Running a Successful Email Marketing Campaign
Emails may be old tech, but they are still relevant in the marketing world. If anything, email marketing is 40x more potent than social media and is three times faster at speeding up the buying process.
It is not as simple as turning on your computer and sending emails. You need to research and determine your target audience, where and how to get their emails, etc.
This guide details how to run a successful email marketing campaign for a small business and tips on improving it once you get the show on the road.
What is email marketing?
It is the process of sending multiple commercial emails to your customers, intending to inform them of your services, deals, requests for business, or new products.
There are main types of marketing emails:
a) Promotional: these stimulate sales by encouraging people to feel interested and buy, and they ramp up the visibility of that product or service.
b) Newsletters: create engaging content that gives customers valuable knowledge. These emails build a relationship with your audience and strengthen loyalty.
c) Retention emails: send offers or request customer feedback to gauge the campaign’s effectiveness and keep communication flowing.
d) Acquisition: for unconverted email recipients, acquisition emails offer valuable content and enticing offers to nudge them through the entire buying process.
Benefits of adequately using email marketing
Apart from boosting your advertising campaigns, most reputable email marketing companies agree that email marketing has the following benefits:
- Personalization: you can personalize messages and segment customers, with the relevant content increasing the likelihood of the recipient reading and acting on the content.
- Increased sales: ads, products, or services lead to increased sales. You may achieve this as customers are more likely to act on and engage with relevant promotional messaging.
- Low cost: compared to conventional advertising on mainstream TV or radio, email marketing costs is peanuts. Email marketing is a more affordable way to reach your target market.
- Willing crowd: only targets consumers who asked to receive the messaging, so you preach to the converted.
- Builds brand: email marketing allows you to publicize your products or services distinctively, leading to prospects associating you with a particular product or brand.
- Collect data to improve business: Email marketing can help collect data on customers’ habits, preferences, needs, and wants. You can use this information to improve your business.
Ways to improve your email marketing campaign
1. Clear messaging on the subject line and email preview text
The preview line is the first idea a customer will have about the content of the email. Make it memorable using tactics like wit, or make it hard to resist through tasty offers. A recent tactic involves using emojis.
2. Keep it short
Very few customers have the time to read a rambling email. They probably only have a second to spare, so keep it short and capture their attention.
3. Make it work across devices
According to a HubSpot report, 60% of emails get opened through a mobile device. It would help to optimize a mobile-responsive template and get it working across all platforms.
4. Personalize the emails
Most sellers send impersonal promotional emails. Change the trend by engaging your customers through personalized emails. Some apps allow you to include the names of each individual even in the same email bulk.
5. One clear call to action
A call to action can be from coupons to QR codes, but each marketing email should emphasize what you expect the customer to do after going through the email. It would be helpful if it made it easier for them to do that too.
6. Segment Your Email Lists Based On Behavior
Listing the different types of people in your email marketing campaign helps tailor the content of your emails to appeal to each group. By opening your emails, you may segment them according to geographic location, buying habits, or frequency.
7. Use Dynamic Content
To make an email campaign more effective, use information from a visitor’s history from browsing your website. That will help provide relevant related product recommendations or suggestions for discounts and gift offers.
8. Try and Test Different Design Layouts
You may have customers with varying demographic profiles and preferences. You can test the effectiveness of varying design layouts for each group to determine what will work best on your email marketing campaign.
9. Ask For Their Suggestions and Feedback
Ask customers and prospects what they like or dislike about your emails using open-ended questions and let them suggest improvements. This feedback will inform your future email marketing campaigns. Send timely responses so they feel their input is valuable.
10. Verify Your Email Lists Regularly
Sometimes people change their email addresses without notifying you. Perform regular list maintenance to only include working addresses in your email list, minimizing the chances of Google penalizing you.
11. Measure the impact
Track your email campaign, measuring open, delivery, bounce, click, and conversion rates. This will help determine revenue per email and each subscriber, reporting which aspects need adjustment. When you finally find a winning formula, resist the urge to change.
Final words
Running a successful email campaign requires you to personalize the emails, tweak the messaging to resonate with customers, and make one clear call to action at the end of the email.
If you do not have the finances, follow the link in the introduction section to learn more about getting a working capital loan to facilitate the email campaign.
Arianna Jimenez
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- Running a Successful Email Marketing Campaign - December 13, 2021
