Syed Balkhi December 2, 2020 Email marketing is widely regarded as the best way to grow companies of all sizes. When you consider that the average email campaign has a return on investment of 4,400%, the impact of this strategy becomes clear.
Business owners know that consumers worldwide, regardless of their interests, use email to keep in touch with brands. Not only can companies use email to introduce new products, services, and features, but they can also use the marketing platform to build trust and rapport, which leads to sales.
Because email subscribers are typically a businesses’ most dedicated audience, it’s no surprise that email marketing will continue to surge in 2021.
The thing is, email marketing is not a one-size-fits-all glove. Specific strategies will work for companies depending on their budget, industry, and audience. But there are a handful of tips that apply to everyone. Today, we will look at several universal strategies that all companies can use to boost the success of their email campaigns in the coming year.
Streamline the Signup Process
The signup process users go through to join your list can significantly impact the success of your strategy. It’s not easy to get people to subscribe if you’re using an outdated form builder and old website theme.
You want to give users a fresh experience when they visit your website. Use the most up to date form and website builders to ensure on-site experiences are smooth and accessible for users across all devices.
Specifically, focus on the placement and structure of your signup form. The goal is to put the form in a place that gets attention from browsers, so think carefully about how consumers browse your website. Include your subscription box in a place that makes sense for people based on their stage in the buying journey and individual needs.
When it comes to the design of your form, less is more. We recommend creating a form with 3 fields or less. Research shows that this is the ideal number for form completions, with a 25% conversion rate. Now, consider that forms with 6 fields see a 15% conversion rate, and it’s easy to see why companies are focusing on building short and sweet subscription forms in 2021.
Automate Where You Can
Automation has come a long way in the last decade. Business owners and marketing teams know that it’s almost impossible to run a successful marketing campaign without using automation.
You can choose to automate the emails that take up most of your time or where it makes sense. For instance, automating your welcome email series will help you build lightning-fast rapport with new subscribers without physically opening your inbox.
Use automation opportunities to work on other areas of your email marketing strategy. Use what you learn from your messages that go out automatically to plan future emails depending on metrics like click-throughs, unsubscribe rate, and more.
If you find yourself pressed for time, or your marketing team is working overtime, it may be time to consider implementing automation into your marketing strategy. Need more proof? Consider this; automated emails see 119% more click-throughs which lead to stronger results for businesses across all industries.
Focus on Segmenting and Personalizing
Did you know that segmenting your list and creating personalized emails can dramatically improve your sales and engagement? Consumers are interested in getting emails from businesses that offer information about topics they find relevant.
You wouldn’t want to get a bunch of emails about something that doesn’t interest you, right? Odds are you, you would ignore the email at best or report it at worst. Not personalizing your marketing emails is one of the number one ways to get stuck in the spam folder.
Even if your third or fourth email is relevant, that won’t mean much to your audience if they gave up on your drip campaign after a couple of emails. Sending highly-target emails with relatable content and offers is an excellent way to get more subscribers back to your company website.
Before you can create personalized offers, you have to segment your lead list. Segmenting, or separating, your leads by interests and habits can improve your email open rate by an impressive 14.31%.
You can get more information about your audience during the signup process by pulling information from their order history or by simply asking them to fill out a survey or preference form. Use this data to create highly engaging marketing emails, which translates to additional sales and traffic.
Keep an Eye out for Marketable Moments
Marketable moments are points in time where you can point to your products or services, or free resources, to help subscribers find success. Understanding these moments and offering the right thing at the right time can boost the return on investment of your email marketing campaign.
Most people subscribe to lists because they are looking for good deals or advice. Whatever reason they have, use this information to build a better experience for your customer.
Let’s look at an example. We’ll say you own a business that sells pet supplies. A pet owner responds to one of your marketing emails and asks about the ingredients listed on a pet food brand not advertised. Even though the customer isn’t directly interested in what you offered, this is still a marketable moment.
Now you can respond to the email and give the consumer a crisp answer with a link to both food products in your store. You’ve given this user all of the resources they need to make their decision, and there’s a good chance they will follow through and place an order.
Capitalizing on marketing moments doesn’t always mean you make a direct profit. Instead, it’s about building a strong rapport with your customers by helping them overcome pain points, reach goals, and solve problems.
Final Thoughts
There’s no question that email marketing is here to stay. More adults around the world are subscribing to email lists and checking their inbox multiple times a day. There are plenty of other marketing strategies you can use to grow your business, but email ties everything together in a unique way.
You can promote your social media channels, encourage users to enable push notifications, send blog content, ask for feedback, and of course, encourage customers to buy products, all from your email account. The key is to send out targeted emails to your subscribers that catch their interest. You need to master the process of expanding your list too to ensure consistent growth.
As your business grows in 2021, you’ll uncover plenty of exciting ways to use email marketing to expand your business.
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