Categories
Email Marketing

How to Build an Email List for Marketing

Building an email list for marketing requires a combination of strategies that entice potential customers to share their email addresses willingly. This involves using engaging pop-ups, and signup forms, collecting emails in-store, leveraging social media, creating personalized landing pages, and incorporating signup options at checkout.

Building an email list for marketing is a fundamental part of a successful digital marketing strategy. We recently wrote about the importance of building an email list, so today we’re focusing on actually building an email list. The challenge lies in collecting email addresses ethically and efficiently without alienating potential customers.

If you’re not building your email list and leveraging it to contact your subscribers directly, you’re missing out on one of the most effective forms of digital marketing.

Fortunately, there are a few easy things you can do that will help build your email list.

In this article, we’re exploring six easy options so you know how to build an email list for marketing.

How to Build an Email List for Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most effective channels for reaching and engaging with your audience. Building an email list allows you to have direct contact with your customers, providing them with tailored content and offers. Here are some tried and true methods to start growing your email list:

Leverage pop-ups

Adding a pop-up offer to your homepage can be a powerful way to capture the email addresses of your visitors. Pop-ups work by presenting a timely message to visitors, often with a special offer or exclusive content in exchange for their email addresses.

When done right, pop-ups can be very effective because they capture the visitor’s attention and offer them something of value. It could be a discount on their first purchase, a free guide related to your product or service, or access to exclusive content.

There are several tools and plugins available that allow you to easily create and customize pop-ups for your website. You can set triggers for the pop-up to appear, such as after a certain amount of time spent on the site or when the visitor is about to exit the page. Ensure that the design is in line with your branding, and the message is clear and compelling. Provide a simple form for visitors to fill out and make sure that they understand what they’re signing up for.

Put an opt-in form in your site’s navigation

An opt-in form in your site’s navigation or footer can be a more subtle, yet constant way to encourage visitors to join your email list.

Unlike pop-up offers that appear and then disappear, an opt-in form in your site’s navigation or footer is always visible as visitors browse your site. This continuous presence keeps the option to subscribe at the forefront without being intrusive.

The opt-in form should be simple, asking for the minimum amount of information required (usually just an email address). You can include a short call-to-action that describes what the visitor will receive by subscribing, such as regular tips, updates, or special offers. Make sure the design is clean and fits well with the overall look of your site’s navigation.

Tools like Mailchimp or Constant Contact often provide easy ways to embed opt-in forms on your site. Also, consider using a double opt-in process where the subscriber has to confirm their email address. This ensures that the email provided is accurate and that the subscriber genuinely wants to receive your content.

Collect email addresses at your store or in-person event

Collecting email addresses at your physical store or at in-person events you host or attend is an often-overlooked but valuable strategy for growing your email list.

People who visit your store or interact with you at an event have shown a direct interest in your products or services. They are often more engaged and receptive to providing their email address, especially if they have had a positive in-person experience with your brand.

In a store setting, you can ask customers at checkout if they’d like to sign up for your newsletter, offering them an instant discount or future offer as a thank you. At events, you can have a sign-up sheet at your booth or use a tablet to collect email addresses digitally. Ensure that the process is quick and that the benefits of signing up are clearly communicated. You must also comply with all relevant legal requirements and privacy regulations when collecting and storing this information.

Add a signup button to social media

Adding a signup button to your social media profiles can be a great way to tap into your existing followers and encourage them to join your email list.

People who follow you on social media already have an interest in your brand. By providing an easy way for them to subscribe to your email list directly from the platform they are using, you can convert these followers into subscribers, building a more direct and personal channel to engage with them.

Platforms like Facebook allow you to add a “Sign Up” button directly to your business page. You can link this button to a landing page on your website where visitors can subscribe to your email list. On other platforms, you can include a link to a sign-up form in your bio or regularly share posts that direct followers to subscribe. Make sure to articulate the value they’ll receive from subscribing, such as exclusive content, special discounts, or early access to new products. Tools like Mailchimp can integrate with social media platforms, making the process of collecting and managing email addresses more streamlined.

Build personalized landing pages

Personalized landing pages can be powerful tools to attract specific segments of your audience to sign up for your email list.

By tailoring the content, design, and offer to a specific audience or goal, you can make the page more appealing and relevant to the visitor. This personalization increases the chances of them engaging with the page and completing the desired action: signing up for your email list.

You can create different landing pages for different campaigns, products, or customer personas. Include a compelling headline, an attractive offer, and a clear call to action. By using tools like tracking pixels or linking the landing pages to specific ads or social media posts, you can ensure that the right audience is seeing the right content. Personalization can also include dynamic content that changes based on user behavior, demographics, or source of traffic.

6. Include a newsletter signup option at checkout

Including an option to sign up for your newsletter during the checkout process captures customers at a crucial point in their engagement with your brand.

Customers who have reached the checkout stage have already shown a strong interest in your products or services. They are more likely to want to hear more from you, whether it’s for special offers, product updates, or other news. By providing a simple checkbox or signup field at checkout, you make it easy for them to join your email list at a moment when they are already engaged with your brand.

Add a clear, concise option to sign up for the newsletter as part of the checkout process on your website. Make sure that it’s not pre-checked and that it clearly explains what they will receive if they sign up. Also, ensure that the process doesn’t add any complications to the checkout process itself, as a smooth checkout experience is crucial to conversion rates. By integrating the sign-up with your email marketing platform, you can even segment these subscribers for targeted post-purchase follow-up campaigns.

Need Help with Your Email Marketing?

Building an email list can be overwhelming if you’re not sure how to make changes to your website. Sachs Marketing Group is here to help!

Sachs Marketing Group is a full-service digital marketing agency that can help ensure your website, social media profiles, and other properties effectively help build your email list.

With our expertise, we can help you grow your email list and reach your marketing goals. Contact us today to learn more!

Conclusion

Now that you know how to build an email list for marketing, the next step is to start sending emails. Check out our article 10 Types of Emails in Email Marketing to kickstart your email marketing strategy with some great email ideas.

Building an email list for marketing is an essential and achievable goal for businesses of all sizes. With strategies like adding pop-up offers, opt-in forms, collecting emails in person, utilizing social media, and more, you can develop a robust and engaged email list. As your email list grows, you can focus your efforts on turning email subscribers into customers, run surveys for additional insights about the people interested in your brand, and develop a strong relationship with your audience.

If done right, this list can be a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal, enhancing your reach and conversion rates.

Categories
Email Marketing

Why Building an Email List is Important in 2023

Building an email list is a crucial aspect of digital marketing. It offers direct communication with your audience, a higher return on investment compared to other marketing channels, personalization opportunities, audience segmentation, and can establish trust with your customers.

Building an email list may feel like a daunting task, particularly if your business is new or you are trying to grow your digital presence.

However, the fear of starting from scratch should not deter you because the potential payoff is significant. The power of having direct communication with a dedicated audience who are interested in your product or service cannot be underestimated.

By building an email list, you’re investing in a lifelong business asset that boosts customer loyalty, enhances your marketing ROI, and facilitates a personalized customer journey, leading to increased sales and business growth.

In this article, you’ll discover why building an email list is important.

What is an Email List?

An email list is a collection of email addresses that a business can leverage to send informative and promotional content.

These addresses often belong to customers, prospects, or anyone who has shown interest in your brand or service. Email lists are a fundamental element of email marketing, providing a direct line of communication with people who have willingly subscribed to receive your content.

Why Building an Email List is Important

Building an email list is a crucial aspect of a successful marketing strategy. It allows businesses to maintain a direct and personalized connection with their customers, facilitating better engagement and a higher return on investment.

Here’s why building an email list is important in 2023.

1. Your Email List is a Lifelong Business Asset

Just as real estate is an asset in the physical world, an email list is a digital asset that can provide ongoing value for your business. It’s an investment that, with careful cultivation, grows over time. This list represents a group of individuals who have shown interest in your offerings and given you permission to contact them. They’re your audience, your community, and potentially, your loyal customers.

For example, let’s take an online boutique that’s been nurturing its email list for several years. The boutique can leverage this list to announce new collections, offer special discounts, and share exclusive content. Over time, this cultivated relationship can turn subscribers into repeat customers who not only consistently contribute to the boutique’s revenue but also become advocates for the brand, sharing their love for the boutique’s offerings with friends and family.

2. You Own Your Email List

Unlike social media followers, you truly own your email list. It’s not subject to changes in algorithms or platform policies, which can limit your reach. This ownership provides control over your business communication, making your email list a reliable and independent channel for connecting with your audience.

Imagine a local bookstore that maintains a robust email list. If a social media platform they use changes its algorithm, making it harder for the bookstore’s posts to reach their followers, the bookstore’s communication strategy wouldn’t be severely impacted. They still have their email list. They can still reach out to their audience directly, announcing new arrivals, sharing book recommendations, and inviting subscribers to author events. The bookstore owns its email list, ensuring its connection to its customers remains strong regardless of external changes.

