Email marketing can be very effective when executed correctly. It can build a subscriber base, followers, increase trust, your company’s brand image, and ultimately, increase sales by building up more long-term customers. But if you’re here reading this article, you probably already knew all of that, anyway.
The question isn’t “does email marketing work,” but anymore, it’s “how exactly does it work.” That’s a very understandable question when you’re new to email marketing – And it’s what we’ll look to spend the rest of this article answering. Moving into late 2017, early 2018… What works, and what doesn’t in the world of email marketing? Let’s take a look.
Convince People to Join
The first step to having a successful email marketing campaign is finding some way to sign people up. Note that in many countries it is illegal to buy lists from other people and subscribe people without their consent.
Instead, you need to ask people to sign up willingly to your newsletter. The best way to do that is to give them something in return. Note that you want to make sure that whatever you’re giving them actually fits with what you’ll be talking about in your newsletter. Otherwise, there’s a good chance people will unsubscribe quickly from your list.
In fact, it’s often a good idea to divide whatever you’re offering them up into chunks so that they won’t sign in, get the product, and then unsubscribe again.
An important thing to note: You have to make it as easy as possible for people to register. Very few people will go through a difficult process in order for you to advertise to them.
Personalize Your Message
If you can, give people the idea that you’re speaking directly to them. The easiest way to do that is to use their names. This is surprisingly easy to do, nowadays. You can simply add tokens to your emails.
So why does this work so well? Because we like people using our names – even if we know that it’s all just a computer, we still like it. Do note that if you want to use their names, you do need to know them. So while I urged you earlier to make it as easy as possible for people to sign up to your list, you should still ask them what their names are so that you can then use them in your subject lines.
Trust First
The great thing about people signing up to your newsletter is that if you treat them right, you’ve got them for the long haul. People can stay signed up to useful newsletters for years. Of course, you do have to treat them right.
That means building their trust for your newsletter and your brand. Because trust is the essential ingredient to almost any business.
How do you do that? Don’t hard sell. Instead, make sure that the newsletter is actually useful. You’ve got to find content that’s interesting for them to read about – be it news about your sector or other useful information that they’d like to hear about.
To get a good idea what that might be, try signing up to your competitor’s newsletters. They can give you all kinds of useful insights about what’s going on in your industry.
Another good strategy is to give them discounts as well as offers. These don’t always have to be your own. Often, people will be just as appreciative if you give them information about giveaways at other sites and on other newsletters, be it a chance to win a house or custom writing tips.
A/B Testing
You’ll want to do A/B testing. This is a strategy where you send out slightly different versions of the same email to see which got a better response rate, both in terms of how frequently they’re opened and how many clicks to your site they’ve generated.
Most standard email marketing platforms will have the opportunity to perform an A/B test. Even if they don’t, you can do so manually. All you need to do is divide your email list as randomly as possible and then send them different versions of the same email.
It’s best if between the different groups you only vary one thing at a time. So, you might try a slightly different subject line. One phrased as a question, the other as a statement. Or you might try one with images and one without.
In this way, you can really measure what varying that one dimension will do for you. Then, on the next email, you can vary something else.
When it’s Time to Sell
You might be reading this and think that you can’t sell to them.
That’s not what I’m trying to say at all. You should be selling to them all the time. Just don’t make it seem like that’s the primary reason that you’re reaching out. The primary reason should be to build a relationship with them by making them offers and giving them information. Included, you’re giving them the option to buy what you’re offering.
If that’s how your emails will come across and as long as people find the content useful and interesting, they’ll stay on your list and be consistently reminded that you’re out there offering your services.
