Boost your email campaigns with these 11 tips
While everyone is talking about clever tweets, quick video making tips, and long-lasting memes, email communication is another marketing tool that remains largely intact over time.
In any case, the ingredients that made a campaign effective in 2000 may not work the same in 2019. In fact, the odds are that an email with offers will most likely end up in the recycling bin and therefore never be seen. by the recipient. In addition, it is estimated that of all email traffic, half are marked as spam. Taking all this into account, the challenge is to develop email campaigns as attractive and informative as those created for social networks or any other platform.
Times have changed and so have email marketing trends. That is why I bring you these 12 tactics so that you can improve the performance of your campaigns and know what works and what does not.
- Connect with your audience
At this point in your online life it is very likely that you have received tons of offers by email, of products in which you are not even remotely interested. This type of mass mailing has no benefit in our times.
For this reason, I recommend creating an email marketing campaign that connects with your readers. One way to accomplish this is by dividing your mailing list into narrower and more targeted groups. This practice will allow you to increase the opening rate of your emails by offering relevant content to the group you are targeting. This will also influence that users do not unsubscribe for receiving content that does not interest them.
Some of the criteria with which you can segment your mailing lists are by age, gender and geographic location. This is the basic targeting process that will allow you to send the correct message to the correct user.
1. Customize your shipments
Marketing pieces for email submissions, just like on Twitter and Instagram, should speak directly to a specific user. For this reason, there is no better way to do this than by customizing the content of your mail pieces.
Once your email lists are segmented, try to learn more about how they are made up. You must understand what attracts these users, what they are looking for when they browse for products and services, what this group understands by good customer service or what motivated them to visit the website or subscribe. Getting familiar with your readers will make it much easier for you to personalize your content, follow up well, and schedule reminders.
For example, an audience made up of millennials is more open to receiving concise information with attractive images. An excellent way to achieve this is through informative graphics which you can easily share with your circle of contacts.
2. Grab the attention of your audience and keep them interested
Today's consumers do many things at once. They browse through various platforms while reviewing information on their jobs. This means that when you send an email, you are in a constant struggle to get the attention of your readers.
Use different creative resources to capture the attention of your audience and keep it until you have delivered your message. You can use clever headlines, eye-catching images, and direct messages.
In the same way, you can create a sense of urgency in your messages using the “user's fear of being left out”, with phrases like: “You have ONE DAY to take advantage of this”.
3. Use a clear call to action
Let's say that at this point you already have the attention of the audience you want to speak to and they have read your message from beginning to end. The next step is to state what the purpose of your communication is.
Your emails must have a clear purpose which you can achieve with a correct call to action. Determine if you want your readers to visit your website, subscribe to your news list, “Like” your Facebook page or make a purchase from your online store.
Some studies recommend offering value to your audience at no cost, in exchange for a click. Avoid requesting this exchange too early to take full advantage of this resource, which can generate better results. A practical way to achieve this effect is to change the phrase "Find your solution" to "Learn more."
Some examples that can help improve your call to action with a focus on selling are:
- Buy now
- Get it today
- Yes, I want one
- Claim your coupon
- Get 20% off now
To promote content, I present some examples of call to action:
- Interested? Continue reading
- Read the full story
- Download now
4. Limit the frequency of your emails
Did you know that an average worker receives about 120 emails per day? For this reason you must have a certain distance between the sending of each piece of mail, otherwise you run the risk of your mail being sent to the Spam tray.
Remember that your audience agreed to receive your communications because they are interested in your brand, product or service. They want to stay connected, however excessive email can have a negative effect. Keep your communications at a maximum frequency of once a week so as not to saturate your audience.
5. Create eye-catching headlines for the subject and body of the email
The subject and the headlines within the body of the email are determining factors to achieve a good result. Your readers can easily ignore or delete your email if the phrase is not appropriate. Mailchimp, the email delivery platform, conducted a study that found that using short phrases in the "subject" section can improve open rates.
As in the previous steps, you can include phrases that create a sense of urgency or that ask a question. Use your already segmented mailing lists to create messages relevant to the audience you are speaking to.
6. Make sure your emails are mobile friendly
According to some estimates, the number of mobile device users is expected to reach five billion people by 2025. This means that more and more users are doing everything through their cell phones, whether it is browsing the web, on social networks or checking their mail. To create a piece that adapts to any device, you must consider the quantity and length of the text as well as the dimensions and formats of the images. Keep in mind that there are some image files that do not display on mobile devices and others that may take time to download.
7. Pay attention to the details
What would you think of a company that sends you a misspelled piece of mail? Most likely your answer is not favorable and the image of this company is probably damaged. For this reason it is essential that you prepare your messages very well since an email is similar to any other marketing communication. I recommend that you take the time to plan the content and read it carefully trying to find possible errors.
8. Deliver rewards
Gifts or prizes are a way to keep your audience active when you make a communication, since it makes users share your content within their contacts. Airlines are a great example of this practice as they have a great reward system for frequent users. In the emails that users receive are the latest launches in promotions and sometimes they offer trips with all expenses paid. Handing out awards is a great way to recognize your most loyal users.
9. Be consistent with your strategy
You may not find your ideal audience when you start building your contact base, which is no reason not to start sending emails. Run your campaigns according to your marketing schedule and try to deliver value to this new audience in the same way that you would your ideal audience no matter how many they are. In this way, those who are really interested in interacting with your brand will stay organically.
10. Make a periodic review of your campaigns
The best way to find out what works and what doesn't is to regularly review your email campaigns. Trust the measurement statistics and define your action plan based on this information. Choose the most relevant metrics based on your goals. It measures the rate of readers who clicked on a promotion or the conversion rate or the percentage of readers who completed a certain action, such as buying a product. Use this and other information from your campaign to determine where you should adjust your strategy.
Use statistics measurement tools such as EmailAnalytics, Sortd or Todoist which will help you measure a wide variety of events. For example, EmailAnalytics offers you information about the number of emails received in your Gmail box, the number of emails you send per day, who opens them and how the conversion proceeds. Similarly Sortd helps to organize mailboxes, allows you to create categories and determine priority levels in each case. The workflow that you can create with this tool gives you information on the performance of each stage of your email campaign. Finally with Todoist you can turn the received messages box into a panel of pending things to do depending on your campaign. It also allows you to organize and complete tasks and run reports of your daily performance.
Email marketing is still around and it just evolved over time. Keep in mind that consumers today want you to talk to them in a more personal way, so you should get to know and interact with them. Remember that your databases are people, so I recommend that you connect with them in the most natural way possible, which will help you obtain great results.