3. Your Email List Provides Direct Connection

An email list allows for a direct connection to your customers and prospects, creating a one-on-one conversation that isn’t possible with mass media advertising or crowded social media platforms. This direct line of communication can foster a stronger relationship with your audience.

Consider a specialty coffee shop that uses its email list to connect with customers. They could send personalized coffee recommendations based on each subscriber’s past purchases. Or, they might share behind-the-scenes stories about their coffee sourcing and brewing techniques, fostering a sense of connection and appreciation. These direct, personal touches help build a loyal community around the coffee shop’s brand, strengthening customer relationships.

4. Your Message is More Likely to Be Seen

With the ever-growing noise on social media and other digital platforms, getting your message seen can be an uphill battle. This is where email marketing shines. When you send an email, it lands directly in your subscriber’s inbox, unobstructed by any algorithms or competing messages. This increases the likelihood of your message being seen, and if your subject line is compelling, being opened as well.

For example, consider a local bakery releasing a limited-time specialty cake. An announcement posted on social media could easily be lost in the sea of posts, but an email showcasing the new dessert, complete with a tantalizing picture and description, is far more likely to capture the attention of subscribers. Moreover, with the possibility to personalize the subject line (e.g., “John, our new Chocolate Decadence Cake awaits you!”), the chance of the email being opened and read increases dramatically.

5. Email Marketing has a Higher ROI than Other Marketing Channels

When it comes to return on investment (ROI), email marketing often outperforms other marketing channels. It’s cost-effective, both in terms of setup and management, and offers direct access to prospects and customers who have already expressed interest in your brand. Furthermore, the ability to segment and personalize emails makes it easier to drive conversions.

Suppose a travel agency is seeking to boost bookings for a specific destination. They could utilize their email list to send a targeted campaign, offering an exclusive discount for that location to subscribers who have previously shown interest in similar destinations. This direct, tailored approach can result in a higher conversion rate and ultimately a significant ROI, making email marketing a powerful tool in any business’s digital marketing arsenal.

6. An Email Can Be Personalized

Personalization is crucial to engaging with your audience, and emails provide a great platform for this. Unlike a social media post or an advertisement, an email can be tailored to address the recipient directly, giving it a personal touch. This level of personalization can significantly improve open rates and engagement.

Imagine a fitness center that offers a variety of classes from yoga to high-intensity interval training (HIIT). They could use their email list to send personalized workout suggestions to their subscribers based on their interests and past attendance. By sending an email that addresses the recipient by name and offers recommendations tailored to their fitness preferences (“Sarah, boost your strength and flexibility with our Power Yoga class this week!”), the fitness center not only adds a personal touch but also demonstrates its commitment to helping its clients achieve their fitness goals. This fosters a connection with the client, making them feel valued and appreciated, which in turn increases engagement and loyalty.

7. It Can Help Build Trust

One of the most significant advantages of email marketing is its ability to build and nurture trust with your audience. Regular, relevant, and valuable content delivered straight to your subscribers’ inboxes can help establish your brand as a reliable source of information in your field. Over time, this familiarity builds trust and credibility, enhancing the likelihood of your subscribers turning into customers.

For example, a financial advisor could use their email list to regularly distribute helpful tips and articles on managing personal finances, retirement planning, or investment strategies. By consistently providing valuable content, the advisor builds a reputation as a trusted expert in the field, increasing the chance that when subscribers need financial services, they’ll turn to the advisor they’ve come to know and trust.

8. Your Email Subscribers Are Already Interested

One of the greatest strengths of an email list is that the individuals on it have already demonstrated an interest in your brand by opting in. This means your marketing efforts are directed towards an audience that has a pre-existing level of interest, making them more likely to engage with your emails and potentially convert into customers.

Consider a clothing boutique offering a loyalty program. Customers who sign up for the program are clearly interested in the boutique’s products. By using email to notify these loyal customers about new collections, exclusive sales, or personalized style recommendations, the boutique can effectively drive engagement and sales, knowing their email recipients are already primed and interested.

9. You Can Segment Your Audience

Email lists are not just a homogenous group of people; they can be divided or segmented based on various criteria, like purchasing behavior, interests, or demographics. This allows for targeted and personalized marketing, which can dramatically increase engagement and conversion rates.

Take an online bookstore, for instance. They could segment their email list into different groups, such as fiction lovers, non-fiction enthusiasts, or fans of certain genres. The bookstore can then send tailored recommendations to each group, ensuring subscribers receive information most relevant to their reading preferences. This targeted approach makes subscribers feel understood and valued, fostering a deeper connection with the brand, and increasing the likelihood of future purchases.

10. You Can Create Email Sequences

One of the many advantages of email marketing is the ability to create email sequences, a series of automated emails that are sent out based on certain triggers or timelines. These sequences can nurture leads, onboard new customers, recover abandoned carts, and even encourage upsells or cross-sells. They are powerful tools for keeping your audience engaged and driving them towards taking desired actions.

For example, an e-commerce clothing store could set up an email sequence for first-time purchasers. The first email could be a welcome message with a discount code, followed by a series of emails featuring styling tips, best-sellers, or introductions to different product lines. Over time, this sequence not only enhances customer experience but also promotes repeat purchases, helping to increase the store’s overall sales and customer loyalty.

11. You Can Automate It

Automation is a game-changer in email marketing. With the right tools, you can set up your email campaigns to run automatically, saving you time while ensuring consistent communication with your audience. Whether it’s a welcome series, a promotional campaign, or a regular newsletter, once set up, these campaigns can run in the background while you focus on other aspects of your business.

Consider a software company that offers a free trial of their product. They could automate a sequence of emails that guides the trial users through the features of the product over a certain period. The first email could introduce the main features, subsequent emails could provide tips and tricks, and the final email could offer a discount for upgrading to the full version. This automated sequence keeps users engaged, increases product adoption, and potentially drives conversions, all with minimal manual work from the business.

What You Need to Get Started

Building an email list begins with the right tools and strategies.

First, you’ll need an email marketing platform, which will allow you to collect email addresses, send emails, and track your performance.

A few email marketing platforms to consider:

  • MailChimp
  • ActiveCampaign
  • Constant Contact
  • ConvertKit

You’ll also need a website or a landing page where you can host a signup form to collect email addresses.

Be sure to include a clear and compelling call-to-action (CTA) that encourages visitors to subscribe. Additionally, understanding the basics of email marketing, including laws like the CAN-SPAM Act, which sets the rules for commercial email and establishes requirements for commercial messages, is essential.

Developing a basic email marketing strategy is also crucial to ensure that your emails are targeted, engaging, and effective.

How to Attract Subscribers

Attracting subscribers to your email list requires a clear value proposition and a consistent communication strategy.

Offer your audience something of value in exchange for their email address – this could be exclusive content, a discount code, or early access to your products or services. Moreover, make it easy for people to subscribe. Your email signup form should be easily visible on your website, and the process to sign up should be straightforward.

Regularly promoting your email list on your website, blog, and social media channels can also help attract new subscribers. Additionally, maintaining a consistent email schedule that provides valuable content will keep your subscribers engaged and less likely to unsubscribe.

Hire an Email Marketing Expert

Email marketing may seem straightforward, but it involves many moving parts – from crafting compelling copy and designing attractive layouts to segmenting your list and analyzing metrics.

If you lack the time or expertise to manage it all, consider hiring a full-service digital marketing agency that provides email marketing services. An expert can help you set up your email marketing platform, develop a strategy that aligns with your business goals, create engaging content, and monitor your campaigns’ performance.

They can also help you navigate the nuances of email marketing laws, ensuring your campaigns are compliant. Investing in professional email marketing services can save you time, enhance your brand’s image, and ultimately drive better results.

FAQs About Building an Email List

We work with many business owners interested in the potential of email marketing, so we hear a lot of questions.

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about building an email list.

What is the power of an email list?

The power of an email list lies in its ability to facilitate direct communication with a self-selected audience, enabling personalized marketing, improved engagement, and higher conversion rates.

Do you really need an email list?

Yes, an email list is a valuable tool for maintaining and nurturing relationships with your audience, driving engagement, and promoting your products or services.

Is an email list still effective?

Yes, despite the rise of social media and other communication channels, email remains one of the most effective marketing tools, often boasting a higher ROI than other channels.

What are email lists used for?

Email lists are used for sending subscribers informative and promotional content, such as newsletters, product updates, discounts, and more.

How do you grow a mailing list?

Grow a mailing list by providing value to potential subscribers, utilizing a clear call-to-action, offering incentives for signing up, and promoting your mailing list across your website and other marketing channels.

How often should you email your list?

The frequency of emails can vary based on your audience’s preferences and the nature of your content. However, maintaining a consistent schedule that doesn’t overwhelm your subscribers is key. Many businesses opt for weekly or bi-weekly emails.

Need Help Building Your Email List?

Looking to grow your email list but unsure where to start? Sachs Marketing Group can help.

Our team of digital marketing experts can assist in strategizing, building, and nurturing your email list to create meaningful relationships with your audience and drive business growth.

Contact us today to learn how we can help you get started and take your email list to the next level.

