Email marketing can be extremely valuable to your business if done right. Considering the amount of email that people receive, you need to work on an effective email strategy. Your emails need to stand out and lead to the desired action. For that reason, you need to take certain steps to achieve that goal.
When you think that email delivers the highest ROI of any marketing channel available you’ll realize that it is worth it. Start your email marketing campaign strong by taking the right approach. The following tips will give you a closer insight into how to build a successful email marketing strategy.
1. Identify Your Goals
Defining specific goals that you want to accomplish will help you to direct your efforts appropriately.
Have a clear idea of what is the purpose of your email strategy. In that way, you'll know what you need to focus on.
Some examples of email marketing goals are:
- Increasing the conversion rate
- Building a longer email list
- Getting more click-throughs
- Increasing the rate if the email opens
- Improving the sales rate among new and existing buyers
- Increasing the number of loyal buyers
2. Identify the Audience
Once you determine your goals, it is time to identify your target audience. The chance of achieving those goals will be higher if you know the type of audience you want to get through.
Your target audience is the one who wants your products and who will benefit from your products.
Collect information about your target audience based on:
- Your current subscribers and customers
- Competitors’ customers
- People who would be interested in your products
- Your social media followers
Analyze their demographics (age, gender, location, education, etc.) as well as their habits, wants, and personal traits.
3. Use the Right Tools
The digital era has brought us many useful tools that make our life easier. Why waste your time on repetitive and boring tasks? The right tools can speed up and improve your email marketing.
Here are the types of tools that you should consider for your email marketing:
- Automation tool
- Email templates
- Scheduling tool
- Built-in social media sharing tool
- Subject line A/B testing
- Tools for streamlining communication within the team
Some email marketing software has all of the above features within them while others provide one service. Choose the software that fits your needs best.
With the help of digital tools, you will be able to run your email campaign smoothly.
4. Segment the Audience
While dealing with identifying your target audience you will realize that there are many differences and similarities among your subscribers. For email list segmentation you should focus on exactly that.
Segment your subscribers based on your findings. For example, put subscribers aged 25-35 into one group and 35-55 into another. You can do the same for male and female subscribers and so on.
You should be led by similarities that are relevant to your business. If you have stores in different locations, you should segment the audience based on their location. However, if you are an e-commerce store that isn’t the most relevant criteria.
5. Work on Personalization
Forbes reported that American Express’ hyper-personalization strategy resulted in an annual growth rate of 150% in engagement for the company’s email marketing efforts. This only shows how impactful email personalization can be.
In order to personalize emails, you need to use the information you collected to identify your target audience.
Based on that information and segmentation, create different emails that will be targeted at corresponding recipients. Adapt the language, tone, voice, and visuals according to their preferences.
Here are some ideas of how you can add a more personal touch to the email:
- Include the recipient’s name in the subject line or email introduction
- Carefully pick the visuals
- Refer to recipients directly
- Send a “Happy Birthday” email card
- Customize images based on location
- Personalize offers (e.g. mention kid’s clothing sale to customers who have previously purchased children’s clothing)
- Personalize recommendations
- Personalize cart abandonment emails
6. Invest in Content Creation
Well-written content can make a huge impact on the audience. If you know how to touch the audience’s emotion, provoke a laugh, and show understanding for their beliefs you can go a long way.
Investing in content creation is always a good idea. In case there are no talented writers in your team, think about hiring one. There are many amazing freelancers who can jump in whenever you need them.
Professional writers can advise you about different techniques that will benefit your email campaign such as storytelling.
7. Build a List
Whatever your goal is, having a long list of subscribers is always beneficial.
To get people to share their email with you, you need to present your business as relevant and trustworthy. What can help you achieve that is:
- Create content that will educate, inform, and inspire. Post such content on your blog or social media.
- Include visible a call-to-action for sign-up within the posts.
- Make a great one-time offer on your website that invites users to share their email address.
- Hold a contest with a requirement to share email.
- Create a noticeable opt-in form on your website (for example, in the footer)
- Grow your list with Instagram
8. Use an Attractive Email Design
In the society where aesthetically pleasing content dominates, you need to invest your efforts into email design. A beautiful email design can be an important factor in an email strategy.
Email design is often an underestimated element of email marketing. This gives you a chance to stand out among the competitors who undermine email design.
An attractive email design will motivate the readers to read the content. You can write the most amazing content but if the design is boring the recipient might not even take a glance at the content.
What makes an attractive design is well-incorporated images, short sentences and paragraphs beautiful and moderate visuals, and ample white space. Try to include your brand’s colors and style into the design to make it more recognizable.
9. Optimize for Mobile Devices
Litmus survey showed that people most often read emails on their mobiles. Therefore, you should make your email mobile-friendly.
If you don’t optimize emails, the design can look distorted once it is opened on a mobile phone. You don’t want to leave recipients with oversized images and dislocated call-to-action buttons.
Responsive design will ensure that every element of email is displayed in the right manner. Optimization should be on the top priority list for your email marketing strategy.
10. Analyze Results
Lastly, make sure that you consistently keep track of your email marketing efforts and their results. This step can be crucial for successful email marketing.
When you analyze the results of your activities, you’ll know which ones are effective for your audience. According to that, you can invest more in the steps which show better results.
The analysis leaves you with real-time and credible information about your email marketing strategy and how you can improve it.
How you organize your email marketing can determine the future achievements of your business. With the right approach based on relevant findings, you will be able to form a solid strategy. Creating an email strategy based on the needs of your audience and taking knowledgeable actions can help you achieve any goal you set out.