Email services have gone a long way since being only a fast and convenient communication tool. Today, they incorporate a number of functions of which email marketing is the most popular and most widely used one.
Namely, email marketing campaigns are both the cheapest and the most efficient. If done right, email campaigns can boost a business’ ROI up to 4400%!
This is why keeping in touch with your customers is crucial. It is also recommended to heed customer feedback and encourage communication through email and social media.
Cross-promotions are highly successful in promoting brands and increasing their online visibility. One crucial thing to remember is that mobile users are the key to success.
Optimizing email campaigns for mobile users
Some 53% of all emails are being accessed on mobile devices, with the number rising on a daily basis. The trend is only expected to expand because the number of mobile users keeps increasing.
That’s why you should have the care to optimize your email campaigns for mobile devices. The same goes for your website. Everything must load fast and word counts should not exceed recommendations for mobile devices (these keep changing, so perform research on a regular basis).
For example, subject lines should not exceed 30 characters. While on the topic, if you’re using emojis, you should check how they’re displayed across devices and in different browsers. Test-send your email and check it on multiple devices and in multiple browsers.
Read How To Strategically Use Email For Customer Activation And Retention
Mind the insights
Insights are of utmost importance. They will tell you so much about your customers and enable you to come up with the best email marketing strategy.
Minding the insights is a continual process. Even if you think you know your audience, overlooking important information about the customer journey, or failing to implement a customer empathy strategy can be detrimental to your campaign or product. On top of that, audiences change over time. This is a natural process; you should check for changes annually.
In addition to the demographics and locations of your customers, other pieces of information can also be used to your brand’s benefit. I.e., browsing and purchase history, the percentage of messages opened, time spent on certain pages and bounce rates will help you optimize not only your email campaigns but also your website and offer.
Email marketing best practices
Start with the basics. Naturally, you’ll want to increase the deliverability of your emails. No matter the quality of your campaign, if your messages reach recipients’ spam folders, your efforts will have been wasted.
It is important to note that email can be used in every industry, from SaaS, eCommerce to the trade industry. According to Adrian Tucci, the CEO of Mr. Paint, “Email marketing can be used in any industry — and those that are using it in industries that you might not naturally expect will have the upper hand on their competitors.”
To increase deliverability, choose a trusted email service provider and avoid spam-trigger words (check out the CAN-SPAM Act).
Next on, make certain to include an unsubscribe button to all emails you send. No, it isn’t counterproductive. Rather than having people flag your emails as spam simply because they are no longer interested in the offer, remind them that they can unsubscribe.
Email segmentation
When we discuss successful email campaigns, we imply they are all segmented. As stated above, sending emails to random people will only serve to have your efforts wasted. No matter the quality of your offer, your products still don’t interest everyone anywhere.
To illustrate the importance of segmentation, let us just say that segmented campaigns can boost ROI by 760%.
Segmentation is all about using the insights. Find the best way to shape your offer in a way that will speak to your clientele. If you have more than one target group, send different emails to different target groups. Use appropriate offers and appropriate language for each.
Finally, reward loyal customers. Sending very special offers to some people as opposed to everyone is just fine. Loyal customers should know their trust will be rewarded, so treat them with something special (and to their liking, in accordance with insights!) from time to time.
Email Personalization
Imagine people supposed to care about you addressing you as Mr. or Mrs. without using your name. How would you feel?
Your customers feel the same way. In fact, one of the first things that you should do is use the subscription form to learn customers’ names. Make absolutely certain that all emails you send thereafter are personalized.
Always address people by their first names. Last names are sometimes common sense, too, especially if you are dealing with highly specialized offers targeting “important” people or in other exceptional cases (e.g., if you have Japanese customers).
Personalized emails show customers that they matter. They are not only a source of revenue but living people with their wishes and dreams. Coupled with special deals based on the insights, personalization will give a huge boost to your email campaigns.
Examples of best email marketing strategies
Here are some examples of best email marketing practices that you should definitely know in order to increase your marketing ROI.
Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor is an email template builder. It has sent the following B2B email to its clients as a reminder about their tool. So you too can send such emails as a reminder for your clients about any new updates on your product/service.
With such emails, you can monitor your client’s behavior and design your further emails accordingly. So Campaign Monitor is asking clients to create emails within minutes and also inspire you by giving an example of how their client Rip Curl attained positive results by using their service.
Image Credit: Mail Bakery
UnboundB2B
UnboundB2B is a tech lead generation company that provides full-funnel leads to feed your sales and marketing funnel. The following B2B email by UnboundB2B has tried to showcase how with the help of intent data, unbound has able to gain key insights on the Leads and deliver the right email content to the right person at the right time.
Image Credit: UnboundB2B
Final thoughts
Albeit, there’s no universal formula to concocting winning email campaigns, common sense suggests we should address customers by their name, send them only the offers they are interested in (and not too often, at that!), ask them for their feedback and reward their loyalty.
Emails marketing follows the same rules all other marketing types do: it is rooted in communication. Show your customers that you care and that you’re paying attention to their input and they’ll reward you in turn.
