In 2009, the Wall Street Journal ran an article claiming the email was dead. Ironically, it was the most emailed article of the day 🙂
Email is still a popular communication channel today, but mailbox overload and spam force us to work harder to gain the attention of potential customers.
First of all, it must be considered that mass email campaigns not related to the desire to receive information from you, nor to the actions performed on your site or to the interests and needs of your contacts, will not help you in any way to attract new customers, but on the contrary, they will be ignored or, worse, perceived as spam.
Instead, using email marketing to build a long-term relationship with your existing leads can still help you sell better and faster.
Unlike search marketing, social media marketing, and blogging, email marketing does not serve to attract users to your site but to “feed” users who have already been on your site and have voluntarily chosen to receive information from you.
That said, here are six tips for setting up a successful email marketing strategy.
The Topic Of This post
- 1 1. Choose a suitable email marketing software tool
- 2 2. Choose the format of your emails
- 3 3. Choose the right content
- 4 4. Choose your delivery times well
- 5 5. Create good emails
- 6 6. Allow users to unsubscribe easily
- Choose a suitable email marketing software tool
The first piece of advice I give you is to equip yourself with a suitable software tool for sending emails and managing campaigns. You will not be able to use the program you usually use to read and send your emails because if you send a message to many recipients, it could be registered as spam.
We use MailChimp, a simple and powerful solution. It is a web-based software; that is, you can use it directly from the Internet without having to download and install anything on your PC. It has a very intuitive graphical interface that allows you to easily create campaigns even for those who are not very expert, and it is free for up to 2,000 email contacts.
Choose the format of your emails.
Once you have chosen the software, the next tip is to choose the format of your message. One of the most popular formats is the newsletter, a collection of the latest articles (or the most important ones) published on the site. Newsletters are excellent tools to “feed” not only your contacts but also existing customers with fresh news, but also announcements of new products or promotions and requests for feedback on your company.
Another tactic can be to send dedicated emails. They are a type of communication that contains information about a specific new item or a single special offer.
Choose the right content.
The next step in choosing the format is to determine what type of content to send to your contacts. Content is a key element at every stage of the inbound marketing strategy.
You can offer your recipients special discounts and promotions; however, just like with your blog content, excessive use of such promotional emails contributes to a negative perception of your brand and increases unsubscribing.
Therefore, I advise you to expertly mix some promotional emails with informative ones: this is the best possible strategy for your email marketing campaign.
Choose your delivery times well.
One of the fundamental aspects of sending emails is certainly to understand the nuances of sending timing based on the precise needs of your contacts. There is a delicate balance around how often emails are sent, and it’s always best to experiment to figure out what works best for your audience.
Your company has a typical sales cycle: so it should also be for your Email Marketing campaign. For example, if your contacts typically take a month to make a purchase decision, be sure to spread your communications to keep them engaged throughout the month.
So, for example, you could set up an email campaign to be sent one, ten, and twenty days after the user left you their email.
Also, remember that a quick first contact is a key point in the sales process. A study conducted by InsideSales.com found that 35 to 50% of sales go to the supplier who responds first to a contact request.
Create good emails
First of all, try to “humanize” your campaign. If possible, make sure that your emails are sent from a real person, not a generic one like marketing@companyname. or newsletter@companyname. Or, even worse, noreply@companyname. Also, customize your email by adding the contact name. The inclusion of the name in your emails indicates that you are paying attention to the person you contacted; it will give the impression that it is something personal and not a mass mailing.
The title is the most important element of your blog posts, as well as your emails. In the case of email, the title is the subject, which is visible even before opening the email. Here, it is more than ever necessary to grab readers’ attention quickly and make sure the email is opened.
However, do not fall into the mistake of using a subject not related to the content of the email to capture attention at all costs. The object must be attractive but also consistent with the content.
Also, make sure that your email can be displayed correctly if it is opened from a smartphone. According to recent statistics, the number of emails opened from mobile devices continues to grow dramatically.
Allow users to unsubscribe easily.
Last but not least, you need to allow users to unsubscribe from your mailing list whenever they want by entering the unsubscribe link.
This advice may seem unintuitive since you must Allow this option to users is not only mandatory in terms of law, but it is also necessary to avoid criticism from contacts who are not (or no longer) interested in receiving information; or even worse, they may mark your emails as spam.
However, you do not have to worry too much about losing those contacts; it is useless to continue investing time and resources to dialogue with uninterested people. It is best to focus your strength on really useful contacts.
By following the simple instructions I have given you about email marketing, you can get more customers in less time, making the most of the potential of your actions aimed at attracting and converting users.
You will also be able to better measure the return on investment of not only your emails but also the other techniques you are using, such as social media, SEO, Google AdWords, and blogging.
Do you want a lot more advice? Find out how to become a true email marketing expert with our online course.
Keeping track of contact throughout the purchase process, from the moment they visit your insurance policy number website until they become a customer, will allow you to identify your most effective channels and assign a clear value to each of them.