E-mail marketing is the most effective and the most intimate of marketing channels. To get the best results, you need to provide high-quality and meaningful content and balance it out with your own sales offers. Keep reading to learn the key tips for a successful e-mail marketing campaign!
Bring value
If someone has invited you to their e-mail inbox, it means a lot. It is almost like inviting you into their digital home, so you need to treat it with the right amount of seriousness. To do that, start by thinking of what value you will bring to your subscribers.
Send an e-mail only when you have something meaningful to say
It is best to reserve an e-mail campaign for really good news, offers, or useful information. Try to avoid sending generic e-mails every Monday just because you think you have to. Better send them less often but packed with goodies.
Why?
First of all, people will open them more if they are not very frequent because it will feel fresh and important (but you still need to work on representation, more on that later!).
Second, your customer will know that if you send an e-mail it got to be good. They will be excited and curious.
And third, less frequent e-mails will feel more special and luxurious. People want to be part of secret groups that are for a limited amount of people. And if you send e-mails rarely and they contain extra valuable information, they will feel like real gems in your customer inboxes.
Offers
People have subscribed to your e-mail list because they like your product. Don’t be shy to share special offers going on in your business! Just make sure you don’t make them an “always” thing. Always going on offers are not special and won’t have the desired effect after a while.
It is also wise to show how much you appreciate your e-mail subscribers by creating special codes and offers just for them. It will bring together all three points of the previous paragraph – it will be something rare, special, and a great deal.
Share valuable information
Even though offers are great, share some good old valuable information as well. Maybe your company has done some research you want to share with your clients? Or maybe you have created a PDF guide? Everything that brings value without emphasis on selling your products. That said though, you should always add at least a little bit of sales information in every e-mail, even if t is just a link to your shop.
Creating and building customer relationships
E-mail list can be really helpful in creating a loyal customer group. Take into account, these are people who really love your business and your products since they are ready to get regular updates about your company. They are your most valued customers, and you should definitely treat them like such.
Sharing some information that you don’t share anywhere else, giving a head start to your annual sales, and maybe even organizing events just for your e-mail subscribers. All are great ways how to build relationships, learn more about your customers, show them respect, and in the end – get more sales.
Unsubscribe can help you
Not only do you legally need to add an “unsubscribe” option to commercial e-mails you send out, but it can also be helpful to your business and your e-mail list to part with people who are not as excited about your product as they first thought. That way your e-mail list can contain only your superfans, people who truly believe in what you do and want to purchase your products immediately and repeatedly.
The e-mail list’s power is in its quality, not quantity. You want to work on creating a list of really loyal customers, talk to them and involve them in your business. These are the core customers you want to have more of.
Automation – use modern tools to help you grow
There are lots of automation tools you can use to grow your e-mail list. Definitely choose to send your newsletter through an e-mail service like MailChimp or MailerLite. These services often have integrations for webpages so you can easily get contact information from your clients and later use it for your e-mails.
E-mail services also provide analytics (how many e-mails were opened, link clicks, etc) that you can later use to create even better e-mail campaigns. There are also options to do A/B testing, so you can test different subject lines and content for e-mail.
Segment your subscribers
By segmenting your subscribers you can get better results. Segmentation gives you the opportunity to send more relevant information to your subscriber.
Here are a few examples of how you can segment your e-mail list subscribers:
By the time they have subscribed
This option gives you the freedom to send welcome e-mails to new subscribers and give special deals to long-time subscribers to honor their loyalty.
By their buyer's journey
People in your subscribers’ list will be in different stages in their buyer's journey. You can send reminders to people who have something in their cart or give a nudge to those who are just browsing your webpage and not buying yet. This segmentation gives you lots of creative freedom to reach people with the right message.
By how they open your e-mails
There will be people who open your e-mail right away, and there will be some who need a little bit of prompting. You can adjust what information you send to those who opened your first e-mail, and to those, who didn’t. The messages will differ and by segmenting these two groups, the results will also differ (for the better!).
By demographics
If you have an international database, you might want to segment your subscribers by demographics. For example, there are some holidays that are celebrated in one part of the world, and not in others. Also, holiday dates might be different, for example, Mother’s day in the UK and the USA or Thanksgiving in Canada or the USA. By knowing your customer base’s demographics, you can offer them relevant information and promotional offers.
“From”, “subject line”, and “pre-header”
Now on to marketing. Once you have all the technical aspects in check, it is time to think creatively and out of the box to intrigue your subscribers so they open the e-mails you send out.
Who the e-mail is from?
All e-mail servers show the name of the person or company who has sent the e-mail. Make sure your sender’s name is your company and is easily recognizable. Check if your sender’s information is not your e-mail campaign provider (for example, MailChimp) or something generic like no-reply. You want people to not question who this e-mail is from because that is how they end up in the spam folder.
Subject line – your moment to shine
Once you have sorted out the sender, it is time to get to the subject line. Now, this is almost the most important part of your e-mail campaign copy. If it is not good, people will not open your e-mails.
Keep it short
Be as direct as you can. Try to avoid any verbiage to get the best results. But still, use full words and try to avoid abbreviations or using emojis as word substitutes.
Make it unique
Even though generic subject lines like “Summer Sale” or “Great Deals” might work, try to put a unique angle on your promotion to stand out in your subscriber’s inbox. Look for colorful adjectives, interesting questions, or intriguing offers.
Straight to point
Straight to point technique is also great for a subject line. Share the salt in the title, don’t make the subscriber guess.
Use emojis wisely
Emojis are great to draw attention. But keep in mind that lots of e-mail campaign users do it nowadays and too many emojis can start to look spammy and you definitely want to avoid that. So, use emojis, but in moderation, for example, one emoji per subject line is a good rule.
Test it out!
You can use different subject lines in your A/B testing and see which one gets better results. It can be used as information for future campaigns or for the same campaign for a different group of people. Sometimes the best way to know is to try, so don’t be scared to test your ideas.
Pre-header – an extension of the subject line
Pre-header is the text that is shown in the e-mail preview following the subject line. Often it includes the first line of the e-mail but with e-mail campaign providers you can change that to whatever you want.
A few things to keep in mind:
- The longer your subject, the less space for the pre-header.
- Some e-mail servers won’t show the pre-header due to their settings or setting a user has chosen.
- The length of the subject and pre-header that is shown also depends on the size of the screen your subscriber is using.
- On mobile the subject line and pre-header will be shortened and shown differently according to the device and e-mail provider.
That said, pre-headers are a great way how to extend your subject line and lure your subscriber into opening your e-mail and getting all the amazing information you have prepared. Use it as a second sentence, utilize the fact that it will show the three dots to keep reading, and make the subject line and pre-header a team rather than two separate entities.
Conclusion
E-mail marketing list is a powerful tool with which you can achieve great results. The key is to really think about your customer and offer them information and deals that are truly relevant to their situation. Your e-mail list subscribers are people who are true fans of your business. Always keep that in mind and give them the best treatment you can.
