Times have changed – gone are the days of having people going from door to door passing along messages. Letters are almost non-existent, unless it’s to do with official office communication.
Messages today have been replaced by likes, status updates and tweets. However, emails haven’t exactly gone out of style; in fact, with all the noise surrounding social media, email is often what people go to as their secret place of solitude.
Building a high-flying email marketing campaign is more important than ever. There’s just one problem though: many businesses are still not doing it right.
Email Marketing Explained
Email marketing involves sending a commercial message to users through the use of email. This is most commonly done through business requests, advertisements, sales, or any other form of email communication which helps in building brand recognition and customer loyalty as well as trust in the business.
Email marketing remains an efficient way to keep in touch with clients and prospects while actively promoting your business.
Why Email Marketing is So Important
Why do you absolutely need to make email marketing a part of your business strategy?
Email marketing easily and quickly lets you reach target markets without relying on high production expenditures, airtime on radio and TV ads or exhaustive print space. Through reliable email marketing software, you can easily maintain a segmented list based on factors like customer likes/dislikes, spending habits, or the duration which addresses have been present on that list, among other essential criteria.
Emails are created and sent to targeted members in that email list, providing them with highly personalized and detailed information that they’ve either requested or may be interested in. Why go through this trouble? What’s in it for you? Effective email marketing works wonders to promote trust and loyalty in the business, and leverage sales in the process. It has an ROI as high as 700%. YES!
Email Marketing Versus Social Media Marketing: Key Differences
Many marketers prefer email marketing as an alternative to social media marketing. Some even say that it outperforms social media in terms of conversions.
Before anything else, it’s important to understand key differences between the two:
Both deliver messages which directly go to people who have expressed interest in your products and/or services. Both can yield impressive rewards if done properly. They can also appear quite similar though their similarities are rather superficial. There are a number of differences between these two forms of marketing and one that particularly stands out is email list segmentation.
List segmentation is what makes email marketing really effective, because it sees to it that your intended message is only delivered to the right audiences, while raising conversion rates, cutting down the number of people unsubscribing, and ensuring your emails are well-greeted and acted upon.
None of the above can be achieved through social media because everyone is getting the same message, whether it appeals to their interests and desires or not.
Email marketing works on a “send and forget” mechanism because the only user reaction which would require an action from your end is when they decide to purchase, that is, reply to the email.
Email also boasts certain numbers which social media doesn’t – these numbers extend to a wide range of statistics such as how many times your email was clicked on or viewed, and what percentage didn’t make it to the reader’s inbox.
None of this is possible on Facebook or Twitter.
Common Components of Good Email Marketing
In order to see lead conversions coming from email marketing, you need to get people to open your emails and click on the desired link. A great marketing email has these nine vital components:
1. Subject Line
This is where you grab your reader’s attention. This is essentially just a few pieces of information people view to decide if they want to open your email or not. A highly optimized subject line helps capture the reader’s attention which coaxes them to open the email.
2. Sender Name
Establishing trust with the reader is something that needs to be built early on. The sender name is what your recipients see when they click on the email. Optimize this properly and use the same name consistently so that it builds a sense of trust and lets readers easily recognize you going forward.
3. Personalization
Emails need to be highly relevant – four out of every ten subscribers said they discarded emails as spam because they were irrelevant according to this study.
You can make your emails completely relevant and highly personalized by showing to the reader that you understand a thing or two about their needs, that you know what clicks with them, what their concerns are etc. But try not to say all this in an intruding kind of way but rather frame it to let them know that you’re fixated on their problems and have the solution they desire.
4. Main Body Text
Your emails need to be compelling and to the point. This is something marketers focus on heavily when it comes to email optimization. It should resonate with the user’s needs and sound convincing. The language, tone and layout increase the likelihood of your reader clicking through the offer.
5. Images
Images are a vital marketing asset and emails need to capitalize on this by looking visually attractive and something that makes people want to click on your link. Images help your copy to convey the offered information in a colorful and highly readable manner. Some people just don’t like reading that much text and interact much better with images anyway.
6. CTA
The main idea behind your call-to-action is for people to click and convert to leads. This is without a doubt the most crucial aspect of your emails because the end-goal is to get as many people to take action as possible. It could be said the entire optimization process is to get people more ready to click on your CTA so that they can arrive at your landing page.
7. Social Sharing
Encouraging your readers to share content is important. Make it easy for them to do just that. And let them share it on their favorite social channels. This way, you’re effectively widening your audience reach and creating new opportunities to have more leads. When they share your content, they become a part of your database, and therefore qualify as new leads.