Conclusion

Building an email list is a vital step in your marketing strategy. It provides a direct line of communication with your audience, allowing you to engage with them on a personal level, segment your messages for increased relevance, and build trust over time.

Despite the growth of other digital marketing tactics, email marketing continues to offer a high ROI, making the task of building a strong, active email list one of the most important objectives for your business. Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to enhance your existing strategy, the importance of an email list cannot be overstated.

Categories
Email Marketing

10 Types of Emails in Email Marketing

Sending different types of emails is essential from an email marketing perspective as it maintains customer engagement, provides variety, and caters to different stages of the buyer’s journey. Variety helps prevent fatigue, keeps your content fresh and relevant, and allows you to deliver the right message at the right time, enhancing customer relations and conversion rates.

Are you experiencing a lack of engagement with your current email marketing strategy? Maybe you’re sending out newsletters but are met with underwhelming open rates, or your promotional emails aren’t generating the desired conversions. The good news is, there’s an effective solution at your fingertips – diversifying your email types.

Understanding and utilizing the different types of emails in your marketing strategy can be a game-changer. Each different type of email, from welcome emails and thank you emails to newsletters and announcement emails, serves a unique purpose and offers a unique opportunity to connect with your audience. By utilizing a variety of email types, you can cater to the varied needs and preferences of your audience, thereby boosting engagement, building stronger relationships, and driving conversions.

So don’t stay stuck in a one-type email rut. Embrace the power of utilizing different types of emails in email marketing to inject fresh energy into your email marketing strategy and watch as your engagement rates and conversions start to soar.

Types of Emails in Email Marketing

In the world of email marketing, variety is more than just the spice of life – it’s a critical ingredient in maintaining subscriber engagement. By sending different types of emails, you keep your subscribers on their toes, preventing the monotony that comes from receiving the same type of email time and again. This keeps your subscribers interested and engaged, increasing the chances of them opening your emails, clicking through to your website, and making a purchase.

Now that we’ve established why it’s important to diversify your email content, let’s dive into the nine different types of emails you should be sending to your email list.

1. The Welcome Email

A welcome email is the first official communication between a business and its new subscriber. It’s typically automated and sent immediately after someone subscribes to your email list. The purpose of a welcome email is multi-faceted:

Set the tone: A welcome email sets the stage for future communications. It’s a chance to showcase your brand’s personality and make a positive first impression.
Set expectations: This is the perfect time to inform your new subscribers about what they should expect from your emails – how often they’ll receive them and what type of content they’ll include.
Encourage engagement: Welcome emails have high open rates, making them the perfect opportunity to promote top-performing content, highlight popular products, or share a special discount code to encourage immediate shopping.

For example, a welcome email from a boutique clothing store might look something like this:

This email not only greets new subscribers but also gives them a sneak peek into what they can expect from your business, offers them a discount, and encourages them to start shopping.

For businesses, welcome emails are a must. They help establish a positive relationship with new subscribers right from the start, and they are known to generate 4x more opens and 5x more clicks than regular marketing emails, paving the way for increased subscriber engagement and more conversions. Therefore, it’s essential that businesses put thought and care into crafting their welcome emails.

2. The Special Offer Email

A special offer email is a type of email communication businesses send to their email subscribers, offering exclusive deals, discounts, or promotions. This type of email can be used to incentivize purchases, generate customer excitement, and add value to being a subscriber. By providing exclusive access or discounts to subscribers, businesses can drive consumer loyalty and reinforce the benefits of being on the mailing list.

Why is it important? Special offer emails serve a dual function. Firstly, they help drive sales. A compelling offer can encourage subscribers to make a purchase they might have been considering but hadn’t committed to yet. Secondly, they build goodwill and engagement with your brand. By sending special offers, you show your subscribers that you value them, which can lead to improved customer retention and brand loyalty.

Examples of special offer emails could include:

  • Flash Sales: 50% Off All Items for the Next 24 Hours! This creates a sense of urgency, encouraging subscribers to make a purchase quickly before the offer expires.
  • Subscriber Exclusives: Free Shipping on All Orders This Week!” This type of offer adds value to being a subscriber, fostering loyalty and encouraging purchases.
  • Early Access for Subscribers: Shop our New Collection Before Anyone Else!” This offer generates excitement and positions the subscriber as having exclusive privileges, fostering brand engagement.

In writing special offer emails, it’s important to keep the offer clear and upfront, create a sense of urgency if applicable, and make it easy for the subscriber to redeem the offer, for instance, by including a prominent call to action like a “Shop Now” button. Using this approach, business owners can effectively use special offer emails to drive sales and engagement.

3. The Survey Email

A survey email is a type of email that businesses send to their subscribers to gather feedback, opinions, or to conduct market research. It usually contains a link to a questionnaire or survey form that subscribers can complete.

Sending a quick survey can help collect insight that can be used to hone in on customer preferences, improve product development, enhance customer satisfaction, and identify problems in need of solutions.

Here are a few examples of survey emails:

  • Product Satisfaction Survey: After a customer makes a purchase, send an email asking them to rate their satisfaction with the product and share any suggestions for improvement.
  • Post-Service Survey: If you provide a service, send a survey after the service is completed to gauge the customer’s experience. This can include questions about the quality of service, punctuality, and professionalism.
  • Newsletter Feedback Survey: If you regularly send out newsletters, you can send a survey to ask subscribers what they think about the content. Are the articles helpful? What topics would they like to see more of?

Survey emails are a valuable tool for any business owner looking to understand their customers better and improve their products or services based on the feedback received.

4. The Review Request Email

A Review Request Email is a strategic message sent by businesses to their customers, asking them to share their experience with the company’s product or service by leaving a review. This feedback is often collected on platforms like Google, Yelp, or directly on the company’s website.

Review request emails are crucial for businesses for several reasons. First, they provide valuable insights into customers’ experiences and perceptions of the product or service, helping businesses improve their offerings and address any areas of concern. Second, positive customer reviews enhance a company’s reputation, instill trust in potential customers, and strongly influence purchasing decisions. Lastly, reviews can also boost a website’s SEO, as search engines favor websites with numerous positive reviews, leading to better rankings on results pages.

For example, a review request email might look something like this:

5. The Newsletter Email

The newsletter email is a periodic communication that provides subscribers with a round-up of the latest news, updates, tips, and content related to your business. It can include anything from the launch of new products or services, updates about your business, educational content, industry news, or special offers.

Newsletter emails are important for business owners as they help maintain regular communication with your audience, keep your brand top of mind, and provide an opportunity to deliver value, build relationships, and nurture leads.

For instance, let’s consider a roofing company. A monthly newsletter email from this business could include:

  • An introduction from the owner discussing any important company updates or industry news
  • A feature on a recent roofing project completed by the company, complete with before-and-after photos
  • A homeowner tip related to roof maintenance, such as how to properly clean gutters or the signs of roof damage to look out for
  • A special offer for a free roofing inspection before the stormy season
  • Testimonials from happy customers to build trust
  • Social proof showcasing recent awards or recognition the company has received

Such a newsletter keeps the roofing company fresh in the minds of past, current, and potential customers. When the need for a roofing service arises, subscribers are likely to remember and consider the company whose helpful tips and engaging content they’ve been regularly reading.

6. The Surprise Gift Email

A Surprise Gift Email is a type of email marketing strategy in which businesses send their subscribers an unexpected gift. The gift could be a discount code, a free product, an exclusive piece of content, or any other valuable offer that would be appreciated by your subscribers.

The importance of sending a surprise gift email to your list lies in the excitement and delight it creates among your subscribers. This strategy fosters a sense of appreciation and loyalty among your subscribers, which can lead to higher engagement rates, increased customer retention, and even boost sales. By offering an unexpected gift, you create a positive impression of your brand and make your subscribers feel special and valued.

Here’s an example of a surprise gift email a beauty supply store might send to their subscribers:

In this email, not only does the surprise gift generate excitement and enhance customer loyalty, but it also encourages an additional purchase and provides an opportunity for product feedback.

7. The Announcement Email

An announcement email is a targeted message sent to inform subscribers about important news, updates, or events related to your business. For business owners, sending announcement emails to their list is a powerful strategy to share significant developments that might interest or benefit their customers.

Here are a few reasons why announcement emails are essential:

  • Keep customers informed: They help you keep your audience in the loop about your business’s latest happenings or changes.
  • Build anticipation and excitement: If you’re launching a new product or service, an announcement email can help generate buzz.
  • Enhance customer engagement: By sharing company news or updates, you give your customers another reason to interact with your brand, potentially leading to increased loyalty and engagement.

For instance, let’s say you’re a mental health service provider about to open a new facility. An announcement email might read as follows:

This type of announcement email not only informs customers about the new location but also helps build anticipation for its opening and extends an invitation for customers to engage more deeply with your brand.

8. The Abandoned Cart Email

An abandoned cart email is a type of follow-up message sent to customers who have added products to their shopping cart on an e-commerce site but left the site without completing the purchase. These emails act as reminders, nudging customers to finalize the transactions they left midway.

