Email marketing holds equal importance for small businesses as it does for larger ones. Despite having a smaller budget and possibly lacking a marketing team, small businesses can leverage email as a straightforward and cost-effective approach to increase sales and upsells among their existing audience.
Every small business should include sending emails in their marketing strategy because customers who receive marketing emails spend 138% more than those who do not receive emails.
Even if you’re not an expert in marketing, you can still enhance sales through emails. In order to assist your success, we have compiled a list of the most effective email marketing strategies to aid you in promoting and expanding your business.
1. Build relationships with personalized emails
When sending emails, it is important to remember that they allow direct communication with your target audience. It is crucial to recognize that this opportunity should not be misused by sending unprofessional or uninformative content. It should be noted that individuals have specific requirements, desires, and passions. Mass messages typically do not fulfill these requirements, while personalized emails are distinctive and consist of highly pertinent, custom-made information.
Personalized emails have demonstrated a nearly 75% rise in engagement rates. Personalizing your emails entails more than simply including your customer’s first name; it involves comprehending their requirements and interests, and then customizing your emails to provide meaningful content.
The ability to personalize emails allows you to cater to individual recipients.
- The type of content users previously interacted with
- User purchase behavior
- Celebrating a user’s birthday
2. Send emails your customers love using segmentation
Email segmentation is a process of creating groups based on common interests in order to send more relevant content to your audience. This personalized approach allows you to target a specific portion of your audience who are more likely to engage with your content or offer.
When utilizing email segmentation, factors such as should be taken into account:
- Location
- Point in buyer’s journey
- Past purchases
- Industry/job title
- Behavior/site navigation
- Interests
- Brand relationship
Email segmentation, like personalization, is a way to demonstrate that you appreciate your subscriber’s time. If you send a one-size-fits-all newsletter, it is probable that a large number of your contacts will consider your emails irrelevant. As a result, the engagement with your emails may decrease over time.
3. Save time with email automation
By utilizing email automation, you can send appropriate emails to the correct recipients at the designated time, all while ensuring it does not disrupt your schedule. This means you can draft emails and schedule them to be sent in response to specific actions.
In the same way, as soon as a purchase occurs, a confirmation and thank you email should be sent out automatically. Similarly, a tracking email can be automated to inform the buyer about the shipment status of a product. Furthermore, a complete series of welcome emails can be scheduled to be sent regularly to new subscribers.
4. Create loyal customers by nurturing a relationship
The focus of email marketing goes beyond making a sale; it involves nurturing a long-term relationship. Instead of highlighting your own company, prioritize the customers in your emails. Begin by crafting emails that address your audience’s issues and concerns. Ensure that all your content, videos, headlines, and calls to action (CTAs) are clear and emphasize the benefits.
Remember to use email as one of the most effective methods for connecting with your audience. Use emails to send them useful information, updates, discounts, reminders, assistance, and other relevant content. Your customers are interested in learning about your office’s mental health day or any new offerings you may have for them. Foster a strong relationship by being transparent and supportive.
In order to establish a two-way relationship, it is important not to simply inform your audience, but also to seek their input. You have the option to directly inquire about their preferences for future emails, which provides valuable insight. Additionally, incorporating polls and surveys can help tailor your approach to meet your audience’s requirements. Furthermore, reaching out to interact with your talkative superfans can further foster engagement.
5. Strengthen your email delivery with confirmed opt-in
To avoid having your emails perceived as spam, employ confirmed opt-in (or double opt-in) to ascertain that individuals genuinely wish to receive your emails.
After a person subscribes to your list, the double opt-in process involves sending them an email containing a button. The subscriber needs to click on this button to confirm their desire to receive your emails. It is crucial to have email authentication protocols like DMARC/DKIM correctly configured to ensure the successful delivery of your emails.
Although this process may appear burdensome for your contact, it serves to prevent accidental sign-ups and verify the legitimacy of their email address. Additionally, it ensures the cleanliness of your email list and aids in improving deliverability.
