If you are a business owner who lays awake at night wondering how you can connect with your target audience, you cannot afford to skip this article. And if you’re a business owner who has never really considered how connecting your brand with your audience directly impacts your business, this article is here to let you in on a game-changing business move.
Email marketing – that’s it- that’s your answer and your game-changer. No need to waste more time looking for ways to expand your horizon, wondering where to invest your money, or experimenting with dead-end marketing strategies. No matter what size business you own, small, worldwide, or anywhere in between, email is the marketing strategy worthy of your time, money, and energy. Whether you’re hearing this for the first time or just need a little pep-talk for motivation, read on to learn how to maximize your email marketing campaign in ways that will propel your business to new heights.
Let’s Define Email Marketing
Defined simply, email marketing involves sending messages related or connected to your brand or business by email.
These messages serve as bridges of communication between you and your target audience.
Once you are connected through email there is an opportunity for building a strong, consistent, and valuable relationship that goes both ways.
You benefit from the mass delivery of messages from everything from simple communication to education, and brand awareness, and your customer benefits from the goods or services that your business provides.
Email Marketing by the Numbers
Numbers matter. They drive our decision-making in nearly every aspect of our lives, so it only makes sense to let the numbers do the talking here.
Email Users Are Still GROWING
The first promotional email campaign was sent more than 40 years ago, in 1978. That first mass email was sent to a whopping 400 people. Since then, the popularity of email marketing has grown exponentially. Imagine the numbers that a mass email would reach today, with an estimated 4 billion email users projected by the end of 2022. To say it a different way, that’s 3 times more email accounts than there are Facebook and Twitter combined, reports Campaign Monitor.
Email Contact Lists Are a Lifeline
Email is the currency of the web. You must provide an email address to do virtually anything online. Want to join a social group? Provide an email. Want a quote on auto insurance? Provide an email. Want a discount on prescription drugs? Provide an email. You get the picture. Now, none of that would matter if we simply punched in our email address and left it at that. But we don’t. According to Constant Contact, 99% of email users go back and check their email accounts daily. Email is like a permanent contact list, connecting us with one another- it only makes sense to pair this with some marketing strategies and email is your most dependable daily brand ambassador.
ROI- Email Marketing is Number ONE
There are roughly 43 different categories of marketing strategies at your disposal, according to Campaign Monitor. That means there are 43 different marketing channels that work to get your brand or product name out into the world. Out of that list of 43, email ranks #1 for ROI (Return on Investment). For every $1 that a business puts into their email marketing campaign, they can expect to see a $38 ROI. That’s unparalleled by any other digital marketing strategy. Back that up by the fact that successful email marketing campaigns have ranked #1 for ROI for 10 years in a row, and it’s clear that this is not just a trend, it is the most cost-effective way to promote your brand and directly increase sales.
Email Marketing Drives Conversion Rates
The ultimate goal for any marketer is to turn potential customers into paying customers, and there isn’t a more powerful channel to do this with than email. Campaign Monitor reports that the average click-through rate of an email campaign is around 3%, whereas the average click-through rate from a tweet is close to 0.5%. This means that it is 6 times for likely for someone to click through your website via email than you are with Twitter.
From these clicks come direct sales- 4.24% of direct sales to be exact. This is compared to 2.49% of visitors from search engines and 0.59% from social media, according to a survey conducted by Monetate.
More Benefits of Email Marketing
Email marketing isn’t controlled by third parties.
Just to be able to communicate and engage with an audience, millions of dollars have been spent on purchasing social media followings. Sadly, 98% of brand followers will never see the posts in their news feed and the company that invested their money into these efforts will never see their ROI, says Campaign Monitor.
All of this is because these media channels are owned and controlled by third parties who have a right to make changes to their platforms anytime they want, such as updating their viewing algorithms to push paid advertising.
Email is an open communication platform that isn’t controlled by any one particular entity. The time and money that you invest into building a great email list will never be threatened by a third party who can limit its effectiveness.
Email Marketing Campaigns are Purposeful
You’ll want to send emails that speak to your subscribers in a purposeful way. Let’s consider what can be purposeful communication.
- Welcome emails
- Newsletters
- Promotional content
- Lead nurturing emails
- Invitational emails
- Surveys
- Transactional emails
- Milestone emails
Writing an Email Marketing Campaign that Drives Results
1. Build Your Email List
The first step to a successful email marketing campaign is getting that email contact list going. Building your email list is a stable, long-term investment that will pay off for many years to come, so it’s very much worth the effort of doing it right from the beginning.
- Create a signup form that visitors see on your website if they like what they see and want a way to know more and stay connected.
