Email Marketing Tips: Building Your Success

Email marketing has been called many things over the years, ranging from the equivalent of “the best thing since sliced bread” to “better off dead”. It’s one of the oldest forms of content marketing, yet it’s still around, and that’s a testament to its power, reach and sheer ability to connect with your audience on their own turf.

As Forbes says, “Marketers should always use email marketing to stay connected with their target audience. Regardless of the different strategies open to marketers today, you’ll find email marketing to be integral to your marketing campaign. This is still the leading channel for getting the best ROI.”

However, in order to be successful with email marketing, you need to go about it the right way. This is where to many business owners make mistakes that ultimately cost them time, money and market share. What do you need to know about email marketing? How do you ensure you’re doing it right?

Customization Matters

Too many business owners market to their customers through email in the same way. That is, you send the same email to each and every customer, regardless of their age, gender, interests or budget. That’s problematic. You need to ensure that you’re customizing your emails to each individual.

You cannot afford to take a one size fits all approach here. Your customers expect personalization, and you have the tools to achieve it. Segregate your email list by interest, by past purchases, by clicks on links to landing pages, age, location and other metrics so that you can more accurately target your audience.

Only Market When You Have Permission

Let’s get this one out of the way early on – don’t spam. If you don’t have permission to send someone email, don’t do it. It’s really as simple as that. Not spamming won’t make your other marketing efforts more effective, but it will help prevent from generating a reputation as a spammer, and it will ensure that your company isn’t named in complaints about unsolicited emails or blacklisted in recipients’ email filters. Create an email list through an opt-in form on your website. Don’t buy email address lists. Don’t spam. See? Simple.

Make Sure to Base Emails on Where Your Customer Is At

While you should definitely care about geographic location, this tip is more concerned with where your customer is at in their journey. Have they only just heard of your company? Have they expressed an interest in a product, but haven’t yet made a purchase? Have they bought from you, but only once or twice? Are they a confirmed lover of your brand, or a brand advocate?

These are all examples of ways you can reach different individuals with your email marketing and tailor the content to where they are within the wider customer journey. For instance, someone who has purchased from your company several times might prefer a “reward” email, while one who has never bought from you at all might like an “introductory deal” type of email. The variations here are limitless, but it’s important to realize that you need to market to not just your individual recipients, but their specific progress down the sales funnel.

Touch Base Soon

When a new prospect signs up for your email list, it’s important that you touch base with them as soon as possible, at least within 24 hours of the sign up. You don’t need to send anything sales-related, but you do need to at least acknowledge the sign up and thank them for it. You can do this in any number of ways. There are automated email programs out there like Aweber and Mail Chimp that will help you automate this and can send emails on different triggering events. If you’re using HubSpot, then you will have access to the Email Workflows App, which can do the same thing. Whatever the case, make sure you’re on the ball about welcoming new members to the list.

Send from a Real Person

When’s the last time you looked forward to getting an email from a company? Chances are good that your answer is “never”. You want to hear from a person at that company, and your customers do as well. Send all of your marketing emails from a specific personal address at your company’s domain – Bill@YourCompany.com, rather than Marketing@YourCompany.com. It makes you look more genuine and makes your messages more likely to be opened rather than deleted unread.

Make Your Subject Compelling

This is probably one of the most common areas for business owners/marketers to struggle. You need to ensure that your subject line is compelling, and that it stands out from other emails in your recipient’s inbox. Here are some real world examples of subject lines that fit the bill. You’ll notice that most of them aren’t flashy, or even click-bait-y, but they definitely work:

·      The Old Farmer’s Almanac: Our 2018 Resolution? Stay Organized!

·      Home Depot: Fall Updates – Do Beauty on a Budget!

·      Mother Earth News: Grow, Build, Save: Sustainable Living Made Easy

·      Keeping Backyard Bees: In the Bee-ginning

All of those are subject lines taken from actual emails, and they’re all compelling enough to get the recipient to open the message. You need to achieve something similar with your own email marketing to ensure that your emails have the best chance of being read, rather than just deleted with the other junk.

There you have them – some of the most important email marketing tips for business owners. Of course, these are really only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There are many other things that you’ll need to know in order to market successfully.