The importance of abandoned cart emails is enormous, particularly for e-commerce store owners. Shopping cart abandonment is a common issue faced by all online retailers. It’s reported that nearly 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned before the customer completes a sale.

Abandoned cart emails are a proven strategy to recover these potentially lost sales. They remind customers of the products they left behind, rekindle their initial interest, and often offer incentives (like discounts or free shipping) to encourage completion of the purchase.

Here is an example of an abandoned cart email for a beauty supply e-commerce store:

By reaching out with a personalized, friendly message and a little incentive, you’re likely to see an increase in the conversion of abandoned carts into successful sales, boosting your business revenue.

9. The Event Invitation Email

An event invitation email is a powerful tool businesses use to invite their email subscribers to upcoming events. These emails can serve a variety of purposes, whether it’s to increase brand awareness, launch a new product, strengthen customer loyalty, or even directly generate revenue.

Event invitation emails are particularly important for business owners because they create a personalized touchpoint with customers, inviting them to engage with the business in a real-world setting. This deepens the connection between a brand and its customers, fostering a sense of community and loyalty.

For example, a vineyard could send an event invitation email for an upcoming wine tasting event. Here’s a hypothetical example:

Such an event invitation email not only encourages the subscriber to attend the event but also creates anticipation and excitement. It positions the business as one that values its customers and wishes to share unique experiences with them.

10. The Thank You Email

A Thank You email is a message sent by businesses to show appreciation to their customers, usually following a purchase, a milestone, or a specific customer action. These emails are not merely a matter of good manners. They’re a powerful way to build and strengthen relationships with your customers, enhance customer loyalty, and increase brand affinity.

For businesses, the importance of sending Thank You emails can’t be overstated. Firstly, they provide an opportunity to make customers feel valued and appreciated, which significantly increases the likelihood of repeat business. Moreover, it’s a chance to make your brand memorable and differentiate yourself from competitors.

Additionally, Thank You emails can serve as a subtle marketing tool. They can be used to encourage future purchases (through upselling or cross-selling), gather reviews and feedback, or even generate referrals. Despite this, the primary focus should always be on showing genuine gratitude, not overt selling.

Here’s an example of a thank you email you can send after a customer makes a purchase:

Need Help Managing Your Email List?

As a business owner, we understand you’re constantly juggling multiple responsibilities. From operations and finance to human resources and sales, there’s barely a minute to breathe, let alone create an email marketing strategy. We’re here to help!

Sachs Marketing Group offers email marketing management services so you can focus on other aspects of your business. Our team of experts can help manage your email newsletter, craft emails you’d like to send, and strategize types of emails to include throughout your email marketing strategy. .

Don’t let the potential of email marketing slip through your fingers due to a lack of time or resources. Contact us to schedule a time to meet with Eric Sachs, and discover how our full-service digital marketing agency can help your business today.

FAQs

We hear a lot of questions from curious business owners interested in exploring how they can improve their email marketing efforts. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions and answers for your considerations.

What should I send in an email list?

In an email list, you should send a variety of content that adds value for your subscribers. This may include welcome emails, educational content, newsletters, product or service updates, special offers, and event invitations. The key is to maintain relevance, provide value, and encourage engagement to foster a strong relationship with your audience.

How many emails should you send to your email list?

The number of emails you should send to your email list can vary based on your industry, audience preference, and your content strategy. A general recommendation is 1-2 emails per week to maintain engagement without overwhelming subscribers. However, it’s crucial to monitor your engagement metrics (open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribe rates) to find the optimal frequency for your specific audience.

What is a mass email list called?

A mass email list, also referred to as a “bulk email list” or “email broadcast list,” is a collection of email addresses used by businesses to send marketing messages to multiple recipients simultaneously. These lists are crucial for businesses running email marketing campaigns, as they enable communication with a large audience, thus promoting their products, services, or updates on a large scale.

What are the types of emails you’ll use in email marketing?

In email marketing, you’ll use various types of emails including Welcome Emails to greet new subscribers, Newsletters to share updates and valuable content, Transactional Emails for purchase confirmations and updates, Promotional Emails to advertise products or offers, Survey Emails to gather customer feedback, Re-engagement Emails to connect with inactive subscribers, and Thank You Emails to show customer appreciation. Each type serves a unique purpose in building relationships and driving conversions.

Conclusion

The beauty of email marketing lies in its versatility. It is a platform that allows you to establish an effective, personalized line of communication with your audience. The different types of emails, from welcome email to thank you emails, each play a vital role in creating an enriched customer journey.

Remember, it’s not about bombarding your list with messages, but about delivering the right content at the right time. Keep experimenting, analyzing, and refining your strategy based on what resonates with your audience. By mastering this intricate dance, you can truly leverage the power of email marketing for your business’s success.

Categories
Email Marketing

How to Turn Email Subscribers into Paying Customers

You can turn email subscribers into paying customers by sending personalized welcome emails, creating targeted and automated email sequences, segmenting your list, offering exclusive deals, incorporating testimonials, and consistently delivering valuable content that resonates with your audience’s needs and interests.

Email subscribers are valuable leads, but without proper engagement and incentivization, they remain just that – subscribers and not customers. This can be frustrating and affect the revenue growth of your business.

Imagine the potential revenue that’s slipping through your fingers by not converting your subscribers. You’ve invested time, effort, and resources in growing your email list. These subscribers showed interest in your brand, and every day they remain unconverted, you’re missing out on opportunities for sales, building customer relationships, and expanding your brand.

To turn your email subscribers into paying customers, it’s crucial to adopt a targeted approach. With a little effort, you’ll build stronger relationships with your audience and effectively convert subscribers into loyal, paying customers. To help you get started, we gathered some tips on how to turn email subscribers into paying customers.

How to Turn Email Subscribers into Paying Customers

In today’s competitive online market, merely gaining email subscribers is not enough. It is imperative to employ strategies to convert these subscribers into paying customers. In this article, we will explore how to turn email subscribers into paying customers and elevate your business revenue.

Start with a Personalized Welcome Email

When someone subscribes to your email list, the first email they receive sets the tone for your relationship.

It is essential to send a personalized welcome email that thanks them for subscribing, briefly explains what they can expect, and highlights the value they will receive. A warm and personalized welcome email can make subscribers more receptive to your subsequent communications.

Create Automated Email Sequences

Automated email sequences are series of emails that are sent out automatically based on specific triggers. Utilize this tool to nurture your subscribers with relevant content over time, gently leading them down the sales funnel. This streamlining helps in ensuring consistent engagement without overwhelming your subscribers.

Segment Your List

Not all subscribers are the same; they have different interests, needs, and engagement levels. Segmentation involves splitting your email list into smaller groups based on criteria such as purchase history, geographic location, or engagement rates. By segmenting your list, you can send more targeted and relevant content, which can significantly boost conversion rates.

Establish a Schedule and Stick to It

Consistency is key in email marketing. Establish a schedule that balances maintaining regular contact without bombarding your subscribers. Stick to this schedule as inconsistency can lead to disengagement and cause your audience to lose interest.

Vary Your Calls to Action

A well-crafted Call to Action (CTA) can be a game-changer. Don’t limit yourself to using the same CTA in every email. Vary your CTAs to keep your content fresh and cater to different motivations and interests within your audience.

Offer Exclusive Opportunities

Offering subscribers exclusive deals or early access to products or services can make them feel valued and incentivize them to make a purchase. Ensure these offers are genuine and provide real value to foster trust and loyalty.

Use Testimonials

Including testimonials from satisfied customers can build trust and credibility with your subscribers. Testimonials serve as social proof, and by showcasing positive experiences, you can alleviate any concerns or doubts that potential customers might have.

Deliver Valuable Content

Ensure the content you’re sending is valuable to your audience. Provide tips, insights, and information that is not only relevant but also beneficial. When subscribers find value in your emails, they are more likely to view your products or services favorably.

Bring Your Personality

Adding personality to your emails can make your brand more relatable and memorable. Whether it’s humor, storytelling, or a conversational tone, bringing your brand’s personality into your emails can strengthen your connection with subscribers.

Split-Test Email Subject Lines

Email subject lines are crucial in determining whether or not your email is opened. Split testing involves sending different versions of your subject line to small segments of your subscribers to see which performs best, and using the winner for the rest of your list.

Track Your Open Rate, Unsubscribes, and Other Metrics

It is essential to keep an eye on your email marketing metrics. Monitor open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribes to gauge how your emails are performing. This data can provide insights into what’s working and what needs improvement.

Work with a Professional

Consider partnering with an agency to manage and optimize your email marketing campaign. Professionals bring experience and expertise that can be invaluable in turning email subscribers into paying customers efficiently.

FAQ

We hear a lot of questions from clients regarding email marketing, so we thought we’d share a few of the most frequently asked questions here.

Take a look below for the questions and our answers.

How do I get customers to opt into email marketing?

To get customers to opt into email marketing, offer incentives such as discounts or exclusive content, use engaging call-to-action buttons, optimize sign-up forms to be simple and easy to find, and communicate the benefits of subscribing, like receiving helpful tips or being the first to know about new products.

