Email marketing remains a vital component of any marketing strategy and is the preferred marketing channel for top online marketers.
This preference is due to its ability to yield the best marketing return on investment (ROI) compared to other online marketing methods such as SEO, PPC, and content marketing. Let's take a closer look at what a quality email marketing strategy should encompass.
Table of Contents
- Ten Things an Email Marketing Strategy Should Entail
- Build A Quality Email List
- Personalize Your Emails
- Optimize Subject Lines
- Segment Your Email List
- Use Clear Call-to-Action Buttons
- Focus on Social Media
- Think of Mobile-Friendliness;
- Send at the Right Time
- A/B Test Your Emails
- Use Triggered Emails
- Email Marketing Strategies FAQs
Ten Things an Email Marketing Strategy Should Entail
An email marketing strategy containing the below steps is critical for achieving business goals and promoting products cost-effectively while communicating with customers.
1. Build A Quality Email List
Email deliverability is a significant challenge that email marketers encounter, as ensuring that their campaigns land in their subscribers' inboxes is crucial.
This is known as email deliverability, and to avoid issues with it, regularly cleaning your email list is essential. But what is list cleaning? List cleaning involves removing email addresses from your contact list that have been unengaged for a prolonged period and unsubscribed contacts.
You might be hesitant to delete contacts, thinking about the effort you put into growing your list. However, pruning your list periodically is necessary to maximize your marketing efforts.
You'll be left with a higher quality list by eliminating unengaged and unsubscribed contacts, contacts who mark your content as spam, and email addresses that bounce.
This improves your sender's reputation and overall email deliverability in the long run. Thus, while it may appear counterintuitive, purging inactive and unengaged email addresses is fundamental to an effective email marketing strategy.
2. Personalize Your Emails
Nowadays, all businesses, regardless of size, can and should use email personalization. It provides customers with a more tailored customer service experience and is simple to implement.
Simply using a contact's first name in the subject line increases the likelihood of the email being opened. Here are some tips for personalizing your emails:
- Incorporate subscribers' names in the email subject line, greeting, and body.
- Promote content based on subscribers' previous behavior.
- Suggest products based on customers' past purchases.
- Wish subscribers a happy birthday with a personalized coupon.
- Send abandoned cart notifications to secure sales.
- Streamline your sales funnel with automated, personalized messages.
- Summarize your client history (think: Spotify Wrapped).
In brief, personalized emails are a digital marketer's closest ally. The possibilities are boundless, and the outcomes are customers who are more content and engaged.
3. Optimize Subject Lines
The first thing your subscribers will notice is your subject line. Given that 35% of email subscribers open an email solely based on the subject line, it is crucial to make it captivating; otherwise, they won't click through.
That's why dedicating time to crafting your subject lines is essential - it could mean the difference between generating significant click-through rates or none at all.
Additionally, with so many marketing emails filling inboxes, it's a challenge to make your emails stand out without coming across as overly promotional.
Consider the following points when creating your subject line:
- Keep it short, within 50-60 characters, to ensure it is readable.
- Use powerful action-based words.
- Set clear expectations for the email body content.
- Include subscriber names in the subject line for a more personalized approach.
A professional content marketing firm can help you plan the content strategy for your email campaigns.
4. Segment Your Email List
By dividing your email list into groups with similar characteristics or interests, you can send targeted content that resonates with your audience. This is called email segmentation.
You may segment based on demographics, interests, behavior, or other customer persona information, such as location or job title. You can collect this information from your signup form by asking new subscribers questions like:
- What is their industry or job title?
- How frequently do they prefer to receive emails?
- Where are they located geographically?
- Which of your products or services interest them the most?
Other segmentation tactics may include grouping contacts based on links clicked in your emails or the lead magnet they originally signed up through.
5. Use Clear Call-to-Action Buttons
Your email campaigns' click-through rates heavily rely on your calls-to-action (CTAs).
Weak CTAs can result in fewer visitors and lower sales, so it's crucial to spend time creating compelling CTAs. You can use buttons and text-based CTAs while focusing on the words' impact.
Here are some tips for creating powerful CTAs for email marketing:
- Start with a strong verb, such as "shop," "buy," or "download."
- Evoke emotions.
- Give subscribers a reason to click, such as "buy now to get 50% off."
- Create a sense of urgency using FOMO (fear of missing out), such as "Grab your seat—only 5 spots left!"
