With social media and apps seeming to have taken over the world in recent years, you’d be forgiven for believing that email marketing no longer packs the punch that it once did in previous years. But in the right hands, email marketing can still be a very powerful tool. The key is the personalization of your emails. In an age where our inboxes are literally bombarded with emails – some welcome, some less so – making your email stand out from the competition is key to your marketing campaign developing leads and converting into sales. Read on, follow these simple tips and find out how!
Get Personal
- Ask Questions
If you’re assembling a mailing list to sell or promote your product / site / blog (delete as applicable) use the web sign-up process to find out as much information as you can about your customers and potential customers. Name, location, date of birth, gender, interests – anything.
- Ask More Questions
Once you have a database you can use an early campaign to gather even more information by asking your subscribers to complete a short questionnaire. “Remember that anything more than 2 minutes is unlikely to have a high click through rate” says email marketer Lindsey B. Heaton of Boomessays and Academized. “Knowledge is power and there is a reason Facebook is one of the most successful organizations on the planet; they know EVERYTHING about us!”
- Stand Out In The Inbox
Many people check their emails on the phone during the morning commute so to ensure your email is opened during this brief window, a powerful subject line and engaging preview text is essential to pique the recipient’s interest. Some organizations aim for something funny, others prefer ‘clickbait’ techniques. Go the personal route with the popular method of putting the subscriber’s name directly into the subject. Whichever form you choose, make sure that it matches the tastes and preferences of your subscribers. And last but not least, don’t forget to use subject line optimization to increase your email opens rete.
Make Use of the Data
- Birthdays and Anniversaries
One way of delivering a personal email and appealing to the sentimental side of your subscribers is by sending an email – perhaps accompanied by a special offer or discount code – on either their birthday or anniversary of their joining your mailing list. It’s a simple touch, but often very effective.
- Segmented Mailing Lists
You can use targeted email campaigns based upon many different factors; gender being a common example. By dividing your subscribers into male and female categories you can send gender-specific campaigns (very few men are likely to open an email featuring a new make-up range) to dramatically increase your click through rates, and consequently, sales.
- Know When To Send
You can also segment your subscribers by geographical location, which is instrumental in deciding WHEN to send the campaign. Newsletters sent while a recipient is fast asleep on the other side of the world are less likely be opened, while aiming to deliver the email while they’re on the morning commute or sat at their desk in front of a computer will certainly result in a higher open rate.
Create Great Content
Once you’ve encouraged your subscriber to open your email with your catchy subject line and amusing preview text (check Huffington Post article to check online writing tools), you must ensure that they buy into the content of the email and subsequently look forward to receiving the next one. One way to achieve this is stimulating copy, combined with eye-catching images. Go a step further by integrating GIFs and animations to really capture the imagination.
- Brand Assimilation
If you’ve invested in a logo and brand, make sure you design your marketing template to feature this. “Including your firm’s brand on your email is vital; it reinforces brand loyalty, tells your company story and adds a touch of professionalism to your campaign” states George B. Hernandez, tech writer with UKWritings and Studydemic.
- Call To Action
Finally, reinforce the aim of a campaign by prominently displaying a ‘call to action’ (CTA) button, leading to a higher number of clicks. This could be to visit your website, or use of a disco.unt code and these links can be effective alongside social media buttons, automatically directing subscribers to your external sites and providing further ways of maintaining contact.
