Choosing how to place your precious marketing budget can be a slightly daunting prospect. This is especially true for small businesses and startups! Are you developing a marketing strategy for the very first time, or aiming to upgrade your approach? Allow me to guide you through how to use email marketing effectively!
We tend to cast our eye to social media when we imagine the most modern approaches to marketing, but it’s vital not to overlook the huge power of targeting email inboxes. Impressively, email is almost 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined when it comes to acquiring new customers for your business. Email marketing campaigns can deliver average ROI – return on investment – at $38 for every 1$ spent, which is really quite a figure!
Email marketing is a budget-friendly option for all businesses because the costs tend to scale. Mastering how to use email marketing is far simpler and cheaper than many conventional advertising channels, such as print or radio commercials. Begin constructing your compelling brand identity in the eyes of clients, as well as creating an instant connection. In the smartphone era, a brilliant email will put you right in the pockets of your target audience! So, with a picture of the potential, how do we harness what email marketing can achieve? Read on for a step-by-step guide in how to use email marketing:
Don’t be tempted to take shortcuts here – a list of consenting people who are genuinely interested in your brand will reward you. If it has crossed your mind to purchase an email list, put your credit card back in your pocket! In reality, great email address lists simply aren’t for sale. Bombarding strangers with your marketing message will only risk denting your IP reputation, and potentially causing your email service provider to penalize you.
Being on a subscription list is seen more today as a gesture of trust. The EU led the way by introducing GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation – which called on businesses to seek permission before collecting data, such as email addresses, from the public. Treating your email list as sacred reflects the excellent relationship that you will foster with your valued client base! So, without cheating, here are some top-notch ways to expand your email marketing subscribers list:
• Set up your email content so that it can be shared on social media, and add in buttons prompting readers to pass on what they love.
• Creating email marketing campaigns that are a pleasure to read, and tempting to share!
• Offer something in return for email sign up, such as discounts, contests, e-books, how-to guides or templates.
• Keep a physical sign up form in your store or office.
• Make sure a sign up form is prominent and enticing on your website and social media pages.
The right email marketing software will be your ally, helping you create and deliver successful campaigns. It will provide email marketing tools to help you send attractive, interactive emails, through a simple user interface. It will allow you to easily segment your subscribers for personalized campaigns, and fundamentally, track your results! Here is my pick of outstanding email marketing software for small businesses, although there are many more to choose from!
• Constant Contact
As one of the largest email marketing services in the world, Constant Contact offers a fantastic range of features and impressive support services. They offer one month for free, and plans starting from as little as $20/month.
• Mailchimp
Users benefit from a tactile email builder, audience segmentation, and easy to follow analytics. Mailchimp‘s most basic plan is entirely free, and will allow you to send 12,000 emails for up to 2,000 subscribers. More comprehensive plans start from $9.99/month, and go up in proportion to your audience size.
• Campaign Monitor
Build complex, segmented audiences, and launch automated campaigns. Easily navigate the user interface and highly comprehensive analytics. Campaign Monitor plans start from 9$/month, or you can choose to pay per campaign. You can experiment for free, but the trial is limited to only 5 subscribers!
Rather than beginning with just one email in mind, a long term strategy can help you set off with success in your sights. The key when it comes to creating engagement is quality over quantity! Decide how frequently you are able to share something truly valuable with your readers. As you explore how to use email marketing for your brand, imagine how your relationship with your audience is going to develop over time.
Some of your emails may center around a promotion, while others might seek interaction from your readers – helping you to collect all-important data! Planning your topics and scheduling ahead will help you keep your email marketing message balanced and entertaining. Try to match the tone and appearance of your emails with your overall brand presence. From fonts to color schemes, a consistent presentation will be both striking and memorable!
Use your email marketing as a chance to inform your readers about what you have to offer them, and share valuable content that will increase your authority in their eyes. Add enticing calls to action, leading readers to your website. This incoming traffic will boost your SEO, as well as drawing conversions. Don’t forget to optimize your emails for smaller screens, as more than half of emails are now opened on a mobile device.
Creating segments within your audience can help you speak to your readers on a much more personal level. You can address them by name, and send campaigns that reflect their interests, gender, location, and much more! Studies found that revenue is almost 6 times higher from emails that employ personalization. Just including the recipients name in the subject line can increase the probability that they’ll open your email by 26%.
Content that feels personally relevant is compelling, from abandoned cart reminders to wishing loyal customers a happy birthday. Making the most of dynamic content tools – that automatically tailor to recipient data – can make high levels of customization impressively easy to roll out. Choose marketing email campaigns that reflect your readers, and offer them exactly what they need. This is how to use email marketing to it’s full potential!
You can hone and polish your email marketing strategy using KPI – key performance indicators. Your email marketing software will have a full analysis ready to examine after each campaign travels out into the world! Here, you will be able to see your open rate and click rate. These are, respectively, what percentage of your sent emails were opened, and how many readers clicked a link within them.
Consider your open rate an indicator of the strength of your subject lines. Research from Mailchimp put average email marketing open rates at 21.33%. This is undoubtedly a benchmark to hit, although far exceeding it would obviously be better! Click rates can help you identify which emails struck gold in their approach. You can choose which strategies to keep, and which ones to ditch in future campaigns. As you progress in learning how to use email marketing, you will be able to watch these figures rise!
Finally, be sure to explore your delivery reports. There will always be the occasional unsubscribe, which is not something to take too personally. If this figure increases, however, adjust your strategy quick-smart! A gripping subject line and a targeted message can sometimes re-engage those who don’t open your emails. Bring them back into the fold, or remove them from your list! If emails go undelivered, drop those addresses. The holy grail of email marketing is to have a healthy, happy subscriber list of loyal customers. These are the people who will always return to your brand, and actively market it on your behalf. You are sure to see results, having mastered how to use email marketing effectively!
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