The quality of your list is ultimately more significant than the quantity; having a list full of uninterested individuals is undesirable.
6. Write captivating subject lines
Despite being repeatedly advised against it, the majority of individuals still tend to judge a book by its cover. Similarly, this holds true for sales email marketing and other forms of email marketing, as people assess the subject lines (aka the covers) of the emails.
With the average daily number of emails sent and received around the world in the hundreds of billions, it becomes crucial to have a subject line that stands out in a crowded inbox as the key to getting your emails opened.
How to make your subject lines captivating:
According to advertising legend David Ogilvy, the subject line of your email is comparable to the headline of your article or blog post, serving as the “ticket on the meat.”
Once you have mastered using action words and keeping the subject line length between 6-10 words, you may find this subject line cheat sheet from Constant Contact helpful. Additionally, take into account these email marketing campaign tips for subject lines.
- Create a curiosity gap: Between what we already know and what we still need or want to know is a space called the curiosity gap. Use it to your advantage. In other words, pique your readers’ interest with your subject line to get them to click.
- A/B test your subject lines: Any list of effective email marketing tips won’t be complete without testing, testing, and more testing. When you A/B test your subject lines, you send two different versions to two different sub-groups of your contacts with the goal of learning which fares better in terms of open rates. Then, you can send the rest of your subscribers the email with the winning subject line.
- Nail your preview text: Although it’s not exactly a part of the subject line (and it can be hidden or displayed depending on your preference in most email clients), the preview text — sometimes referred to as the preheader text — is a snippet of text that shows up next to an email’s subject line when viewed from the inbox.
7. Maintain a consistent sending schedule
If someone joins your email list, it means they are interested in receiving communication from you. By regularly providing them with beneficial content, they will develop an expectation and anticipation for your emails.
How to keep an email marketing schedule:
Email marketing should be approached as a continuous process rather than a one-time event in order to achieve satisfactory results, making consistency crucial.
- Create an email marketing calendar: A marketing calendar lets you plan and execute your marketing campaigns more efficiently. It shows you which campaigns are coming up so you can better allocate resources and distribute responsibilities.
- Identify the best days and times for sending emails: Most research studies suggest that midweek — Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays — are the best days to send an email, while 10 a.m., 8 p.m., 2 p.m., and 6 a.m. are the best times. You may have to conduct your own testing to determine the best days and times for your specific audience.
8. Avoid the spam filter
In the realm of email marketing, you will frequently come across various digital marketing terms. Among these is the concept of spam filtering. Spam filters or email filters serve the purpose of blocking undesired or virus-infected emails from reaching the intended recipients’ inboxes.
Internet and email service providers employ them for the purpose of safeguarding their customers, on both incoming and outgoing emails.
How to keep your emails from the spam folder:
Despite the overall benefits of spam filters, the issue arises when legitimate emails sent by well-meaning email marketers get mistakenly filtered. This can lead to negative consequences for their reputation and make it challenging to improve email deliverability.
To prevent being caught by spam filters, take into consideration the following email advertising recommendations:
- Avoid spammy subject lines: Subject lines in all caps or with too many exclamation points — these are just two of the indicators that an email might be spam.
- Add instructions to whitelist your email address: Add a message that asks subscribers to add you to their safe senders list, with a link to a post, page, or video that walks them through the process.
- Make sure you have the subscriber’s permission: Think long and hard if you plan to buy ready-made lists, and use double opt-in (in which you ask subscribers to confirm their subscriptions prior to adding them to your list) to ensure people actually want to receive your campaigns and messages.
- Follow email regulations: Become familiar with the anti-spam laws governing your country or state. Email service providers also have their own anti-spam policies users must adhere to.
- Keep your lists updated: Your lists need regular spring cleaning. Remove email addresses that are no longer valid, and unsubscribe or re-engage inactive subscribers.
- Make unsubscribing as easy as subscribing: Don’t give people the runaround when they’re trying to unsubscribe. Each email you send should include an unsubscribe link or a button that’s easy to find.
