About 60% of consumers say email marketing influences them to make a purchase. It’s not enough to create a quick campaign, though. Instead, you need a strong email marketing strategy to ensure opens and clicks.
With a strong email marketing campaign, you can draw people back to your business. Then, you can boost engagement, sales, and your ROI!
Not sure where to start? Here are the eight characteristics of an effective email strategy. With these email marketing tips, you can wow your subscribers!
Then, you can nurture your leads, generate more conversions, and get ahead of the competition.
Give your business the boost it needs with these eight easy email marketing tips today!
1. Easy Opt-Ins
Before you start designing your email marketing campaign, take a look at your website. How are people opting into your emails? Is it easy for them to find the “Subscribe” button?
Updating your website can make it easier for you to draw in subscribers.
First, make sure your website is mobile-optimized. You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to double-check. If your website isn’t optimized, people might struggle to subscribe from smaller devices.
Make sure your pages load quickly, too. You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to test your speed.
People could leave your website without clicking around if it’s slow.
It’s important not to send emails to anyone who didn’t sign up for them. It’s not only unethical, but also against the law. Make sure you get the user’s permission before you send them emails.
Consider using a double opt-in approach. You can verify people want to receive your emails and avoid hiccups down the road.
Make sure to give people an easy way to opt-out from receiving your emails, too.
These email marketing best practices can help.
2. Segmenting Your Contacts
If you want to develop a strong email marketing strategy, you need to understand your audience. Otherwise, you won’t send emails that generate conversions. Your emails likely won’t align with the audience’s personal goals.
You can trigger emails to send based on previous behaviors. For example, you can send someone who abandoned their cart an email reminding them what’s inside. Personalizing the email with the product they were interested in can encourage a sale.
You can use email marketing tools to automate these emails based on specific triggers.
Know Your Audience
As you start segmenting your email subscription lists, learn as much as you can about your customers. Learning about your audience will help you develop a stronger email marketing campaign. Otherwise, your messages might not resonate with your readers.
People could start unsubscribing from your emails as a result.
Instead, you can learn more about your audience and personalize your emails. Personalized messages can help you connect with customers. You can appeal to their needs to generate more engagement.
Ask yourself:
- What demographics do my customers fall under (location, age, gender, marital status, etc.)?
- Where do my customers get information about products and services?
- Where do they spend the bulk of their time (in-person and online)?
- What are their immediate goals?
- What frustrations do they face every day?
- How can I help them overcome these challenges?
- What brands and influencers do my customers trust?
- How do my customers speak and communicate?
- What does a day in their life look like?
- What is their shopping budget?
- How do they prefer to communicate (social media, email, text, etc.)?
- What makes them happy?
- How can I help?
Asking yourself these questions can help you better segment your audience groups. Then, you can appeal to each group based on their pains, wants, and needs.
Otherwise, generic messaging could lead to a higher unsubscribe rate.
3. Clear Objectives
Before you start creating each email within your campaign, consider your goals. Do you want to:
- Generate brand awareness
- Increase traffic to your website
- Prompt people to call you
- Encourage people to send you a message
- Generate more online sales
- Demonstrate your experience and expertise
- Build brand trust and loyalty
- Share your blog posts
Each email you create should have a clear call-to-action (CTA). Your CTA will direct readers, prompting them on what to do next. Otherwise, they might not have a clear idea of what they should do.
Add a clear CTA button to the bottom of your emails. Make sure the CTA is clear, concise, and urgent.
Too many CTAs can confuse readers. Instead, stick to one specific action based on the email’s objective. Simplifying the process will keep readers focused. You can prompt more conversions and improve your ROI.
Follow Through With Promises
Take a look at your website again. What promise did you make customers in exchange for them signing up to receive your emails? If you made a promise, it’s essential you follow through.
Otherwise, people could start to unsubscribe.
Make sure to send emails that are in accordance with your promise.
4. Mobile-Friendly Design
About 52% of US cellphone users access emails from their phones. About 42% of retailers’ emails were opened by consumers using smartphones. If you want to improve your open and clickthrough rates, you need to get optimized.
Otherwise, consumers might struggle to read your emails on their smaller screens. They could delete or unsubscribe outright.
Mobile-friendly design will improve the user experience. A stronger user experience will show consumers you care about their needs. Otherwise, you could fail to meet their expectations.
First, take a look at your template. Some templates are already mobile-optimized.
Make sure your content is optimized for the mobile experience, too. You can:
- Limit how much text you use (or use shorter sentences and paragraphs)
- Put your strongest content above the fold
- Feature more images
- Utilize white space to give content room to breathe
- Adjust your CTA placement
- Isolate CTAs and links so they’re easier to tape on
Consumers shouldn’t have to zoom in and out to read your emails. With mobile optimization, you can make their lives easier. Then, they can focus on your message instead of getting frustrated over the design.
Branding
As you start developing your email marketing strategy, consider your brand. Infusing your brand throughout your emails will boost brand recognition. In time, people will begin to recognize your brand on sight.
They might even think of your business the next time they need your product or service.
