7 Steps for Building Your Email Marketing Strategy
Let’s face it, emailing is not what it used to be. It’s become so much more than just sending a message to a list of contacts. No longer is it enough to send out cookie-cutter promotional emails to your contact list in the hopes of turning recipients into new customers. What’s more important nowadays is how well you can utilize your email marketing to connect with your audience on a personal level.
Email marketing is one of the most efficient and effective ways to communicate with your audience of current and prospective customers, as well as all other stakeholders. With a well thought-out email marketing strategy, you may not only see your product or service sales increase, but you will be able to remind your customers that a real person is behind your brand.
Sure, it may seem overwhelming to get into the email marketing game, but it’s definitely worth your time and it really is simpler than you might think. Let’s discuss the basic steps of building an effective email marketing strategy, so in no time you can begin delivering targeted messages to your audience that will catch their attention with a specific call-to-action.
Choosing the Right Email Marketing Platform
To the dismay of those that have gotten by with using an excel spreadsheet to keep track of all their email contacts over the years, a more comprehensive method of email marketing is necessary in order to stay competitive and in the minds of your customers. Luckily, the past decade has seen the arrival of dozens of new email marketing platforms, each with their own special set of features that can take your marketing strategy to the next level.
When you’re deciding which platform to use for your email marketing, consider the following important factors: Integration, or specifically how well the platform will integrate with your current CRM software like Salesforce or Hubspot; Reading and Viewing Options, specifically its design options for mobile-viewing versus traditional desktop-viewing; and Response Handling, or how your software can help to send automated responses which helps if you have a larger list of contacts.
Mailchimp, Constant Contact, GetResponse, and Sendinblue are all popular choices for business owners and perform well in regard to all the factors mentioned above. There are however subtle differences such as design features and available analytics, so do some research in order to decide which is the best for your specific business model and marketing objective.
Build and Segment Your Email List
This may very well be the most time-consuming element of your email marketing campaign, but it goes without saying that it is the most essential. Gathering contact information from people who will find your content interesting can only be done through organic means. This could involve taking emails from existing lists, using pop-up forms on your website and Facebook lead ads, and setting up landing pages. Although a tempting option, you want to refrain from buying email lists as those contacts will likely have low response rates because they will be full of people who have no real interest in your business or organization, and will likely unfollow pretty soon after receiving your first email blast.
Once you’ve collected a good amount of email contacts, the next step is to segment it or, in other words, divide it based on interests or demographics such as past purchases, location, B2B vs B2C, etc. By segmenting your email list, you are able to send more targeted email blasts to your audience. Think about the emails that come into your own inbox; the more relevant the email is to you, the more likely you are to open it.
Decide What Type of Content to Send
When launching an email campaign, the first thing you should do is identify several clear objectives. In other words, what do you want the campaign to achieve for you and your business? Having specific goals to guide you will help you navigate the process with ease.
Typical email marketing objectives include driving website traffic, promoting certain products and boosting their sales, relaying information such as new services or members of an organization, and soliciting donations.
To meet these and other objectives, don’t be afraid to get creative. The usual email marketing suspects like the weekly newsletter and sale announcement can be helpful, but these can also become predictable and over time lead to decreased opening rates. Consider including testimonials, reviews, surveys and feedback inquiries, and behavioral emails such as emails formulated to re-engage contacts who have not been opening your emails or website visitors who never purchased items added to their cart.
Create Quality Content
You may have well-thought-out objectives and a comprehensive list of contacts, but all this means nothing if you’re content is lazy or repetitive. This could refer to the copy within the emails as well as its aesthetics and lack of a user-friendly design.
It’s important to ensure that your email content is tailored to your audience in terms of language and subject matter. This is where your contact segmentation really comes into play. Additionally, while your copy should be clear and concise, you should be mindful of not overusing ‘trigger’ words or melodramatic language in trying to achieve your email’s call-to-action. For example, while dramatic language may increase your email’s open rate, over time it will hurt your trustworthy reputation - especially if you don’t have the actual content to support the use of said language.
In terms of design, be sure that your emails are always on-brand and consistent in terms of aesthetics. Your emails should be so on-brand that your audience will be able to tell who it’s from without looking at the sender. It’s equally important that you prominently include your business’s logo and relevant contact information in the footer of each email, including links to social media pages.
Design for both mobile and desktop
Let’s talk about “mobile-first” design when it comes to your emails. Mobile-first refers to designing an email optimized for a mobile (phone) format and then adapting it for desktop screens, instead of the other way around. This strategy is more useful than ever, as studies show that 41.9% to 62% of emails are opened on mobile screens.
Because mobile use is growing while the desktop is shrinking, it’s important that you abide by a few basic principles when it comes to your email’s design. For starters, make sure that your CTA (call to action) buttons are large enough to stand out on the smaller screen of a smartphone. Keep in mind that your content should be stacked, as to prevent your audience from having to scroll horizontally in order to view your content. It’s also crucial to remember that if an email is too large it will surely slow down your phone’s ability to load quickly, so always keep your email size in check and try to limit your use of images and interactive features.
Map out a Schedule
You put so much work into the content of your email, so it would be such a shame to have all that hard work go to waste because nobody opened it up when it appeared in their inbox. That’s why it’s crucial to take time in figuring out the best schedule for your email blasts, including the most effective frequency.
There are some general windows of time that are recommended for sending emails, however, the best way to ensure you’re reaching the maximum number of your contacts is through testing. You can either try a one-time slot for one week and another the next and compare the two, or you can conduct an ‘A/B’ test where you assign groups of your contacts to different time slots and compare the results. If you’re using one of the email marketing websites mentioned above, you should be able to analyze and compare the results of these tests without ever leaving the said website.
Lastly, be mindful of how frequently you are sending out emails. If you send too many, it will be perceived as spam - not just by your email provider, but by the recipient as well. Think about your own inbox; if you’ve subscribed to a business in the past that sent daily emails, it’s likely that you either stopped opening them or unsubscribed altogether.
Track Your Progress
Just as you should be tracking your open rates to determine the best times to send out emails, you should be tracking open rates to help determine whether your content is fully optimized or relevant to your contacts. The analytical features of various email marketing platforms allow you to not only check open rates over time but also website clicks. This can give you a really good idea of how effective your content strategy is.
Remember to run reports every now and then, and track your progress as you experiment with new types of content. Take note of what your audience seems to respond to and strive to always build on your success.
Some Final Tips for Success
Reward contacts who constantly open your emails. They are some of your business’s biggest supporters. Be sure to survey them as well.
Take note of what data you have on your current contacts, and aim to personalize emails as best you can.
Make it easy to unsubscribe. Not only is this legally required, but it speaks to your business’s integrity and professionalism.
Perform regular A/B tests to compare which details perform better with your contacts.
Regularly go through your contact list and remove those who never open your emails.
Try not to take unsubscribers personally.
Have no fear!
While it is worth your time to become familiar with the basics of email marketing, it’s normal to want some guidance so you can feel certain that you’re taking full advantage of the email automation features offered by the various platforms mentioned above. Luckily there are so many free resources available online to help you determine the best course of action for your email marketing strategy. Whether you are unsure of the best time to send out your email or the best subject line to use, it has never been easier to learn from professional digital marketers online. Do a little digging, and you’ll be shocked by how much you can accomplish. You got this!