How do I convert email subscribers to customers?

Convert email subscribers to customers by understanding their needs, sending personalized content, segmenting the email list to deliver relevant messages, leveraging social proof through testimonials, offering exclusive deals, and having clear and compelling calls to action that guide subscribers toward making a purchase.

How do I reward email subscribers?

Reward email subscribers by offering exclusive discounts, access to pre-launch products, free resources such as ebooks or templates, engaging content tailored to their preferences, and acknowledging milestones like birthdays or anniversaries with special offers.

How do I set up email marketing?

Set up email marketing by first choosing an email marketing platform, creating an email list, designing opt-in forms to collect subscribers, developing a content strategy, and setting up automated email sequences. Ensure you’re compliant with regulations like CAN-SPAM or GDPR, and continuously monitor and optimize your campaigns for better performance.

Let Sachs Marketing Group Handle Your Email Marketing

Are you looking to elevate your email marketing game?

Sachs Marketing Group understands that in today’s cluttered inbox, standing out is more challenging than ever. With their cutting-edge tools, data-driven strategies, and creative prowess, they craft personalized email campaigns that resonate with your audience.

Imagine the satisfaction of watching your subscriber base not just grow but become actively engaged. Picture your revenues soaring as those subscribers turn into loyal paying customers. This could be your reality with Sachs Marketing Group.

Take the leap and partner with Sachs Marketing Group today for tailor-made email marketing solutions that deliver results. Contact Sachs Marketing Group to learn how we can help turn email subscribers into paying customers for your business.

Conclusion

Turning email subscribers into paying customers is an art that requires a combination of strategy, personalization, and engagement.

Starting with a warm welcome email, to segmenting your list, and ensuring that your content is valuable and relatable, every step is crucial. Integrating testimonials and exclusive offers can further enhance trust and incentivize conversions. Keeping an eye on your performance through tracking metrics is essential for ongoing optimization.

But remember, while these strategies are effective, consistency and genuine connection with your audience are the keys. Email marketing requires time and effort, so you might find it beneficial to partner with a full-service digital marketing agency like Sachs Marketing Group.

Take the steps laid out in this article and embark on your journey to convert your email subscribers into not just paying customers, but brand advocates.

Categories
Email Marketing

How Can Email Marketing Fuel Your Overall Inbound Strategy?

Email marketing fuels your overall inbound strategy by enabling targeted communication with your audience, nurturing leads, driving website traffic, and increasing customer engagement, ultimately resulting in higher conversions and a boosted return on investment (ROI).

For every $1 spent on email marketing, $44 is made in return. That’s a 4400% ROI! With that in mind and the fact that 99% of email users check their email every day, email marketing can play an essential role in your inbound marketing strategy.

So, how can email marketing fuel your overall inbound strategy?

How Can Email Marketing Fuel Your Overall Inbound Strategy?

You’ve spent countless hours meticulously building an inbound marketing strategy that includes social media, blog posts, and search engine optimization. You’ve even dabbled in content marketing and have built an impressive library of resources. But despite all your hard work, you’re not seeing the results you expected.

What could be missing from your inbound strategy? 

Email marketing.

That’s right, email marketing can fuel your overall inbound strategy in ways you never thought possible.

Let’s dive into some of the many benefits of email marketing and how email marketing can fuel your overall inbound strategy.

Reach Your Target Audience Directly via Email

Imagine you’re a marketing director at an up-and-coming tech startup. You’ve got a fantastic product, but you’re struggling to reach the right people. Enter email marketing. With strategic segmentation and targeted campaigns, email marketing allows you to deliver tailored content to the right people at the right time.

  • Segment your email list: Categorize your subscribers based on factors like demographics, location, past purchase behavior, or interests, to create targeted groups.
  • Create personalized content: Tailor your email campaigns to address the specific needs, preferences, and pain points of each subscriber group.
  • Implement an effective subject line strategy: Use catchy, relevant subject lines that pique the interest of your target audience, prompting them to open and engage with your emails.
  • Optimize send times: Analyze your audience’s behavior to determine the best times to send emails, ensuring higher open and click-through rates.
  • Incorporate engaging visuals: Use images, infographics, or videos to capture the attention of your target audience and encourage further interaction with your content.
  • A/B test your campaigns: Experiment with different email elements (e.g., subject lines, design, content) to identify the most effective strategies for reaching and engaging your target audience.
  • Monitor and analyze performance: Continuously track key email marketing metrics (e.g., open rates, click-through rates, conversions) to gauge the success of your campaigns and refine your approach to better target your audience.

Including these steps in your email marketing ensures that your messages resonate with your target audience, driving more engagement and ultimately leading to higher conversion rates.

Take a look at these simple email marketing tips to get started.

Express Appreciation for Your Loyal Customers

Email marketing can be the secret sauce for retaining your most loyal customers. When you’re able to show your appreciation and stay top-of-mind, you’re more likely to keep customers coming back for more.

Consider launching a customer appreciation campaign with exclusive discounts, sneak peeks, and priority access to new products. These campaigns not only show gratitude to your existing customers but also encourage them to continue doing business with you, further fueling your inbound strategy. 

And don’t forget to ask for feedback! 

Engaging with your customers through surveys and polls in your emails can help you uncover valuable insights that will improve your product offerings and overall customer experience.

Here are some ideas to help you get started:

  • Offer exclusive promotions: Provide special discounts, offers, or gifts that are exclusive to your most loyal customers, showing your gratitude for their patronage.
  • Give early access: Allow your loyal customers to enjoy priority access to new products, services, or upcoming sales before they are available to the general public.
  • Share exclusive content: Provide your loyal customers with exclusive content, such as behind-the-scenes looks, expert advice, or industry insights, as a token of appreciation.
  • Celebrate milestones: Recognize and celebrate your loyal customers’ anniversaries or other milestones, such as the number of purchases they’ve made or the length of their relationship with your business.
  • Ask for feedback: Encourage your loyal customers to share their opinions and feedback on your products or services, demonstrating that you value their input and want to improve their experience.
  • Showcase customer success stories: Feature loyal customers in your email newsletters or on your website, sharing their success stories and highlighting how your products or services have positively impacted their lives or businesses.

Rekindle Email Conversations with Inactive Subscribers

We all have those subscribers who once showed great interest but have since grown silent. Instead of letting these potential customers slip through the cracks, use email marketing to reignite their interest and bring them back into the fold.

Craft a re-engagement campaign targeting inactive subscribers. Offer incentives like limited-time promotions or exclusive content to entice them to re-engage with your brand. Remember to analyze the results of your campaign to refine your approach and make your re-engagement efforts even more successful in the future.

A few ideas to help you get started include the following:

  • Develop a re-engagement strategy: Craft a plan that includes email content, incentives, and frequency to rekindle the interest of your inactive subscribers.
  • Offer incentives: Provide exclusive discounts, promotions, or valuable content that encourages inactive subscribers to re-engage with your brand.
  • Send a series of re-engagement emails: Instead of sending a single email, consider a series of emails spaced out over a few weeks to gradually rebuild the relationship with your inactive subscribers. Creating an email drip campaign will provide you with multiple opportunities to recapture the attention of your subscribers.
  • Test different approaches: Experiment with various subject lines, email formats, and incentives to determine which combination yields the best results for your re-engagement campaign.

While it’s important to regularly scrub your email list to ensure your open rate is healthy and avoid emails from going to spam, be sure to try to rekindle inactive subscribers first. This ensures your email marketing fuels your overall inbound strategy effectively.

Send Email Reminders Regarding Abandoned Carts

Did you know that the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is around 69%? That’s a lot of potential sales left on the table. 

Email marketing can help you recover these lost opportunities and turn abandoned carts into conversions.

Implement a cart recovery email series that reminds customers of the items they left behind and offers incentives like free shipping or a discount code to encourage them to complete their purchase. By doing so, you’ll not only boost your sales but also strengthen your inbound strategy by increasing customer lifetime value.

Turn Subscribers into High-Quality Leads

A robust email marketing strategy can help you generate high-quality leads that are more likely to convert into customers. By offering valuable content like ebooks, webinars, or industry reports in exchange for contact information, you’ll attract prospects who are genuinely interested in your products or services.

Create enticing lead magnets and promote them through email campaigns, social media, and blog posts to maximize their reach. Once you’ve captured these new leads, nurture them with targeted email sequences that showcase your expertise and the benefits of your products or services, moving them closer to making a purchase.

Encourage Email Subscribers to Visit Your Website

Email marketing can be a powerful driver of traffic to your website, fueling your inbound strategy by keeping your audience engaged with your brand. 

