80% of content marketers and 56% of all businesses use email marketing. With an average ROI of £38 for every £1 spent, a staggering 3800%, it’s no surprise that it’s so popular. It’s 40 times more effective at driving new customers than social media and has higher conversion rates than both social media and direct mail. If you’ve not used email marketing before, then it might be time to give it some consideration. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at what’s involved.
Growing an email list
The first step in successful email marketing is to get people to subscribe to your emails. Without an email list, you have no-one to market to. Growing an email list, however, is easier said than done. To get users to sign up, you need to offer them something worth signing up for. You can offer a range of temptations in order to do this: newsletters with helpful content, discounts and vouchers, access to premium content, downloadable e-books, free samples, etc. All of these things are well-established techniques for enticing visitors to sign up.
Part of the process of getting customers to sign up is to make your offer easily seen. A small subscribe box in your footer or sidebar is not the most effective technique for doing this, which is why many websites use pop-ups.
These highly visual subscribe boxes are impossible for visitors to ignore and are much more successful at getting them to subscribe, especially if they are well written, have a tempting offer and appear at the right time, i.e., when the visitor reaches the bottom of the page or is about to leave the site. If you do use a pop-up, make sure that it is responsive. Large pop-ups on smartphone screens can be a challenge for visitors to close and often result in them leaving the site.
Newsletter and email software
The one thing you will need to run an email marketing campaign is the necessary software. This can be obtained in two ways: you can install a newsletter add-on, such as the WordPress plugin, Mail-Poet, or you can use the services of a third-party provider such as MailChimp.
Newsletter software enables you to create automated and triggered email and newsletter campaigns. They collect subscribers, manage subscriber lists, enable you to create stunning looking emails and newsletters, automate delivery, take care of cancelled subscriptions and generate detailed analytics. In essence, they provide everything you need to manage a successful email marketing campaign.
One of the best functions of good newsletter software is the ability to create trigger emails. These are automated emails sent in response to a visitor action or a change in their behaviour or profile. They are some of the highest converting emails because they send information which is highly relevant, personalised and aptly timed.
Examples of trigger emails include:
- Sending users links to products similar to ones they have just looked at.
- Wishing them a happy birthday or sending holiday greetings, etc.
- Reminding visitors of important dates, e.g. your MOT is due.
- Promoting upcoming events.
- Reminding visitors of abandoned items in their shopping cart.
Tips to make your emails more successful
- Make your emails personal
Personalised emails are 26% more likely to be opened, have 14% higher click-throughs and 10% higher conversion rates. So, if you want to a more successful marketing campaign, make sure that your emails mention the name of the subscriber, (the ability to do this is built into all email software: Dear [user_name]) and make sure that the content is right for that particular user – don’t, for example, send them an advert for something they have already purchased. - Use segmentation
Splitting your email subscribers into different segments allows you to target your email marketing campaigns in a much more focused and personalised way. You can segment in a variety of ways: age, gender, previous purchasing habits, declared interests, or even by the stage they are on in your sales funnel.
If you need convincing that segmentation is the right path to follow, remember that 58% of all email marketing revenue comes from segmented or targeted emails and that, according to Campaign Monitor, marketers who used segmented campaigns noted a 760% increase in revenue. - Create mobile-friendly emails
In 2016, 54% of all marketing emails were opened on phones. If your emails are not mobile responsive, then those subscribers who use mobiles to read emails are not going to see your campaign working effectively. That could be a costly failing if 54% of your subscribers can’t view your email properly.
To give mobile emails an even better chance of being opened and clicked on, make sure the subject line and the snippet are succinct with keywords at the beginning. At the same time, make any call to action easy to click on. - Choose the right hosting when you use email marketing
If you are using an email marketing plugin rather than a paid for third-party provider, it’s important to have web hosting that gives you the capacity to send lots of emails directly from your website. At the same time, you may also need a package that provides adequate storage for lots of user information. Security is important too. Remember that you will be required to protect any personal data you hold on your subscribers, so make sure you choose a host that can provide intrusion protection, site scanning and remote backups.
Conclusion
Email marketing is a highly effective way to generate new businesses and extend the customer lifetime value. Hopefully, the information provided in this article will help you get your email list growing and your marketing campaign off the ground. Remember to make sure your web hosting package provides the capacity and security you need and always use high-quality sign-up forms and newsletter software.
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