hen you use email marketing is important to reflect your brand’s identity by planning your communications carefully to differentiate yourself from the competitors in your users' inbox. You should build emails based on customers’ needs and preferences to offer them valuable information that will help your brand build a long-term relationship with them and create a loyal customer base.
Nowadays, email is an important component of an online marketing strategy and many studies have found that email marketing is one of the channels which bring the highest return on investment. The average ROI for email marketing is between $38:1 and $42:1, so if you invest $1 in your email activities, you’ll get between $38 and $42 in return, but its success also depends on how good you craft your email campaigns.
Here you will find some good practices to send the best email marketing campaigns.
• Send welcome email
Emails are in the category of “owned media” and that means you have full control over this channel unless is paid email marketing. Sending a welcome email can be the most effective email you can send, and with an average 91% open rate it may be the only email your clients read. Since it is the beginning of communication with your new subscribers, and they are expecting you to deliver valuable information, this first email might also be the most important email you send them. Sending welcome emails also reassures your new email recipients that the signup worked and that they will start receiving information from your brand.
Sending welcome emails the same day the subscribers registered would be more effective because they are more engaged within the first 48 hours. On welcome emails, you can include special offers, videos or animations, or just a warm greeting to start establishing relationships with your new users. Try to offer them something valuable or exclusive and you will see click-throughs rise.
• Take care of the subject line
Most of us receive several emails every day and if those emails do not engage us by reading the subject line, we probably won’t dig in deeper to find out what the vendor is offering. Worse yet, some users will mark the email as read when they only had a preview of the subject line. Statistics show that more than 50% of people will open emails by only reading the subject line.
That’s why brands should be creative enough when crafting emails and if necessary, they should try an A/B test for finding subject lines that deliver the best open rates. Don’t forget that you should craft your emails based on customers’ needs and not yours.
• Give Lead Magnets
As we mentioned before, emails should be build based on customers’ preferences and you should offer enough reasons for them to subscribe to your email list. Most people want to receive something in return when they subscribe, and if one can deliver something to the client that peaks their interest the email will become a lead magnet.
A lead magnet is an incentive you give in return for your visitor’s email address. Lead magnets can come in form of an e-book,a checklist, a free tool, a workbook, shared knowledge, and anything related to free useful content. Just try different things that you think your “personas” would engage with, and via A/B testing you will see which effort works better for your brand.
• Check it on all devices
Reading emails on mobile is getting more common and that means you can reach your customers wherever they are. But you have to build emails responsibly and test them before they are sent to subscribers, to make sure there are no broken links, invisible images, or spelling errors.
In addition, you should check your emails’ overall look on different devices to ensure your content is seen in the right format.
Your Turn
Over time, the email list will become one of the most relevant marketing assets you own because that database contains the people that want to hear from your brand. You should collect relevant data and use it effectively to communicate with your customers based on their needs and preferences. “Your subscribers will stay on your list as long as they see value in your communication – that’s why over time you can build a huge email list that brings impressive revenue” (Get Response, 2020).
In addition, you should be aware not to flood your subscribers with emails “over mail” but also not to engage with them only once a year “under mail”. Through A/B tests and experience, you will know how often you should email your subscribers, at what time, and what type of content is important to them. If you don’t email your clients often enough -under mailing- you will miss revenue opportunities, and a few clients may unsubscribe because they are not hearing enough from your brand. On the other hand, over mailing can lead to steep churn rates, inability to maintain a good customer list, a decrease in engagement, and reduced visibility of feedback and clients’ complaints.
Sources:
- https://www.getresponse.com/blog/email-marketing-best-practices
- https://www.getresponse.com/blog/email-marketing-for-beginners
- https://buffer.com/resources/email-marketing-10-most-important-questions-answered/
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