Email marketing is 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter in acquiring new customers. In addition, it is a channel that generates a satisfactory return on investment, as every dollar spent in email marketing generates $38 in return on investment. Therefore, email remains one of the most powerful means used to spread brand awareness and generate more profits. But the most important question here is how do you use email marketing to launch successful marketing campaigns?
1. Create mailing lists
In the past, companies used to buy mailing lists in order to collect as many audiences as possible, to then target them with marketing messages without personalization. Now, the option to purchase mailing lists is no longer as effective as it was, because there is no guarantee that those mailing addresses will include your target customers.
The importance of purchasing these lists also decreased after the message filtering feature appeared, and the possibility of your messages reaching the spam box increased. Therefore, it is preferable to create this list by collecting data on the target segment of customers. Here are some broad steps to getting a focused mailing pool of people interested in your product or service:
- Request customer data in more than one way: Place the data registration form in several places on your website, on social media platforms, etc., to give the customer the opportunity to register from several channels, which contributes to obtaining more mailing addresses.
- Incentivize the customer to register data: Tell the customer what benefits they will get when they register their email. For example; “Register your email to see the latest offers”
- Reward your customers when they sign up: Give your customer an extra edge when they sign up for their email. Statistics show that 28% of customers prefer to receive emails with offers more than once a week. You can use expressions like: “Register your email, get a discount coupon…”
- Only ask for important information: Don’t ask for information you don’t need so you don’t waste the customer’s time. All you need in the beginning is just the email address and the name of the customer. Any other information you need, you can obtain it through the emails that you will send to the customer.
- Don’t overdo the registration request: Don’t make the email registration request too long, such as in a large pop-up that blocks content, so as not to affect the search engines’ ranking of your website’s content. It is preferable to place this form at the bottom of the screen, or in a small pop-up window that contains a text box for writing the email only, and leave it to the customer to remove it so that he can see the content displayed if he wants.
2. Create effective content
Email marketing , like any other online marketing tool, needs good content to pay off. So, be sure to create engaging content, so that customers don’t get bored reading your messages. Here are some tips that will help you produce effective content emails:
- Mix text, images and video
In a study conducted to measure engagement volume with email marketing, nearly 1 billion emails were tracked, and the study found that mail with video got 96% more CTR than mail without video. So, take advantage of this by incorporating videos into the content of your message to get a higher level of readings.
- Use a short, expressive style
The subject line is the most important part of email marketing success. Start with a short, eye-catching headline. In the body of the message, be brief and mention the important points only so as not to waste the customer’s time. And if you want to mention more, you can add links to provide more details, for the customer to visit if he wants. And if you do not have the experience to create effective content, you can request writing services from creative content makers at the lowest cost via the Fiverr platform.
3. Stick to a fixed schedule
You can send emails to your clients on a weekly or monthly basis, but it is important that you maintain a consistent schedule. This strategy will make the customer anticipate when the message will arrive and will create a kind of suspense for customers.
To find the best times to send your messages, try sending them on several different dates, and see which one offers the best engagement. However, you can break these fixed deadlines on exceptional occasions. For example; Black Friday promotional messages can be sent.
4. Create mobile-friendly messages
47% of emails are read using mobile phones. There are a set of important points that help you create emails that are compatible with mobile devices, such as: writing the content of the message in one column so that all words fit on the mobile screen, and using a suitable font size for display on mobile devices.
In addition to placing CTA buttons in clear places so that it is easy for the customer to click on them. Multiple device versions help email marketing succeed. It contributes to avoiding any design problems. Therefore, it is a good idea to add an icon to the mobile version to see the content in the browser.
5. Avoid falling into the spam trap
Email marketing professionals struggle with the problem of classifying messages as spam. And if private messages are put on the spam list, it is difficult for professional marketers to get them back again. But you can follow some simple steps that will protect you from falling into this trap:
- Use the official name of the company.
- If you use English to write your messages, it is not recommended that you capitalize all letters of the message title.
- Be sure to add an unsubscribe button .
- Mention the reason for receiving this letter. For example; You are receiving this message because you have signed up for our brand mailing list.
6. Personalize messages for each customer
Personalizing messages is one of the most important reasons for successful email marketing. Speak to the customer as if the message was tailored to them. It helps to mention the client’s name in the subject of the message. For example; “Hussam, enjoy 10% off your next order” or start your message with it, for example: “Hi Hussam,..”
Do not send the same content to all customers, take into account the differences in customer behavior, geographical locations, cultures and interests. For example; If you are the owner of a company that sells skin and hair care products, and you find a specific customer who is more interested in skin care products, then in this case you will focus on choosing products similar to the category of products that this customer prefers, and send him related emails.
Finally, give every customer who signs up their email to your mailing list a prompt response. Send them a welcome message confirming their subscription, for example; We are glad to have you registered in our mailing list… Then tell him about the next step, and don’t forget to add links to the sections on your website so that the customer can learn more about your services.
According to the statistics that we included in this report, marketing experts confirm that the aforementioned advice can increase the response rate by between 62% and 73% , and it also achieved an increase in sales for the companies that followed it by 29%.