Email Marketing – Long Live The King

By: Romeo Crugnale, Feed the Social

Think Email Marketing Is Dead? Think Again 🏴‍☠️

Every internet user from around the world has a minimum of one email account. Radicati recently held an email marketing study and discovered that there are 3.8 billion active email accounts – half of the Earth’s population. Want to reach a bigger audience? Use a mailing list.

An email list is a list of emails and names that you can gather from customers, and store in a marketing software (such as MailChimp). Through mailing lists, you can send bulk emails to your audience and communicate information, updates, discounts, and other details about your business. Email marketing is the best way to connect with customers and is 40x more effective at acquiring new leads than Facebook.

Building your email list takes time, but it may be easier than you think! If you’re a restaurant that receives online orders, you have a whole list of emails from customers who have already shown an interest in your business! But, if you are still on the path to building, you’ll want to provide your customers with as many opportunities to subscribe as possible. Create a call to action button or a pop-up image on every landing page of your website, post about your email newsletter on socials, or describe to your audience what they will get out of subscribing (i.e. special prices, discounts, etc.).

Once you’ve created a mailing list, the next step is keeping your list organized. Organization is crucial to successful email campaigns! If you have individuals on your email list who have not been opening emails, your resulting open rate will be low and may skew your results. Avoid this through segmentation: the creation of separate email lists based on set criteria such as user demographics, user email update preferences, and purchase history. To cater specifically to each audience and their interests, create a segment. According to a previous email marketing study, relevant emails drive 18x more revenue than more broadcast-type emails.

Now that you’ve got your mailing list, you need to know how to run a successful email marketing campaign. With close to 269 billion emails sent every day, there is a lot of competition for your customers’ eyeballs. A fruitful email marketing campaign will have your subscribers taking action, engaging with your business, and helping you increase your leads and sales.

The first step is knowing your goals: what is your end goal, and how are you communicating it? Typical objectives for email marketing include:

• Welcoming new subscribers
• Boosting engagement
• Nurturing existing subscribers
• Re-engaging subscribers

Next, you should have an understanding of email types. The three types of emails are promotional, relational, and transactional. Promotional emails talk about offers, sales or discounts. Relational emails provide your subscribers with perks (i.e. a weekly newsletter that has a discount code). Transactional emails are triggered by your subscribers’ actions on your website, including welcome messages and order confirmations.

Now that you understand the different email types, it’s time to create your email. 80% of individuals only scan through your email (not reading in-depth); capture the main idea of your email with an engaging subject line, bold images and strong copy. An email’s subject line is essential. Nearly everyone’s inbox is full of emails, which are competing for the individual’s time and attention. Your subject line must pique the interest of your audience with a hook, thereby capturing their attention and incentivizing them to open your email! How to write a successful subject line? Keep it brief. Subject lines shorter than 50 characters are estimated to garner 12% higher open rates and 75% higher click-through rates than longer subject lines. Mobile phones will cut off a subject line over 32 characters. Make sure to keep it short and straightforward. Offer value. Communicate your offering through your subject line, and let your subscribers know what they’re getting if they open your email! Personalization. Add your subscribers’ names in the subject line to keep them more engaged and add in that personal touch.

Similar to subject lines, the body of your email should be captivating – start with a hook to get your reader’s attention and address them by name. The body of your email will change according to the end goal you have in mind. Are you looking to connect with your subscribers? Tell a personal story. Want to encourage leads? Offer something of value to your readers. Want to boost your engagement? Include a poll, survey, GIF or video in your email- all proven to keep readers captivated and wanting more!

The last part of your email copy should be your call to action (CTA). Your CTA is the one action you desire your subscribers to take (i.e. Buy tickets now!). Keep in mind, your CTA should appear multiple times within the email- but don’t overdo it! There will likely be one near the start, in the middle, and at the end. Keep your CTA clear and concise, making it a no-brainer for subscribers to take that action and click the link!

Email lists are vital in growing your conversion rates. By maintaining your business’s email list, you’ll be able to further engage with your audience, drive new business, and protect yourself from changes in search and social algorithms.

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