Even after monumental changes in the landscape over the last two decades, the humble email still reigns supreme. Used by over 4 billion users worldwide, no other platform or mode of communication even comes close as a channel for marketing.
Getting great results with email marketing, however, is an art as well as a science, something that takes a measure of creativity, along with substantial experimentation. Marketers often make the mistake of bombarding their audience with messages, leading to an irreversible saturation.
In this article, we cover some tried and tested best practices when it comes to email marketing, helping you better retain and monetize subscribers.
1) Segment Your Subscribers
Segmentation might sound complicated, but it simply means breaking up your subscriber base into smaller, targeted groups.
Segmenting your email lists allows you to send more personalized emails to receivers at the most appropriate time, which translates to better engagement, retention, and conversions.
It is possible to segment your email list on the basis of various factors like location, interests, stage of the customer journey, and engagement level. For example, it makes no sense to inform a new customer about an advanced feature of your product, it is best to keep them engaged with the basics with a powerful welcome email.
Such segmentations can be set up with ease using a drag and drop email automation builder on leading newsletter solutions.
2) Optimize For Mobile
According to recent studies, 60% of mobile users will move onto another site owing to a poor mobile experience, and 46% users admit that the lack of a mobile-friendly experience affected their overall perception of a brand or business.
With over 70% of emails being accessed from mobile devices, mobile optimization is a no-brainer for effective marketing.
Fortunately, most email marketing platforms offer a simple way to design responsive emails. A few simple steps and customizations should leave you all-set for a flawless mobile experience.
3) Make Use of A/B testing
Regular testing of your email copy is one of the most effective ways of improving your email marketing campaigns.
A/B testing, also known as split testing, involves comparing two different versions of web designs, landing pages, and email templates to see which works best. This can be applied to subject lines, layout, overall body, color schemes, buttons, and even the call-to-action.
To get actionable insights, make sure to change only one thing at a time to draw comprehensive conclusions.
4) Identify The Right Time
The time of sending an email is often as significant as your email content. Determining the right time to send your emails involves learning about your audiences and performing tests to see what works for them. eCommerce stores, for example, should find out the peak purchase times for them.
Understanding what time of the day the store sells the most would give a sneak peek into the visitors’ schedules and habits, and help base an effective email marketing strategy. Transactional emails should be sent right after the purchase is completed.
Lifecycle emails based on customer habits and behaviors need some testing to get it right. The ideal time to send an abandoned cart email varies depending on the reason for abandonment and your strategy for retargeting.
5) Tell A Compelling Story
Short or long, stories are always compelling and memorable. This can include case studies, inspirational short stories, personal experiences, and more.
Crafting a colorful story is easier said than done, and if you’re stuck, you can always take inspiration from numerous elegant and exciting campaigns by leading brands to help get the juices flowing.
6) Personalize The Message
With saturated inboxes and fickle attention spans, marketers have to constantly pull rabbits out of a hat to stay connected with audiences. Personalized messages, however, can help with this to a certain extent.
Personalized emails such as “Hi, [First_Name], Check Out Our New Service For You” see a much higher open rate than bland and generic mass mails sent to 1,000s at a time.
This level of personalization is also a lot easier, and within reach of small businesses, with most email marketing solutions allowing for such customizations. All the data that you collect via your website, forms, shopping carts, and more, can be used to send personalized emails seamlessly.
Final Thoughts
For as long as they’ve been around, emails have been used for marketing, and yet, over two decades later, only a handful of marketers have successfully mastered this channel.
With powerful marketing and automation tools well within the reach of small businesses and marketers, any one can set up sophisticated email campaigns that can dazzle readers, and generate better results, without spending too much time or effort.