- Put pen to paper and collect a signup sheet as you promote your brand and see that people have an interest in it.
- If you have a social media following, share your signup form on your social media channels.
Do you have an existing list and want to add more subscribers?
- Offer a prize by hosting a contest or offering a discount.
- Make your emails easy to share.
- Create a landing page that gives visitors a clear call to action.
Best Practice Tips that are Worth Mentioning
- Never buy an email list, such as third-party lists.
- Always get permission and ensure that everyone on your list has opted in to receive emails from you.
- As required by law, you must include an unsubscribe link.
2. Provide Great Content
After you’ve compiled a comprehensive contact list, it’s time to concentrate on your content. It’s got to be great. A good way to do this is to constantly remind yourself of what your customers signed up for in the first place. If done right, you could find your brand among the ranks of businesses with customers that are happy to your brand name in their inbox. It’s possible.
As reported by Marketing Sharma, 61% of email users say they appreciate receiving weekly promotional advertising in their inboxes. This is opposed to only 17% of social media users who say the same.
Good vs Bad Subject Lines
For maximum open rates, carefully craft your subject lines. This is the first thing your visitors are going to see, and it’s going to decide whether it’s clicked or skipped. Here are some practical suggestions for making sure your subject lines are helping optimize your conversion rates.
3. Sending Your Email
Service Providers
An email service provider is your resource for managing and sending marketing emails. You have a choice of email service providers, and not all providers are created equal. Consider the following categories of a strong provider.
- Scalability
- Ease of usability
- Domain score
- Email campaign support and flexibility
- Testing features to reduce manual workload
- Analytics and reporting to gather insights for future planning
- Integration with websites, apps, and other channels
- Costing
- Customer support
Frequency
It’s time to set some goals and establish how frequently you send your emails. Every marketer wants to know the perfect number of campaigns they should send out. What is the magic number that is enough to get the best response but not so overdone that recipients stop paying attention?
This is something that can be tricky at first. So, just send your emails at your own pace initially, but be ready to evaluate and adjust your frequency as needed if you’re not happy with unsubscribe or click-through rates. Eventually, you’ll find just the right rhythm.
Email Marketing Automation
Staying relevant is the key to successful email marketing: send the right message, to the right recipient, at the right time. If you can’t do this, chances are your email campaign hits the trash before ever being read.
Email marketing automation is the ultimate solution to staying relevant. An automation campaign is a targeted email or series that you can set and forget, unlike regular campaigns.
Email marketing software is packed with marketing tools to help you automatically send and track email trends such as abandoned cart emails and behavioral automations. With the right tools, you’ll save lots of time and increase your profits significantly. EmailToolTester reports that businesses that use email automation software generate twice as many leads as those that don’t.
The amazing thing about automated email campaigns is that you can increase your ROI by just letting your campaign work on its own. It takes no work, time, or energy on your part. This helps you streamline your communications with customers, leaving more time to focus on other elements of your marketing campaign.
4. Analytics and Segmentation
Segmenting your contact list means organizing you list into smaller groups with similar characteristics. This allows you to tailor email content more effectively, such as shared interest, purchase history, or geographical characteristics. Doing this allows you to talk more personally, directly, and purposefully throughout the life of your customer relationships.
Too much work has been done to hit ‘send’ and sit and wait to see what happens. Track and analyze your campaign results so you know what’s working and what isn’t and refine your marketing strategy.
Items to consider tracking:
- Subject lines
- Reach (how many people get your emails)
- Content
- From names
- Campaign comparisons
- Engagement reports
- Send times
- Clicks
- Opens
- Money earned
- Mobile open rate
Don’t be overwhelmed by this. It doesn’t need to be difficult. There are lots of great digital marketing companies who have made it their business to take over at this step and do all this segmentation and analytics for you, proficiently and effectively.
C1M is Your Email Marketing Resource
Email, as a channel of marketing and customer communication, continues to thrive as an essential tool for reaching people throughout the lifetime of the customer relationship. The numbers are clear- email marketing is by far the most effective strategy to engage and connect with an audience to nurture and convert sales for your business.
With years of experience, our expert team at C1M knows exactly how to help you manage your marketing needs in ways that will ensure your business not only grows but thrives in today’s competitive market.
Marketing can be complicated, and it can be easy to get lost in the sheer volume of information. With the help of our full-service digital marketing agency, C1M can handle all your digital marketing efforts so that you can focus on other aspects of running and growing your business.
Our specialized marketing service team has the drive and endurance to keep moving your brand forward toward success. Let’s partner up to build your online presence by engaging and nurturing your customers along their journey.