Using specific language is another best practice for CTAs, especially for higher-level CTAs. For instance, if you're featuring a new product line, your CTA could read, "Check out our summer collection," The link should direct subscribers to that section of your website.
You can consult experts from an email marketing agency to plan your campaign the right way.
6. Focus on Social Media
Social media networks can be a powerful way to build your email list and keep your audience engaged.
That's why it's important to develop a social media strategy that includes ideas for utilizing these platforms in your email marketing strategy.
To leverage social media networks for email list building and email marketing, consider the following tactics:
- Create a landing page on social media networks like Facebook to capture email addresses.
- Share premium content on your social media channels that encourages your audience to subscribe to your email list to receive more exclusive content.
- Offer an incentive or lead magnet, such as a free e-book or coupon code, to encourage people to sign up for your email list.
- Host and promote webinars on social media to generate interest and grow your email list.
- Consider holding contests, sweepstakes, or giveaways on social media to encourage people to sign up for your email list.
- Experiment with running ads on social media networks to drive traffic to your landing page and grow your email list.
7. Think of Mobile-Friendliness
To enhance user experience and engagement, it is essential to ensure that your email campaigns are mobile-friendly.
Here are some tips to optimize your emails for mobile:
- Be concise. Use short email copies, subject lines, and pre-headers with larger font sizes, making it easier for readers to see the content on smaller screens.
- Adopt responsive design. Use email campaign builders that feature creating mobile-friendly emails.
- Test your call to action. Avoid using graphics that may divert the reader's attention from your call-to-action or make it difficult to read or tap on a mobile screen. Test different CTA colors, text, content, and more to determine what drives the most conversions.
8. Send at the Right Time
Sending an email at the wrong time is a common mistake many make, and it can significantly impact the success of your email campaign. To increase your emails' open and click-through rates, it's crucial to choose the best time to send them.
This will also improve your customers' loyalty towards your brand, as they are likelier to engage with your content when it's delivered at the right time.
Split testing can be a valuable strategy for determining the best email time. It's recommended to send emails on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, considered the best days for email campaigns.
Automation tools can help track customer actions and optimize email deliverability, ensuring your emails are sent at the right time. With the help of AI-based tools, you can ensure sending the right types of emails at the correct time and improve the overall success of your email marketing strategy.
9. A/B Test Your Emails
It's crucial to perform split testing before sending out emails. This way, you can ensure that your email version is adequate. Some email marketing services offer A/B testing tools that allow users to test landing pages and emails before finalizing them.
Additionally, collecting data from your campaigns is essential to identify elements that work well and areas for improvement. A/B testing is also valuable for testing various email elements, such as subject lines, calls to action, and content.
Consider running tests to determine which factors best engage your audience.
10. Use Triggered Emails
Trigger-based email marketing campaigns refer to a series of marketing emails sent to contacts based on specific actions they take. For instance, if a subscriber clicks on a link to a piece of content in an email, it can trigger three follow-up emails sent exclusively to those subscribers.
Conversely, if a subscriber does not click on a link in an email, a trigger-based campaign might send another email with an alternative piece of content or question they might be interested in.
This approach is an excellent way to maintain relevant communication with your subscribers by tailoring the content you send them based on their actions and interests rather than sending everyone the same generic content.
You can set up three different types of trigger-based emails, including:
- Behavior-based triggers: Sending follow-up emails when a contact visits a landing page, clicks a link, or makes a purchase,
- Demographic-based triggers: Sending birthday emails to subscribers,
- Time-based triggers: Reminding customers of subscription expiration dates and when it's time to reorder or re-engagement campaigns.
Email Marketing Strategies FAQs
What is the importance of an email marketing strategy?
By creating a robust email marketing strategy, you can connect with your target audience in a personalized way, increase sales, and do it all at an affordable cost. Email marketing tools allow businesses to reach customers more efficiently than ever.
What are some of the beneficial email marketing strategies?
Some of the prominent email marketing strategies are:
- Build A Quality Email List
- Personalize Your Emails
- Optimize Subject Lines
- Segment Your Email List
- Use Clear Call-to-Action Buttons
- Provide Valuable Content
- Think of Mobile-Friendliness
- Send at the Right Time
- A/B Test Your Emails
- Use Triggered Emails
Although there's no guaranteed formula for successful email marketing, incorporating fundamental tactics and improving your campaigns can be a valuable starting point.
The key is to construct email campaigns that enable you to engage with your audience, foster relationships with them, customize your content to their interests, and include conversion-oriented elements.
