5 Key Points to Consider in Your Email Marketing
In this digital age and with such fast paced communication, email may not be getting the attention it deserves.
In the age of digital with a plethora of message delivery methods from social media postings, communication apps, website pop-ups, where does the humble email fall? Well it is still a pretty darn strong method of getting to the front lines. A few stats to consider:
- 66% of consumers have purchased online as a result of an e-mail
- 70% of mobile purchase decisions are influenced by promotional e-mails
- 64% of people say they open an e-mail because of a subject line
- 72% of B2B buyers are likely to share useful content via email
*stats courtesy of MailChimp.
Email still holds its own even after 22 years and new entrants to the mix such as social and other channels, for instance Snapchat. Needless to say it pays for marketers to dedicate time to getting it right, not just blasting out emails to the next available list of contacts without careful consideration.
The Power of a subject line
A strong subject line makes the difference between your carefully crafted emails enticing your readers into reading and opening your email. If you’re going to be sending out mail to new contacts then it is vital you include your company name in the subject line or make the sender name clear. Without one, your email will go unread along with the vast amount of other emails we receive on a daily basis from “unknowns”.
There are hundreds of email optimisation articles, with some of the best from MailChimp. One interesting take away from a recent subject line report conducted by MailChimp was on the use of the word free vs freebie. It looks as though we have become desensitized to something free being offered in an email, and historically are associated with spam messaging.
Source: https://blog.mailchimp.com/subject-line-data-choose-your-words-wisely/
Target Audience
Know who you want to get in touch with and create specific content that your research suggests they will be interested in and want to read. This may come in the form of a new sale or product roll out but equally news and editorial content can make for a soft approach to increasing brand visibility without seeming overly salesy.
Why are you sending out an email?
What do you want your email to achieve with the target audience? Do you want newsletter sign ups, webpage visits, social sharing, direct replies or brand awareness. The email should focus on achieving one of these goals and may achieve a secondary goal depending on the strength of the email. For instance an email sent out about a company’s acquisition may have a primary goal of brand awareness but depending on the company this may lead to webpage visits and social sharing.
List segmentation
When you have a particularly large and unfocussed email list, it can be become unwieldy and difficult to keep track of. List segmentation is the breaking down of your list into smaller and more manageable segments. These could be used to identify groups who will be more responsive to tailored content/offers. For marketers purchasing large data lists with relatively unknown individuals an untargeted email with useful content will help to identify the more active members of your list. Sending unsolicited sales emails to unknowns is a sure way to get your emails ignored, marked as spam and unsubscribed.
Test, test, and test some more
Testing is vital to successful marketing campaigns and this is even truer when it comes to email marketing, because even a single changed element may have a significant effect. One method to test whether that header image or subject line is working for you is A/B testing. A/B testing in this instance could be used to send two different versions of the same email, perhaps with different copy to a target audience.
To summarise, email is still very much a force to be reckoned with when it comes to marketing efforts. It can be easy to want to take the quick and easy option of trying to send out as many emails as possible in a bid for attention. Don’t do it, it amounts to spam and your audience will just switch off. Always carefully consider your subject line and how it relates to your target audience. If you experience low open rates try a different approach with constant testing and list segmentation. Above all, be clear about why you are sending the email in the first place, otherwise your time and efforts may be wasted.
Author bio:
Nathan Jones is a Digital Marketing professional working for the full service digital marketing agency The Big Group. If you enjoyed this blog, there are many others you can read on our website.