  • Share valuable content: Regularly send emails containing informative and engaging content, such as blog posts, articles, or industry news, which encourages subscribers to visit your website to read more.
  • Promote website-specific exclusive offers: Offer special deals or discounts that can only be redeemed on your website, incentivizing subscribers to click through and explore your site.
  • Utilize clear and compelling calls-to-action (CTAs): Create strong CTAs in your emails that encourage subscribers to visit specific pages on your website, such as a product page or a landing page for a new promotion.
  • Showcase new products or services: Send emails highlighting new products, services, or features, sparking curiosity and driving traffic to your website for further exploration.
  • Announce upcoming events or webinars: Share information about upcoming events, webinars, or workshops that require registration or attendance through your website, boosting traffic as subscribers sign up or learn more.
  • Collaborate with influencers or partners: Partner with industry influencers or other businesses in your niche and mention them in your emails, linking back to your website, which can result in increased traffic from their audience as well.
  • Analyze and optimize email performance: Monitor the performance of your email campaigns, such as click-through and conversion rates, to identify areas for improvement and optimize your emails for better engagement and website traffic generation.

Pro tip: Use clear and compelling calls-to-action in your emails to encourage click-throughs, and track your email campaign performance to identify opportunities for optimization.

Frequently Asked Questions

As email marketing continues to be a powerful tool for businesses, many questions arise about its implementation, effectiveness, and best practices. To help you better understand this essential marketing channel, we’ve compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions regarding email marketing.

Is email still an effective marketing tool?

Yes, email remains an effective marketing tool, as it offers targeted communication, high ROI, and the ability to nurture leads, increase customer engagement, and drive website traffic, making it a crucial component of a comprehensive marketing strategy.

What is the main purpose of email marketing?

The main purpose of email marketing is to build and maintain relationships with customers and prospects by delivering targeted, personalized, and relevant content directly to their inboxes, ultimately driving engagement, conversions, and brand loyalty.

What are the five advantages of using email marketing?

Email marketing offers five key advantages: cost-effectiveness, targeted communication, high return on investment, improved customer engagement, and the ability to track and analyze campaign performance.

What are the three key elements of email marketing?

Three key elements for email marketing are crafting compelling subject lines, delivering personalized and valuable content, and utilizing clear calls to action to drive engagement and conversions.

What are the best email marketing tools?

The best email marketing tools include platforms like Mailchimp, HubSpot, Constant Contact, GetResponse, and Sendinblue, which offer a range of features and capabilities to help businesses create, manage, and optimize their email campaigns effectively.

Do digital marketing agencies provide email marketing services?

Yes, a digital marketing agency typically provides email marketing services, which include strategy development, content creation, list management, campaign execution, and performance analysis to help businesses achieve their marketing goals.

Conclusion

By incorporating email marketing into your inbound strategy, you’ll be able to effectively reach your target audience, value your loyal customers, rekindle conversations with inactive subscribers, and so much more. In doing so, you’ll generate high-quality leads, increase website traffic, and ultimately, achieve a higher ROI for your business.

Imagine the success you’ll experience as your email marketing campaigns fuel your inbound strategy, driving more conversions and fostering long-lasting customer relationships. Don’t let this chance slip away; email marketing is the key to unlocking your full marketing potential.

To get started with email marketing and transform your inbound marketing results, contact Sachs Marketing Group today. Our team of experts will guide you every step of the way, providing valuable insights, tips, and strategies to help you leverage the power of email marketing to achieve remarkable results. Reach out to Sachs Marketing Group now and unlock the full potential of your inbound strategy!

Categories
Email Marketing

What is an Email Drip Campaign?

An email drip campaign is a series of pre-written emails that are automatically sent to a customer or prospect over a period of time. This type of digital marketing campaign can be used to attract more customers, keep customers engaged, and increase sales.

Reaching out to people interested in your products or services is critical to any marketing strategy. One effective way to do this is through an email drip campaign, which sends a series of pre-written emails automatically over time. These campaigns can help you attract more customers, keep them engaged, and boost sales.

There are many benefits of email marketing.

First, staying in touch with your target audience over time is easy. As new contacts are added to the campaign, and existing ones receive new messages over time, you can build a relationship with them that keeps your brand top-of-mind.

Second, it helps keep customers engaged by sharing relevant content with them at the right time. For example, suppose a customer has recently made a purchase or signed up for your newsletter. In that case, you can send them a series of targeted emails that will continue to provide valuable information and build trust over time.

Finally, email encourages customers to take action and purchase. Often, these campaigns incorporate a “call to action” that prompts the customer to click on a link or open an attachment. This can help you drive conversions and sales, ultimately increasing your bottom line.

An email drip campaign may be your solution if you are looking for an effective way to engage your subscribers in a way that helps to improve your email marketing and overall inbound strategy.

In this article, we’ve gathered some helpful information to answer one of the most common questions: What is an email drip campaign?

What is an Email Drip Campaign?

Email drip campaigns are an evolution of how we use and value emails as a marketing tool. Gone are the days when marketing material scattershot across a random mailing list and plain promotional messages were enough to try and get your business on the digital map. Nowadays, that kind of behavior lands you in the spam folder the vast majority of the time.  

Even when your customers do sign up for a newsletter or promotional material – especially if you provided some form of incentive for them to do so, like 10-15 percent off their first purchase or free shipping – it is often notoriously difficult to get potential leads or previous customers to click on and read your emails if they aren’t already in the market for another product or service from you. 

Drip campaigns focus on two key aspects to make emails more interesting to potential leads: relevance and personalization. The third crucial aspect is what makes them work and why they’re such a powerful bang-for-buck tool: automation

[smgquote author=”Chris Rice, Senior SEO Strategist”]
Email marketing is one of the best ways to stay in touch with future customers after they’ve discovered your website.[/smgquote]

Understanding Drip Campaigns

Let’s take a step back and explain how drip campaigns work. 

Email drip campaigns are a special type of automated email campaign involving pre-written, automated, and highly customized emails that are sent out periodically based on per-customer triggers and other factors. 

This could be something like sending out an email or two before Black Friday or Cyber Monday reminding your potential leads of amazing deals and once-a-year discounts, or something far more personalized, such as:  

  • Creating timely reminders for already interested leads based on their recent browsing history or visiting history on your products and services. 
  • Reminding customers (and enticing them!) who might have placed an item or two in a cart but didn’t go through with a purchase because they just aren’t sure yet. 
  • Sending out emails to customers who previously indicated that they were interested in a specific upcoming product or feature by teasing a new update or tidbit of information at a time, rather than a single slew of info in one easily missed message. 
  • Sending a follow-up after a customer service episode to ask for feedback. 
  • Sending a follow-up after a product has already arrived to ask about the unboxing experience and recommend other purchases. 
  • Reminding customers that their product is on its way or updating them periodically about where it is and how close it is (and how excited you are for them to receive it!)
  • Happy birthday wishes or anniversary deals for your customer’s membership. 
  • And a lot more. 

Why Email is Still Relevant Today

99% of email users check their email every day.

The long and short of it is that a person’s email address still acts as their key to nearly any other platform on the internet, despite the fact that the email is even older than the World Wide Web, let alone search engines and social media platforms. This means nearly everyone has an email, and chances are that emails are still a part of daily life, even if they’re using platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Skype. 

But modern email inboxes are highly curated, and only key messages are regularly opened and read. Things like important billing information, security and privacy updates, or personal correspondence. 

Getting marketing material into a person’s inbox is not particularly difficult. Even keeping your email out of the spam filter has become easier and easier, thanks to many tools and techniques to convince potential and successful leads to keep up with a business’ deals and promotional material for their own benefit. 

But statistics show that while email is incredibly low-cost and has some of the highest ROI of all online marketing mediums, getting people to open their messages can still be difficult. Drip marketing aims to increase the odds that your emails reach people who care about them at a time when they’re most likely to care about them by utilizing per-customer triggers most of the time. 

Do Email Drip Campaigns Work?

Yes, they do. We’ve already mentioned that email marketing campaigns have a deceptively high ROI – an average of about $44 for every dollar spent – and there’s very little long-term effort or leg work involved in setting up the right automated emails. 

You do need your copy to be personalized, and you need an enticing design, the right plan, and a layout that works – but that’s still often less of an investment than a major YouTube ad campaign, a large multiplatform video series, or a myriad of other online marketing tools. 

How well your email drip campaign will work depends entirely on how you formulate your messages, when you trigger them, your open rate, and your click-through rate. You should keep a few things in mind if you want to make the most out of an email drip campaign.

[smgquote author=”Eric Sachs, CEO”]
Use what you know about your customers, including their preferences and past behaviors, to inform your subsequent communications and frame new sales opportunities.[/smgquote]

How to Design Your Email Drip Campaign

How often do you open a promotional email? Usually, the answer would be “when it’s interesting” or “when there’s something in it for me”. Both key points can only be fulfilled with the right subject line. That’s where it all starts. 

Think about what your audience wants to hear or see at any given trigger, such as a recently viewed product, incomplete shopping cart, or recent purchase – and put a few different subject lines through basic A/B testing.

From there, observe the following tenets: 

  • Be Personal
  • Be Creative
  • Be Direct
  • Match Emails to Crucial Triggers
  • Nurture Your Leads
  • Ask For Feedback Immediately!
  • Test, Test, and Retest

The right email drip campaign leverages information you already have about your customers – your customer profiles, your branding, the language and tone of your existing marketing material, your layouts and colors – and creates messages that help boost brand recognition, set you apart from the competition, make you memorable, and have an interesting value proposition for your readers, such as small incentives, discounts, and promotional codes. 

