Improve Your Email Marketing Results in 3 Easy Steps
- by Alyson Shane
Just like Dungarees, round glasses, and Doc Martens, email marketing is making a comeback in a big way right now.
Why? Because businesses are realizing that email marketing is the fastest and easiest way to connect with customers where they live online: in their inbox.
Research published recently by MarketingSherpa found that 78% of 35 to 44-year-olds were the most likely to prefer email, and 70% of people between 18 and 34 prefer that businesses communicate with them via email.
Unfortunately, just because people prefer it doesn't mean that the tactic is as effective as it could be. ReturnPath's State of Email Marketing found that less that the average open rate for emails is 15%, and 60% of marketers reported average click-through rates or just 8%!
What's going on here? If email marketing is so effective, why are so many businesses struggling to see the results they're looking for?
The answer is simple: customers have become more sophisticated in how they consume content, which means businesses need to step up their email game if they're going to stay competitive, creative, and successful.
Here are three ways you can amplify your email marketing efforts, increase engagement, and foster better connections with your customers:
1. Segment Your Lists
Most businesses have one 'Master List' they send all of their emails to regardless of how, when, or why that person subscribed, but this is the old way of doing things.
Take some time to organize your email list based on one (or more) of these metrics:
- Purchase history
- Past email clicks or opens
- Website activity
- Demographics
- Job title
- Connections (e.g. conference leads)
Think about it this way: if +70% of people want to receive emails, then you're competing with a lot of clutter in any given inbox. By sending emails targeted at specific segments of your list you can speak directly to their pain points, needs, and pique their curiosity.
Segmenting your list gives you a high-level view of the different kinds of people who want to hear from you, and gives you a chance to customize what you say to them.
By creating content that is tailor-made for a specific segment of your audience not only tells your reader that your business is actively working to help solve their unique challenges, but also increases your metrics.
Check out a couple of jaw-dropping stats about email segmentation from MailChimp:
- Segmented emails earn 14.31% more opens than non-segmented campaigns.
- Segmenting by open date earns 29.56% higher than non-segmented campaigns.
- Segmenting by merge field earns 54.79% more clicks than non-segmented campaigns.
2. Use a Triggered Messaging Program
One of the sneaky tricks to getting people to engage with your emails is to engage strategically with them. One way to do this is to launch a triggered messaging program.
Triggered messages are emails that get sent automatically when a user does (or doesn't) take a specific action. For example, if someone abandoned their cart on your e-commerce website, you can send them a "triggered message" at a strategic time offering them a discount if they complete their purchase.
By taking the time to make your interactions meaningful and related to the person's experience you can build trust with your customers and encourage them to buy from you more often.
3. Pay Attention to Your Data
Data is what separates the wheat from the chaff when it comes to your marketing.
This is especially true when it comes to email marketing because data plays such an important role in understanding your audience so you can personalize your communication with them.
Some things to start tracking and measuring include:
- Mobile vs. desktop viewers (use this to optimize how your emails are laid out)
- Conversion rate (how many people clicked on a link and completed an action like filling out a form or buying a product)
- Which Calls-to-Action (CTRs) are earning the most email signups (use them more)
- How many contacts share your email (which types of articles and offers tend to get shared the most)
Create Real Connections
The key to running a successful business is to take the time to understand your customers and connect with them through your content. Implementing these three tactics will allow you to:
- Build trust with your audience
- Prove you're listening to their wants + needs
- Provide them with content that has value - not just salesy BS
These are the things that the modern customer cares about, and by implementing these three steps you can make sure your emails are creating connections and conversations needed to keep them engaged and interested in your brand.
If you want help segmenting your list and building a better email marketing strategy, just let us know.
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