Make sure your brand is consistent between all marketing channels. Otherwise, an inconsistent brand could confuse customers. They might think you’re a different business.
For example, someone might click the CTA on your email to visit your website. If they see different images, colors, and fonts, you could confuse them.
Keep your brand consistent to create a cohesive user experience. Here are a few branding trends to keep in mind.
5. Personalized Emails
Lead nurturing emails get four to 10 more responses than standalone email blasts. Meanwhile, nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.
In order to nurture your leads, you need to connect with your subscribers. A cookie-cutter approach won’t work anymore. Instead, you can appeal to your target audience using personalization.
About 51% of email marketers say email list segmentation is the most effective way to personalize lead nurturing. Targeting consumers with content that’s relevant to their position on the sales funnel yields 73% higher conversion rates, too.
It’s not enough to put the subscriber’s name in the recipient tag, though. Instead, personalize your emails by learning more about your customers. Consider their purchases, preferences, engagements, and pain points.
Then, you can communicate with your customers on a more personal level.
Think about where your subscribers are in the buyer’s journey, too. New subscribers are likely looking for more information about your brand. Maybe they want to learn more about your product or service.
Existing customers already know about your brand. Instead of educating those customers, help them find new products based on their previous purchases.
You can segment your subscribers based on most active versus inactive customers. Maybe you want to target consumers based on their specific topic interests. Either way, personalizing your emails can improve your open and clickthrough rates.
You can show consumers you care about their unique needs. They’ll come back to you for help in the future as a result.
Update Your Address
When developing your email marketing campaign, make sure to use a professional email address. Avoid using something generic, which might come off as robotic. Instead, remind people that there’s a real person behind the email they’re receiving.
Adding your first and last name can help your emails look personal and professional.
Some email platforms use algorithms to find spam messages. They might think your emails are spam if you’re using a generic email address.
Persuasive Messages
Remember, about 60% of consumers said emails influenced them to make a purchase. If you want to create a successful email marketing strategy, you need persuasive messaging.
Think about the objective for each email you’re creating. Focus on the action you want consumers to take once they reach the end. Then, organize your email with:
- A headline that focuses on a specific offer
- Body text that highlights how the offer will help the consumer
- A strong, compelling CTA that pushes the reader in the right direction
Persuasive messaging can help you boost clicks and conversions.
Valuable, Error-Free Content
What value are you offering the reader? If you’re not giving them something, they won’t care to read your emails. Instead, your messages could end up straight in the trash bin.
Ask yourself “so what?” as you create your emails. Why should the reader care? Focus on a unique value they can’t find anywhere else.
Focusing on the value can help you avoid creating promotional messages. For example, you can provide readers with early access, exclusive content and discounts, or tips.
Once you draft an email, set it aside. Don’t send it yet. Instead, wait an hour or two before reviewing what you wrote.
Then, give your message a complete once over. Look for typos and grammatical errors. Make sure there aren’t any broken links in your emails, either.
As you review your emails, make sure:
- There’s a clear objective
- You’ve segmented your subscribers
- You’ve cleaned the email list
- There’s a clear, enticing subject line
- You’ve optimized the preview text
- The email and sender name are identifiable
- There’s a return email address
- You’ve personalized the email
- Your images are crisp and eye-catching
- You’ve used short sentences and avoided jargon
- There’s a strong CTA that aligns with the email’s objective
- You’ve added alternative text to your images
- There are links for the images, logos, and buttons
- You’ve proofread every line of text
- The email preview works on tablets, mobile, and desktop devices
- The preview works for different email clients
- You send a test to different email clients
- The dynamic text is rendering correctly
Reviewing this checklist will help you avoid costly errors in your emails.
6. Click-Worthy Subject Lines
If you want to boost your open rates, you’ll need an enticing, click-worthy subject line. If your subject line isn’t enticing, people might delete it without looking inside.
When developing your subject lines:
- Keep them short
- Ask an open-ended question
- Create a deadline for special offers or events
- Tell a joke
- Make an announcement
- Tease the content
- Use numbers for listed content
- Give a command and direct instructions
- Remove spammy language like “Free” or “Buy Now”
You might need to A/B test your subject lines to determine what works best for your readers.
7. Eye-Catching Images
Use the inverted pyramid model when creating your email marketing campaign. Put the most important content at the top. Then, reduce how much content appears as readers scroll down.
Start with an eye-catching image to draw their attention. Make sure your images are sharp, memorable, and branded.
8. Perfect Timing
As you start using these email marketing tips, don’t forget to review the data. Look at the day and time engagement is highest.
Usually, Thursday is the best day to send emails, with open rates reaching 18.6%. The best day for high clickthrough rates is Tuesday.
Sending your emails at the right day and time can boost your open and clickthrough rates.
Continue reviewing the data to optimize your emails for better results.
Keep Converting: 8 Characteristics of an Effective Email Marketing Strategy
A strong email marketing strategy can help you draw in leads, conversions, and sales. You can engage your audience and give your business a boost. With these email marketing tips, you can improve your ROI and set your business up for success.
You’re already busy running your business. Choose an email marketing agency you can trust to run your campaigns.
Schedule a free consultation with our team today!