Be sure to keep this in mind whenever creating a new drip campaign. Incorporating these tips and other email marketing tips into your process can help you create a more effective campaign.

By conditioning recipients that nearly every message you send their way ends up in something worth their time, whether it’s an inside scoop, a new release, a small discount, or a chance at a major giveaway, you’re more likely to boost your opening rates and gain a loyal following. 

Frequently Asked Questions

We’ve noticed business owners often have the same questions about email drip campaigns. So, we’ve put together some answers for you just below. Check them out and let’s dive into the world of drip campaigns together!

What is the difference between a drip campaign and a normal email campaign?

A drip campaign is a series of pre-written, automated emails sent to subscribers at specific intervals or based on their actions, while a normal email campaign involves one-time, manually created emails sent to a target audience.

Drip campaigns aim to nurture leads and build engagement over time through consistent, relevant messaging. In contrast, normal email campaigns are generally used for announcements, promotions, or news updates with a more immediate focus.

What is a good open rate in an email marketing drip campaign?

A good open rate for an email marketing drip campaign varies depending on the industry and the target audience. Generally, an open rate of around 20-25% is considered satisfactory across various industries. However, achieving higher open rates, like 30% or more, is a strong indicator of a successful and well-targeted drip campaign.

How many emails should a drip campaign include?

The number of emails in a drip campaign can vary depending on the specific goals and strategies of the marketer. Generally, a drip campaign may consist of anywhere from 3 to 10 emails, with each email spaced out at strategically determined intervals. The key is to strike a balance between maintaining regular engagement with the audience and not overwhelming them with too many emails.

What is an example of an email drip campaign?

An example of an email drip campaign could be a welcome series for new subscribers to an online store’s newsletter.

When a user signs up, they receive an initial welcome email that introduces the brand, thanks them for subscribing, and offers a discount code for their first purchase.

A few days later, the subscriber may receive a second email featuring popular products or personalized recommendations based on their browsing history.

After a week, a third email could be sent, showcasing customer reviews and success stories to build trust and credibility. Finally, if the subscriber has not yet made a purchase, a fourth email might be sent as a gentle reminder to use the discount code before it expires, creating a sense of urgency.

Conclusion

An email drip campaign is a series of emails that are automatically sent to customers based on specific triggers. These campaigns are designed to increase customer engagement and ROI. By personalizing messages and targeting crucial triggers, businesses can see an increase in opens and clicks. However, it is important to test, retest, and continually optimize your campaign in order to get the best results.​

If you want to create a successful email drip campaign, consider hiring a professional digital marketing agency specializing in email marketing. This will allow you to focus on your business while we handle your email marketing campaign, ensuring that your messages are relevant, personalized, and well-timed to increase customer engagement and ROI.

Categories
Email Marketing

10 Simple Email Marketing Tips to Attract Local Customers

Looking for email marketing tips? Email marketing may one of the oldest forms of digital marketing, but it’s also one of the most effective. Email is nearly 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook and Twitter combined (McKinsey).

Of course, not all companies have enjoyed such success with email marketing, and many still wonder if it’s even worth doing at all. But in truth, there are countless simple email marketing tips that can help you attract new customers and grow your business.

In this article, we’ve gathered several simple email marketing tips to attract local customers.

If you want my team at Sachs Marketing Group to help manage your email marketing, click here.

Email Marketing Tips

Email marketing has been around since the early days of the internet. In fact, the first email was sent in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, and it was a simple message to fellow computer scientists about a new computer system.

The first commercial email campaign was sent in 1978 by Digital Equipment Corporation, and it was a success. Digital Equipment Corporation sent out a total of 4,465 messages, and 2,300 people responded to the campaign.

Since then, email marketing has continued to grow in popularity. In fact, according to The Radicati Group, there were nearly 3.7 billion active email users worldwide in 2017. And that number is only expected to grow in the years to come.

So, how can email marketing work for your business?

Here are ten email marketing tips to help you get started.

1. Your Subject Line Is Key!

Email marketing is tricky, because you are trying to create an incentive to open a message your reader might not have an interest in opening at the time. It’s not like you’re reaching out to them to provide a tracking number for a recent purchase they’ve made – something they have a vested interest in knowing about. 

No, you’re trying to reach out and make a connection with a reader in hopes of continuing your business relationship. That means having a value proposition. And in the best-case scenario, it means having a value proposition in the subject line of your email. 

Related: What is an Email Drip Campaign (And Will it Attract More Customers)?

2. Address People Personally

Personalization goes a long way in email marketing. We’re not just talking about “Hi [user_name]”, but managing your email marketing campaigns so certain users are receiving certain types of emails, based on account settings, purchase history, and other information you’ve gathered. 

This is where having user accounts on your website goes a long way – that type of first-party data can help you flesh out customer profiles, and target users with new product releases, wishlisted items, and recently browsed items. Think of the way Amazon sends you an email a few days after you went looking for a product but didn’t buy anything. They use data gathered in that session to recommend all the current best deals in the niche, in hopes of turning a lead into a sale. 

As an added touch, use your own name when sending the email, rather than just the company name – especially if you’re a smaller company, to begin with.

[smgquote author=”Chris Rice, Senior SEO Strategist”]
Email marketing is one of the best ways to stay in touch with future customers after they’ve discovered your website.[/smgquote]

Most people know it wouldn’t make much sense to get an email from Bob Chapek himself telling them that their Disney+ subscription is running out; but if you’re a small business owner trying to write a follow-up for previous leads or past customers, using your first name in the sender field shows that you’ve taken the extra time out of your day-to-day to hear back from a customer.  

3. Offer Limited Local Deals

Want to encourage local customers to come over physically to your store location? Use an in-mail bonus as incentive. 

Maybe a significant discount – over 25 percent off the first purchase – if the email is presented at the point of sale, or a limited-edition item only available for pick-up at your local branch. 

4. Stats Help

Numbers are eye-catching, provided they’re simple and bolded. Use them to make a point – such as illustrating that you’re celebrating a new company milestone of a million sales of your newest product with a huge sale on older items or write a heartfelt email to the reader thanking them for their purchases over the year, and illustrating how they’ve contributed to your business’ growth this past 2022 through a colorful infographic. 

5. Short and Sweet

Whatever you do, don’t turn three emails into one. You might have a few good ideas for an email but consider making each idea the focus of its own message. 

It’s popular to say that people have a limited attention span, but it might be more accurate to say that they’ve got an incredibly low tolerance for advertising. If you want to get your message out, try to crystallize your email into one relevant paragraph, with all the rest of the copy being little more than layout and design. 

6. Use Your CTA Multiple Times

A good email has one call-to-action. But it can have that call-to-action repeated three, even four times – in the header, the footer, and twice in the copy. Use your judgment to determine what is and isn’t in poor taste, depending on what your chosen CTA is, and how your email’s layout works – but don’t shy away from making your CTA nicely visible in multiple key parts of the email. 

Including CTAs in your messages can have a profound impact on the way your email marketing fuels your inbound strategy.

7. Test Your Emails

There’s nothing more embarrassing than sending an email with a faulty script or function, a broken link, a broken graphic, or a massive typo – especially when you’ve gone and sent it to thousands of potential leads! 

Not only does that tarnish your reputation a little, but it’s very suspicious. People have grown accustomed to assuming that spelling mistakes mean spam

8. Does Your Email Have Value?

Good copy, a catchy subject line, and a pleasant layout are all important for good email marketing. But will your reader regret opening this message? Is there anything of actual value worth their time? Readers aren’t interested in hearing about your company’s milestones if it doesn’t mean anything to them – i.e., if it doesn’t result in a direct benefit for them. Always make sure your emails offer something of value, whether it’s a chance at a promo code or news of a new product. 

9. Talk Benefits, Not Features

It’s a simple mistake to make, and one marketers and copywriters make far too often; when discussing a new product or service, talk first and foremost about what it means for the customer, not just what’s under the hood. 

Don’t write about a running shoe that’s half an ounce lighter than the competition – write about a shoe that’ll help the reader cut their mile times by a solid minute. This is why stats matter – having that data on hand can give you an immediate list of benefits for the reader to chew on, and single out the one that you think will resonate the most with your audience. 

10. Always Be A/B Testing

Last but not least, use A/B testing to figure out what type of copy and content style resonates best with your users and target audience. Use a few different subject lines and see which resulted in the most clicks to your landing page or product page. 

Data is valuable. Information is key if you want to improve your marketing campaigns and get an even greater return on your investment. 

Conclusion

Email marketing is a powerful tool that can help reach more local customers and grow your business. One of the key benefits of email marketing is the direct connection. There is far less competition in your customers’ email inboxes than in their social media feeds, which means you have a better chance of actually reaching your target customer with your message.

