Forbes specialists cited email marketing as the most effective tool of online marketing in driving conversion. Experts with the email marketing company Litmus estimated that email marketing returns an average of $42 for every $1 spent.1 Another survey found that 59% of respondents were influenced by email when it came to purchasing decisions. As a marketer, you can see that a well-crafted email marketing strategy can help you drive conversions and boost your revenue. In simpler words, a good email marketing strategy can help you make more money. So, how to use email marketing efficiently, and what can be done to fix your email marketing strategy quickly? Use this guide to find it out.
1 Optimal Timing and Frequency
Just like the endless debate about posting on social media to get the most engagement, the timing of emails matters. Many marketers believe that sending emails early in the morning guarantees them first place in the recipient's inbox. Unfortunately, doing so, they set themselves up for failure trying to squeeze in the crowded metro wagon. Try to send emails in the early afternoon. The studies say, the best timing to send emails is 3 pm-4 pm.
Of course, benchmarks change over time and due to several factors. Thus, your company should experiment with timing in order to find out the optimal time for consumers. Equally important is the time to consider when assigning an email, ensuring that the sending time is as consistent as possible. If this is a 1-day offer, sending notifications in the morning is inevitable. Your topic should be as urgent as possible. It's a good idea to send an email advertising an event that starts no later than 48 hours. Keep in mind that it should be designed to emphasize this and give readers a clear understanding of what they can do about it at this particular moment. If they can't do anything now, in 99.9% of cases, your email is not needed.
Scheduling is also crucial. Despite all its advantages, a rigid schedule can play a cruel joke with your brand. It’s more important to send emails that align with real-time events product updates, holidays, Black Fridays, or important events in the industry).
2 Optimize Your Emails For Mobile Devices
Gone are the times when people were attached to their computers or laptops to be able to check their social media accounts or inboxes. The previous decade brought its own rules into the way we perceive information.
Mobile devices took the dominant position and Google’s Mobilegeddon algorithm update proves this idea. However, focusing on mobile-friendliness is not that straightforward. Chasing the excellence of your email on mobile screens should also mind about desktop users. Hence, you need to take the approach of the whole email creation process to a completely new level.
So how can I make sure my emails look good on mobile screens? Inc.com professionals know the answer to this question. Here what they offer to optimize your emails for mobile:
- Go easy on images
- Use a responsive template
- Be word-wise
- Break up the text
- Befriend buttons
3 Add Emotional Appeal
It doesn’t always apply to nonprofits. In fact, emotional appeal is used in every sphere, especially marketing. Don’t be ashamed of adding more personalized appeal to your emails so as to make a receiver distinguish and open it among a bunch of other messages. Try to add a bit of humor to your distribution. No need to reinvent the wheel. A catchy “We need to talk'' would be enough to make your TA concentrate attention on your email. The heartstrings tag like “You can save a life” is risky, but, nevertheless, an effective tool.
Already got it? But what about the roller coaster effect? Add an emotional engagement by creating a subtle sense of disappointment (e.g. "Your offer has expired”) and subsequently a positive surprise within the email (“Gotcha! You’ve still got 24 hours”). Most users will find it tricky, witty, and worth opening.
Another suggestion would be offering your customers to choose what type of content and when they want to receive it. Email inboxes nowadays are filled with information that no one would ever consider. Hence, people become more careful about who they let in.
“Offering different choices of email content (newsletters, reports, etc.) to different segments of your audience and letting them decide the frequency of receiving your messages will help you convert more and at the same brings down the unsubscribe rate”, claim the Lyfe Marketing experts.
4 Craft Compelling Subject Lines
Compelling subject lines can take your email marketing strategy to the next level. How can we be so confident about it?
First, the subject line is the first thing that a subscriber is likely to notice when receiving your message. Even more important, it can be the deciding factor whether a user will open it. Consequently, email subject lines are essential for your email marketing strategy because they directly affect your open rate. Thus, compelling subject lines should perform as a tool to grab the customers’ attention.
If you ever thought of adding a recipient’s name or including your latest offers and discounts in your subject lines, you were right. However, the experts have some more tips to share. So here are 12 tweaks to consider before sending out your next round of marketing emails.
- Cut it down
- Take out anything spammy
- Ask open-ended questions
- Include a deadline
- Try a teaser
- Give a command
- Share something valuable
- Make an announcement
- Be unique
- Tell a joke
- Say something unexpected
- Use multimedia
5 Make It Easy For People to Unsubscribe
Yes, after you offer an easy way to opt-out, you will more likely lose a subscriber. Yes, it may seem counterproductive (and it is really so), BUT making it easy for customers to unsubscribe from your emails is an essential tool to adjust your email marketing strategy. It’s not very helpful in a short-term perspective, but in the long run, you’ll get it.
By giving a receiver an easy way out from your emails, you raise the credibility of your company. A customer now sees you respect their time and deliberation.
If someone doesn’t want to receive emails from you, they will find it frustrating if you keep bombarding their inbox, giving them no choice to avoid “the attack”. At its best, a customer will not open your email at all. In a worst-case scenario, your messages will get marked as spam. In both cases, you’re the one to lose. Not only does it mess with your email analytics but also can reduce your brand’s trustworthiness.
One more way to let a customer know you value their attention is to ask if your brand is still relevant to them. In a sympathetic manner, you can send emails asking customers to confirm their subscription to your mailing list. “This way, you can clear your list, optimize your engagement, and increase conversions by targeting the right customers”, they say in Stackla.
Let’s Summarize
Email marketing strategy, nowadays, is a more efficient tool for generating revenue than any other. As a marketer, you must have used email distribution to appeal to a customer on a company’s behalf. Having read this guide, you’re now aware of 5 essential tips on how to fix your email marketing strategy quickly and can apply it in your professional performance. So go ahead and make the maximum out of it!