Whomever tells you email marketing doesn’t work is not telling you the true story.
Email marketing technology is used by 82% of B2B and B2C companies with ROI’s 4X higher than direct mail. As people continue to receive more and more email solicitations from other companies and competitors, you’re going to have to fight for their attention.
You should always be on the lookout for new email marketing tips to give your emails the greatest potential of being opened and acted upon. This article will cover some of those tips for using email to market your small business in 2020:
Make it Easy to Subscribe and Unsubscribe
It may sound obvious, but you’re going to get a lot more subscribers if you make the subscribing process as easy as humanly possible. Keep in mind that even though all your data points to someone being interested in your email content, some recipients may just want to opt out, so unsubscribing should be just as easy.
Many small businesses don’t even feature a “subscribe box” on their websites, instead choosing to sign people up in-store or through other offline methods. Many sites still use an email link when asking people to sign up for a “free” offer or service. The better way to engage and collect information is to have an embedded form on your website instead of a plain-old email link.
Offer an Incentive to Give You Their Information
Why should someone give you their name and email address? What’s in it for them?
The incentive doesn’t need to cost anything to you, but it must be of interest to your prospect and provide value. A free eBook download, discount coupon or free service offer are all great incentives that will make the difference between securing a sign up or not.
Segment your email marketing campaigns so that each recipient is served the most relevant offer based on his or her preferences. The incentive that he or she is presented should be crystal clear so they know what to expect when they sign up.
The marketing term for this is called a Call-To-Action or CTA. Here are some good examples of good (and bad) CTA’s.
Lastly, the experience of signing up should be optimized based on the device they are using, whether it be mobile, tablet or desktop. Most people access the web via mobile devices so mobile friendly is a MUST!
Include links to your social profiles
By including links to your social media profiles in your emails, you encourage engagement and build awareness and trust.
Your subscribers have proactively signed up to receive emails from you, so it stands to reason that what you are posting on your social media accounts would also interest them.
It may be the case that your email subscribers didn’t even know you were on social media so why not give them direct access to additional valuable content to build the relationship? Here are some additional do’s and dont’s when considering adding social media links in your email campaigns.
Segment your email audience
Create a separate list for your most engaged customers. Repeat customers or subscribers who have already engaged with your emails are the ones who deserve special attention as they have shown a deeper level of interest in your business.
By creating an email list specifically for these contacts, you can send them special offers and discounts to encourage them to make purchases that only they have access to.
Evaluate and Analyze Email Campaign Metrics
Finally, you need to evaluate the performance of your email campaigns and adjust them accordingly to get the best results. Look at the following metrics for each campaign:
- Click-through rates
- Conversion rates
- Unsubscribe rates
- Bounce rates
Try to identify any patterns that affect the above rates and make the necessary adjustments. Whether you want to attract website traffic, drive sales, build engagement or brand awareness, you need to monitor your email campaigns to get the best ROI.
Use Email to Build Relationships
Email campaigns will help you learn about your customers based on their past activity. If you cannot convince your customers to click on your message, you can’t convert them, regardless of the offer or quality of your product or service. You will learn more with each new email campaign, so TEST, TEST and TEST some more to refine your message, offer and design template.
Email marketing is an affordable way to communicate with prospects and customers, gain valuable insights about their preferences and drive sales. We encourage you to work closely with your social media marketing company to build an email strategy to convert message recipients into buyers.
