sender’s authority.
4. Sanitising the email database periodically -
Cleaning your mailing list regularly is a good practice to follow. It means checking on the subscribers who have never opened the emails and removing them from the database. That affects the open rate and campaign quality if the database is not cleaned.
5. Keeping the ‘Call to Action’ tab above the fold –
It is a useful habit to keep the action point on the email come before the fold so that the chances of recipient acting on it are higher. It is observed that 70% of the people do not see the CTA if it is below the fold. It is also good to give a repeat reminder of the CTA at least of 3 times for it to get noticed and responded to.
Email Marketing mistakes to avoid –
There are some key things to keep in mind to ensure these mistakes don’t overshadow the efforts of email marketing that you have put in –
1.Email content being generic -
Quality content is the main reason if the subscriber will stick with you and be a useful member of your email messaging community. However, if the email content is generic or not specific in its message, then it will not matter and the email subscriber may not open the future emails or may unsubscribe.
2. Having a one-way conversation –
Oftentimes the email communication is all focused on you marketing the offers or services that the company offers, with little or no regard to the person who may have opted for those emails’ messages. It is a mistake to only push promotions or sales pitches without making them tailored or personalised to the receiver based on proper segmentation.
3. Not having a clear Call to Action –
Not having clarity on clearly defined actions that you want to get out of the email promotion is a planning oversight that can delay or derail the marketing efforts and investment on opting for an email messaging strategy.
Bibliography
Weaver Power Boost. 2021. Why Email Marketing Is Important. [online] Available at: <https://weaverpowerboost.com/why-email-marketing-is-important/> [Accessed 16 August 2021].
Aiken, M., 2020. 9 reasons why email marketing is so important — SITE-SEEKER. Site. Available at: https://www.site-seeker.com/9-reasons-why-email-marketing-is-so-important/ [Accessed August 21, 2021].
Anon, 2021. 26 email marketing best practices that drive results. Email Marketing Automation Platform for Thriving Businesses. Available at: https://moosend.com/blog/email-marketing-best-practices/ [Accessed August 22, 2021].
Anon, 2021. 9 email marketing mistakes to avoid in 2021. Digital Agency Network. Available at: https://digitalagencynetwork.com/email-marketing-mistakes-to-avoid [Accessed August 22, 2021].
Ward, S., What is email marketing? The Balance Small Business. Available at: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/email-marketing-2948346 [Accessed August 22, 2021].
