Email marketing if done correctly, is by far, the most effective channel for 1:1 communication with subscribers, leads, and customers. But the inbox is a competitive space and standing out can be difficult. So how can you improve email marketing and send better emails?
I recently asked 5 email marketing experts “What is one tip for improving email marketing campaigns?” Below are the responses.
1. Be human and check your links
Write like a human, ask questions, tell stories. Don’t be boring. All of this makes asking for the sale that much easier, and increases the chance you’ll get it.
Our customer’s inbox is fiercely fought over territory. And while you might win the battle (get the email), you’ll lose the war (their attention) if you don’t continue to build and deepen the relationship.
Oh! and check your links. For every one person who will let you know it didn’t work, 500 won’t. Frequently having links that 404 irritates people and they lose interest.
Stacey Herbert
Stacey Herbert is an eCommerce marketing consultant and online business coach. She teaches SMB’s actionable, affordable, marketing strategies that raise credibility, increase visibility, and create customers. Visit Stacey’s Brazen Profit Lab for ecommerce advice and training.
2. Targeted emails are more effective emails
It’s difficult to isolate just one tip, but in general I’d recommend getting as targeted as possible as a sure-fire route to improving your email marketing. Studies show conclusively that people respond positively to personalized emails, when they’re executed right and don’t seem like plug-and-chug messages.
This can mean using subscriber data within emails (names, locations, previous purchases, etc.), but it can also mean sending specific promotions or messages to different subsets of your email list
Marissa Petteruti
Marissa is a content marketer at Klaviyo and writes for the Klaviyo blog. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, writing, and a good book.
3. Think Mobile
Over 54% of all email is now opened on mobile devices, and checking email has become the #1 activity on smartphones. So it’s incredibly important to make sure you’re optimizing your emails for mobile; otherwise, you’ll lose half your audience when they find out that your email doesn’t render correctly on their iPhone or Android.
And be sure to optimize your landing pages for mobile, too! You might send the most beautiful, valuable, targeted email ever – but if your landing page isn’t converting because it’s awful to navigate on a smartphone, all the hard work you put into your email will be wasted.
Cynthia Price
Cynthia Price is VP of marketing at Emma, an email-marketing company. With an extensive background in sales and marketing, Cynthia represents Emma at conferences across the country, where she can be found geeking out about everything from subject lines to audience segmentation.
4. Use data for segmented and personalized emails
The one big tip I would suggest that’s worth focusing your efforts around is figuring out how to start sending (or continue to send) more personalized and segmented emails to each individual on your list as opposed to just running a batch and blast approach.
Once you start to identify valuable customer segments and begin sending more relevant emails based on their actual behavior (eg. What they did or didn’t do on your site), every single engagement metric from open rates all the way through the conversion rates and revenue uplift will skyrocket.
There is certainly a time and place for regular batch and blast emails – they claim a major stake in the total revenue generated across all marketing channels. However I’m a big believer in hedging your bets and spreading a portfolio.
It’s likely that just by downloading a few reports from your platform’s reporting tools or your database that you could already be sitting on a ton of rich information that you could use to start segmenting your list. Then it just becomes a matter of how creative you can get with using that data.
Daniel Kohn
Daniel is a co-founder of SmartMail.io, an email marketing solution that helps eCommerce companies automate and send high converting lifecycle email marketing campaigns. In his spare time he loves hanging out with his 5 kids and somehow finds time to run a successful podcast called eCommThinkTank for eCommerce business owners and marketers.
5. Build your email list and then build it some more
Build, build, and continue to build your email list. The more email leads that you can market to, the more you will get out of the traffic channel. Email converts 4X higher than social and over 1.5X higher than search which makes it the obvious channel to engage people through. Whether its through email pop ups, sign up bars, or landing pages, make it a priority.
Furthermore, this is an opportunity to sell the value of subscribing to your email list. Using a generic sign up form that states “Subscribe for updates” may get some engagement but doesn’t spur action. Tell your visitors what they’ll be getting. “Subscribe today and receive an exclusive look book of our spring collection!” displays an incentive to subscribe and drives immediate action.
Actively engage your visitors with attractive messaging and you’ll rapidly build your email list!
Robbie Hammett
Robbie is a conversion optimization expert and the Director of Customer success at Justuno. He works with marketers on ways to optimize website conversion which includes list building tactics and sales conversion strategies.
In Closing
Whether you’re just starting out with email marketing, or have been at it for years, these 5 tips will help you focus on key aspects to make your business more successful. With effective email campaigns comes more traffic, better engagement, and higher sales. Stay tuned for our next email marketing post next week!
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