Email marketing is the practice of using customers’ preferred method of communication – email – to promote your products and build customer loyalty by sending tailored, consistent and highly targeted messages that meet each recipient’s interests, wants, needs and buying habits. Done well, email marketing can help build lasting relationships between brands and customers by sending tailored, consistent and highly tailored communications that reflect each target audience’s specific interests, wants needs and purchasing patterns.
Email remains one of the primary channels through which businesses connect with their customers online, yet with so many marketers competing for space in your customers’ inboxes, getting noticed and turning subscribers into paying subscribers can be more challenging than anticipated. Here we explore best practices for effective email marketing with tips that will help create messages that get results.
Making sure the subject line of your email grabs subscribers’ attention is key to driving sales. A good rule of thumb is to keep it short, with only relevant information being displayed at the forefront. Consider including a call-to-action or clear value proposition within the subject line itself, and use email analytics to see what works.
As humans process visuals 60,000 times faster than text, don’t be intimidated to experiment with email design. Play around with different colors, hero images (big bold fonts that pop off the page), layout and tone to see what resonates most with your audience. However, be wary that overusing graphical elements could turn your emails into an overcrowded and disorganized mess!
One of the keys to running an effective email campaign lies in being able to construct and manage an email list, including validating and keeping current all email addresses collected from subscribers through double opt-ins or similar mechanisms. Furthermore, be certain that any emails are compliant with local data protection and privacy laws applicable both to sender and recipient locations.
Once you’ve established an email list, segmentation allows you to send content tailored specifically to subscribers’ interests and buying habits – creating a more tailored experience and increasing engagement rates. Email segmentation can be accomplished by using demographic and market data analysis as well as stage of the funnel identification – for instance a new subscriber might require more product education than someone who has purchased your service already.
As well as creating and sending email campaigns that resonate with your customers, it’s also essential to manage the frequency of these communications. Some customers might prefer daily emails while others might only require occasional updates about new product features or services from you. Meeting these expectations while forging meaningful relationships with each of your audience members throughout their journey is the cornerstone of successful email marketing.
