All business owners – regardless of industry – have one goal. That is, to achieve high levels of success. While there are many steps that may be taken that will result in success, the one that will prove to be true over and over again is an effective email marketing campaign. In fact, it is considered to be the most effective of all marketing channels.
Estimates state that for every $1 that is spent on an email marketing campaign, you can expect a return on investment of approximately $50 or more. Currently, nearly 300 billion emails are sent each day. By the end of 2023, this is expected to increase to approximately 350 billion emails a day. By getting in on this amazing marketing tactic now, you are sure to find yourself reaching new levels in your business.
What is Email Marketing?
In short, email marketing simply utilizes email communications to promise various types of products and/or services in which your business specializes. In doing so, it allows you to develop solid relationships with potential customers.
It is like direct mail, only it is done electronically and does not require the use of the postal service.
While only one simple segment associated with internet marketing, it actually encompasses that marketing which is done through websites, blogs, and social media networks.
Examples of email marketing are highly varied.
You may publish newsletters that provide detailed updates on your business or even promote various sales or deals that are designated for subscribers only. You may choose to share general information about your company. You may outline products and/or services that aid in solving problems for potential customers.
Email marketing helps to information and/or publish specifically-tailored messages to a target audience.
How Does Email Marketing Work?
Generally speaking, an email marketing campaign simply allows you to set up and comprehensively track individual marketing campaigns and/or promotions. You will simply need to set up an opt-in area on your website. This may be used for newsletters, updates, and the going-ons of your business.
This is a very inexpensive means of getting information out about your products, services, or your company – in general.
In most instances, you will utilize special types of email software to create, schedule, and automate your campaign.
By using email marketing, you have the capability of targeting certain groups or specific customers.
Examples of promotions that you may take part in include setting up sales and savings events for birthdays, special holidays, and certain groups of people – such as Veterans, military personnel, first responders, moms, dads, and more!
By creating these types of campaigns, your business has the ability to cultivate relationships with customers. In doing this, it helps in increasing sales and improving the loyalty of your customers.
Is Email Marketing Still Relevant?
Now that social media has increased in popularity, many business owners are under the impression that email marketing is no longer relevant; however, this is not true.
This form of marketing still holds a high level of relevance in today’s world.
In fact, when it comes to conversion rates between email marketing campaigns and social media marketing campaigns, it was found email marketing held the lead at 2.3%, followed by social media at 1%.
Survey studies have established that nearly 60% of all consumers are heavily influenced by emails when making a purchasing decision.
Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing
It is considered highly effective to combine email marketing and social media marketing techniques to increase the overall success of your business. By combining the two strategies, you are more likely to be seen by your target audience.
When you post as your business on social media network platforms, there is no guarantee that everyone that Likes your Page will see the message.
On the other hand, if an email is sent, it will remain in the inboxes of your target audience until it is either read or the target audience goes through in deletion.
In a perfect world, email marketing should be used in conjunction with social media marketing.
When you send a marketing email, be sure to add “Share” and “Like” buttons to the message so that your customers are given an additional method for connecting with and interacting with your brand.
You should also place snippets of any reviews and comments from the fans on your social media accounts.
Likewise, you may put up a sign-up button on your social media accounts that will allow your fans to sign up for your newsletters, emails, or any other type of correspondence from your business.
If done correctly, utilizing a combination of email marketing and social media marketing may prove to be highly profitable for your business.
Best Email Marketing Strategies
The following outlines the best strategies for companies looking to engage in email marketing campaigns:
- Personalize the Messages
Before we delve any further, let’s just say that personalizing messages in an email marketing campaign does not mean that you have to send individual email messages to each of your subscribers.
It means that you utilize various types of customer data or information in order to create a more personalized message to a group of people.
By sending out personalized emails, you will find that you experience up to 6 times the transactions. Despite this, up to 70% of businesses do not personalize their email campaigns.
This translates to a huge loss.
First, make certain that the recipient’s name is used (these have open rates that are 16% higher). Utilize a subject line that captures the reader’s interest. Use an authentic reply-to email and include a real signature on the email.
- Engage in the Act of Segmentation
By incorporating the use of CRM software programs, you can segment the recipients of your email marketing campaign in order to create more personalized emails. You may segment on age, location, and numerous other variables.
By engaging in the segmentation tactic, you will find that your open rates are better, you have higher quality leads, your business experiences higher amounts of transactions, your revenue increases, and that you end up with a larger customer base.
- Mobile-Friendly Communications
Nearly 70% of all of your email marketing campaign messages will be opened by audiences that use a mobile device – such as a smartphone. Nearly 50% of all people check their phones in the mornings for texts, calls, and emails.
Unfortunately, approximately 20% of all email campaigns are not optimized for the mobile devices that are used today. If they are optimized for mobile devices, it results in massive amounts of revenue.
In fact, the revenue generated on mobile devices is up to 4x that of revenue generated on conventional desktop computers. Simply implement responsive designed emails, keep your header and the subject line of the message short, and make the call to action in the message large enough to be noticeable.
- Test Your Campaign Elements
When you create an email marketing campaign, it is important that you take the time to test the various elements of your campaign to see what is working and what is not working.
You should test the subject lines, the messaging tactics that you utilize, the overall design, the call-to-action, the personalization, the audience that you have targeted, the sender’s name, the signatures, and the landing page.
You can examine whether plain text or HTML works better, whether long emails or short emails are best, and several other components. By testing, it means that you figure out what is resulting in the highest levels of success and going with it.
- Automated Campaigns
Did you know that you can automate your email marketing campaigns? Yes, that is correct. Today’s technology extends much further than setting up delivery of emails on a certain day and at a certain time. Now, emails can be set to be sent out when customers perform a certain behavior.
They are referred to as “trigger emails”.
Common forms include messages of appreciations, order confirmations, and receipts. The open rates for these types of automated campaigns are very high – in most cases, up to 95% higher than that of the open rates associated with traditional emails.
Additionally, they generate up to 18 times more profits. If you want to experience a high level of success in your email marketing campaign, it is essential that you take full advantage of automated email marketing campaigns.
- Pay Attention to Your Subject Lines
When creating a subject line for your email marketing campaign emails, avoid the “dead zone”, which is 60 to 70 characters.
If you want to engage your readers enough to click on through to read the content of the email, make the subject line longer than 70 characters.
If you want to increase your open rate, go for a subject line that is 49 characters or lower. Even better are subject lines that have 10 or less characters – such as single words like “Wow”, “Look”, and “Check it Out”. These are associated with an open rate of nearly 60%! You must determine if you want to increase your response rate or the awareness of your brand.
You should go with a long subject line for the clickthroughs.
You should go with a short subject line to increase your open rate.
- Timing is Everything
Have you ever struggled with what time to send your email marketing campaign emails? No need to wonder anymore. Now, it is anywhere from 8pm to midnight. Sending your messages at night is considered to be the absolute best strategy for success. This time period has high levels of clickthroughs and high levels of sales.
Generally speaking, mailing time corresponds with the behaviors of your recipients, the inbox crowding that is occurring, and the time when other marketers send their messages.
The best news is, the 8pm to midnight slot is not used all that often.
Give it a try and you are sure to see that allows you to experience a higher level of success than other time slots throughout the day.
We Can Help!
If you are ready to start an email marketing campaign for your business, we here at Brick Road Media can assist you! In addition to this, we offer assistance on building websites, blogs, and the content for all of your business needs. It does not matter if you are just starting out or are seasoned, we are here to help!