You might be investing more time and money into social media campaigns (That’s good, keep it up!), but don’t forget about the tried and true marketing method that is email.
Email is a cost-effective way to reach a large target audience – in fact, email marketing campaigns generate on average $44.25 for every dollar spent. Additionally, emails allow businesses to build brand awareness, drive traffic to their website, and increase sales through upsells or exclusive promotions for established customers.
And the 91 percent of internet users who check their mobile email at least once per day aren’t logging in just for the pass-this-along-or-suffer-the-consequences chain letters, they’re logging in specifically for promotions and offers. The vast majority of consumers (77 percent) actually prefer email for marketing communications.
If you want to leverage the hefty return on investment (ROI) email has to offer, pay close attention to this list of dos, along with a few don’ts, of creating and managing an effective email marketing campaign
To increase your ROI, DO the following:
- Utilize A/B testing and track your metrics. Also known as split testing, A/B testing backed by metrics allows you to improve your marketing strategy through real world experimentation. You can test various fields, such as subject lines and design, to see what email formats have the highest conversion rates.
- Segment your email lists. You don’t want to send the same generic email to everyone on your email list. Creating content that caters to the reader drives 18 times more revenue than blanket emails.
- Optimize emails for mobile. If you’re not optimizing for mobile, you just look careless, especially as it is so easy to accomplish these days. With mobile responsive design, you can create one email that will adapt to all screen sizes.
- Craft stellar content. You should be putting as much thought into your email content as you would a PR release or your business website. Creating useful, informative, and engaging content will save you from the trash folder – or worse, the spam list.
- Include a call-to-action button. Tell your customers what you want them to do with the information you just gave them. Including a call-to-action button, such as “Get your discount here” or “Learn more”, instead of a simple text link can up conversion rates by as much as 28 percent.
- Use personalized subject lines. Make your customers feel as though they’re the only one you care about by including their first name in the subject line. Doing so can improve click through rates by 14 percent and conversion rates by 10 percent.
- Send emails in the beginning of the week. People are more likely to read their emails Monday through Wednesday and hardly at all over the weekend. Even if an email you sent on Sunday, for instance, will be in their inbox come Monday, it is more likely to end up in the trash before it is read, as emails that haven’t been opened within 24 hours have less than a 1 percent chance of being read.
And just avoid these email marketing blunders:
- Buying email lists. Purchasing consumer info might be a quick fix, but this tactic won’t generate quality leads. You’ll likely end up emailing people who did not ask for the interaction, making you seem intrusive and more likely to end up in the spam folder.
- Ignoring Spam Laws. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 requires businesses to observe certain standards, such as offering opt-outs and clearly identifying messages as ads, when emailing consumers. Ignoring anti-spam laws will not only relegate your emails to the spam folder but can be costly, as you can be fined upwards of $40,000.
- Don’t overload customers’ inboxes. Even if your emails contain pertinent information, sending too many will make recipients unsubscribe in a heartbeat. Nearly 80 percent of consumers have opted out of emails because a brand annoyed them with too many.
Observing these smart email marketing tactics, and avoiding those faux pas, will help you get your message into the inboxes of precisely the people that need your services most. Don’t have time to manage your own email marketing campaign? Partner with Social Spice Media! We’ll craft an email campaign as part of a broader inbound marketing strategy that converts.