8. Unsubscribe Link
An ‘unsubscribe’ link is not only essential at the bottom of your email but also required by CAN-SPAM laws. Comply by those. If readers are generally not interested in subscribing, they shouldn’t be forced to do so. They will appreciate the fact that you’re putting the offer on the table just so they know. Plus, this makes your clickthrough and open rates far more accurate because you’re only taking into account people who are willing to be on your email list.
9. Mobile Optimization
Ever been in that frustrating situation where you open an email on your smartphone and it required you to endlessly scroll to get to the bottom or the text was too big and too long? Don’t put your readers through the same! Emails should display nicely across all devices, particularly mobile ones.
Email Marketing Done Right – An Example That Really Rocks
TripAdvisor does a great job of using action-triggered emails. Every email in their sequence is written and triggers according to what action a customer takes; the reply is customized to the point that almost literally, any given TripAdvisor will rarely see the same email twice. Every email they get is personalized as they start using the site – every message is better tailored in terms of relevancy to what each customer wants.
For instance, the first email people receive has a list of flight deals to well-known destinations from the user’s hometown. What if they click on ‘flights to Chicago’, and see a list of the best hotels, dining spots and other attractions in surrounding areas? If users include travel dates, the email sequences get customized around the trip dates.
TripAdvisor’s emails are considered some of the best in business, grabbing people’s attention even they’re not planning to make a trip, giving you good reasons to want to travel. This post lends a more detailed account of how masterful TripAdvisor’s email marketing is.
Their approach which involves users investing in the site by creating highly valuable content for them is just plain genius. And they get them even more involved, asking to help other people by reviewing their travel experiences.
Creating a Successful Email Marketing Campaign
Here’s what it comes down to when you want to create an email marketing campaign that really soars:
1. Your Objective
Understand your main objective. Why do you want to send emails? Don’t get hung up on open rates or what the subject line should be in order to drive the most clicks. However, keep in mind that there should be no disconnect between the email’s content and subject line. People open emails after reading the subject line, find the content they are not expecting and hit the delete button.
When outlining objectives, think about who your target audience is. What kind of content ignites the most value for them? Be empathetic towards their concerns and you can easily provide high value and meaningful email material.
2. The Subject Line
Your subject line should tell the user at a glance, exactly what’s inside the email body. Something that gives them an idea about what’s in it for them. Believe it or not, the right subject line can greatly drive people to your call-to-action and eventually to the landing page. Focus primarily on conversions and not how many clicks you get. However, some companies like Freelancer use irrelevant subject lines that seem to be working well for them. This largely depends on your target audience and what interests them.
3. A ‘Direct’ Copy and CTA
The main body of your email should use a direct tone to address the audience and get right to the point: the benefit; “get a 20% on your next smartphone purchase” demonstrates a clear benefit. “Get a 25% on all smartphone purchases at the weekend sale” is more urgent and time-sensitive. Make your reader really want to click through because when they are emotionally driven to a benefit, you can take advantage of this emotional curiosity. When they know there’s value to be had with real benefit, they will waste little time getting to your CTA.
4. A Clean List
Target segments and track them – add the relevant fields in your favorite email marketing tool and keep an eye on your ecommerce software while seeing positive results. It’s important not to spam every user on the list by assuming that they will be interested in every offer you propose. For instance, send the above 20% smartphone discount offer only to people who are in the habit of purchasing smartphones or have shown interest in them previously.
5. A/B Test Your Emails
You stand to gain little by sending out emails before testing them properly. Handpick any two concepts you feel might work and ‘dry run’ that to groups of, say, 40 to 50. Check out the metrics to see which one’s the better performing one. This allows you to select the best subject line and call-to-action.
6. Measure Your Open to Send Ratio
Your OR ratio should be high if a large amount of people from your segmented list have opted in. What can be defined as successful? This can vary according to your niche and campaign. A good practice is to stop relying on your competitors’ benchmarks and look at where you stand today. Then create incremental goals, for example, move up by 5-10% incorporating best practices.
7. Measure Click-to-open Rate on Your CTA
All email marketing platforms include reporting tools to measure your email campaign success. Unfortunately, not all contain the CTOR metric. Here’s a good way of going about it though: if your email contains more than one link or CTAs, check out the click-to open rate on all the positive links.
8. Measure Overall Success
Success can be practically measured if your CTOR is higher than the OR. What this means is a high amount of people converted after opening your email. Google Analytics helps you measure website conversions if it is properly set up. This way you get a better idea of how the entire purchase funnel is performing.
What the AOK Marketing Advantage Offers
From web analytics and conversion optimization to appearing on the front page of Google, we have quite literally done it all.
Our team of digital content marketing experts has seen many email campaigns successfully rake in users by the thousands. Lean on our know how and experience, and know that you’re banking on a digital marketing service provider that guarantees results.
Call today on our toll free number at 1.888.566.2577 for a completely FREE consultation or contact us directly to get started on your email marketing campaign.
About The Author