In addition, you can use email marketing to track your results and optimize your campaigns based on data. With the right tools, you can easily segment your list and target specific customers with tailored messages or promotions.

Overall, if you want to grow your business in today’s crowded digital landscape, email marketing is an essential tool that should not be overlooked.

How are you using email marketing to grow your business?

Categories
Email Marketing

12 Benefits of Email Marketing and Why it’s More Important than Ever

There are many benefits of email marketing, but it requires time and attention. Email marketing is more effective than ever before, but it requires a lot of time and attention.

As email marketing becomes more and more popular, it’s important to understand the benefits that come with using this type of marketing.

Email marketing is one of the most effective and efficient ways to connect with your customers and promote your brand. It’s more important than ever to take advantage of email marketing, as it can provide a number of benefits for both your business and customers.

In this article, we’ve gathered 12 benefits of email marketing to provide tips for home services businesses and other small, medium, and large businesses interested in reaching more customers.

I hope you enjoy reading this blog post. If you want my team at Sachs Marketing Group to help you with your email marketing, click here.

The Main Benefits of Email Marketing

You may be thinking: Email? Seriously?

Yes, seriously. While you might trash a majority of your incoming messages and have a revolving door of a spam folder filled with unserious or largely forgotten promotional newsletters (in addition to plain spam), it’s important not to lose sight of the emails you do open – and realize that, despite its age, email marketing remains one of the most cost-effective and lucrative forms of digital marketing available to businesses.

99% of email users check their email every day

Embracing email as one of your main marketing channels can help improve the effectiveness of your email marketing and overall inbound strategy.

Related: How to Prevent Your Emails from Going to Spam

We live in a digital age with a growing arsenal of tools to market to customers and reach them, from an assortment of new customer-facing communications tools on platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, to easily managed webinars and laser-focused pay-per-click ad campaigns on Google and Facebook. Digital marketing continues to evolve, and there’s no telling what tools we might have to prioritize tomorrow, from the Metaverse to augmented reality campaigns. 

But right off the bat, we can name three major reasons why email is still going strong, and why you should definitely pay attention to it as a continuing major channel for your advertising efforts – especially with investment and optimization.

  1. First, there are over four billion daily users of email accounts in the world. Compare that to 1.9 billion daily Facebook users, or just 500 million daily Instagram users.
  2. Second, smartphone users – which currently make up a majority of online web users – prefer to receive brand communications via email
  3. And last, but certainly not least, well over a third of major brands are increasing their email budgets in 2022, rather than slowing down investments. That’s because the average email marketing campaign still boasts a return on investment of $36 per $1 spent.

Here are 12 benefits of email marketing that will make you want to start your first email marketing campaign.

1. You Can Reach a wider audience

Email marketing allows you to reach a wider audience with your message than other marketing channels. You’re not limited by geographical boundaries, so you can reach people all over the world with your campaigns.

If you’re not striving to reach a wider audience looking for your products or services, you’re not approaching the marketing effectively. Email provides you the opportunity to collect email addresses over time and provide valuable content that keeps customers engaged with your brand.

Related: The Benefits of Multichannel Marketing

2. Email Marketing is Cost-effective

Email marketing is also a very cost-effective way to reach your audience. It’s affordable to set up and maintain, and you don’t have to spend a lot of money on advertising or other marketing channels.

You can set up a campaign that automatically shares your latest content or creates a custom drip campaign designed to send specific emails to your list depending on where they are in your funnel. Email also allows you to create custom lists depending on your customers or future customers. This allows you to send very targeted content that is relevant to each individual, which can result in higher conversions.p

3. You Can Create Personalized messages

Email marketing allows you to send highly personalized messages to your customers. You can segment your list and send personalized messages that are relevant to each individual subscriber. This helps to build relationships with your customers and keep them engaged with your brand.

People appreciate personalization, as it reflects you’ve taken the time to remember their name and their interests.

[smgquote author=”Eric Sachs, CEO”]
Use what you know about your customers, including their preferences and past behaviors, to inform your subsequent communications and frame new sales opportunities.
[/smgquote]

Instead of starting an email with “To whom it may concern” or “Dear subscriber,” consider using the bracket function within your email marketing platform to address the recipient of your email by his or her first name.

Related: Direct Mail & Digital Outreach: How they Work Together

4. Increase Your Digital Marketing ROI

With email marketing, you can see a high return on investment (ROI). This is because it’s an effective way to reach your target audience and generate leads that can be converted into customers. As mentioned, email marketing is one of the most effective forms of digital marketing, with a return of $38 for every $1 spent.

To increase your ROI, be sure to track your email marketing results and analyze your campaigns. This will help you to see what’s working and what’s not, so you can adjust your strategy accordingly. Additionally, consider using A/B testing to improve your campaigns. This involves testing different aspects of your email, such as the subject line, call to action, or layout, to see which version performs better.

5. Measure Results and Make Changes as Needed

Email marketing provides measurable results that allow you to track your progress and see how effective your campaigns are. You can see how many people opened your email, clicked on the links, and subscribed to your list. This data helps you to improve your campaigns and ensure that you’re reaching your goals.

For the best results, it’s important that you measure these results and make changes as needed. If you ignore this data, you’re missing opportunities to connect with new customers.

6. Automate Email Communication

Email marketing can be automated in a way that continues to provide value to your customers without you having to lift a finger. For example, you can set up a welcome email that is sent automatically when someone subscribes to your list. This helps you to build relationships with your subscribers from the start.

Additionally, you can create email drip campaigns that send specific emails to your subscribers at various stages of the buyer’s journey. This allows you to keep your brand top of mind and ensure that your subscribers are getting the information they need when they need it.

7. Email Is Voluntary

Internet users seem to view the majority of digital ads today as pure poison. Adblockers are the norm, and free streaming platforms that sell a premium service to turn off ads see a significant jump in revenue from doing so. To some users, it feels like major platforms use ads to hold their user base hostage. 

But emails aren’t like that. A good email list is curated by your audience. You should remind visitors that you have a mailing list to begin with, and that there’s some form of value from subscribing to it (whether it’s free weekly content, discounts, or just news related to your products and services), but users should never feel compelled to subscribe to your mailing list if they never intend to open any of your emails. 

Related: How to Improve Your Email Open and Click-Through Rates

Sure, many users lose interest in newsletters and mailing lists once they’ve signed up and found out that the content wasn’t quite what they were looking for, or if they simply lost interest in the topic or product. But if you can leverage that initial moment of voluntary interest, you’ve got yourself an extremely powerful source of recurring leads and sales from people who willingly want to know more about what you’re selling. 

8. Email Marketing Boasts Self-Selected Targeting

One of the major upsets in digital marketing over the last few years has been the recurring trend of dismantling targeted advertising, bit by bit. 

First, changes in privacy law and personal data tightened around companies like Facebook and Google. Then, Apple decided to stop playing nice with apps that tracked their users. And more recently, it seems like third-party cookies – the very thing that makes personalized ads and user tracking easy – are going the way of the dodo.  

All of this spells great news for email. Not only are mailing lists voluntary, but if you advertise them right, you’re creating a curated list of highly targeted users who want to know more about your products and services. This is part of the reason why email has a great ROI. 

9. Emails Can Be Hyper-Personalized

All this talk of personalized ads ignores one important thing – emails have always had the ability to be personalized. 

And as companies like Google and Facebook will continue to struggle to individualize and optimize ads as privacy and security concerns lead to further clampdowns on personal data, the ability to speak to each and every customer with an individualized template through your email marketing campaigns becomes increasingly valuable. 

But it’s not enough to stick to [YOUR NAME HERE] templates. Get personal with it! Use your own primary pool of customer data to personalize your emails to the next level. 

10. Emails Actually Reach Their Destination

Yes, this matters! Think about it – if you send an ad on Facebook, it only reaches about two percent of its target audience. When you send a few thousand emails, up to 90 percent of them reach the inboxes they were designated for. Now, that’s admittedly a bit facetious – but it means that you can afford to invest in making your emails better without worrying about whether the majority of your target audience even gets a chance to see them at all. 

11. Email Has Astounding ROI

We’ve mentioned it, but it bears repeating. Email has one of the highest returns on investment, provided you get it right.

A lot of companies don’t – yet despite that, the majority of them don’t see a reason to downsize their email investments (only about a percent of brands cut down on email this year), and companies are sending 27 percent more emails than before the pandemic.  

12. People Still Like Email

Nearly three-quarters of Baby Boomers find email to be the most personable form of communication between brands and customers. They’re not alone, as 72 percent of Gen X, 64 percent of Millennials, and 60 percent of Gen Z agree. 

That means email has a lot of longevity left to it. But you need to adapt! There’s no sense in writing or drafting emails with the same layout they had ten, or even five years ago. Keep mobile compatibility at the top of your priority list. Nearly 60 percent of Millennials prefer to check their email on the phone, alongside 67 percent of Gen Z. Mobile compatibility isn’t just a must for website SEO anymore – a good modern email can impress users at the desk and on the go as well

Conclusion

Email marketing is a powerful tool that can provide numerous benefits for your business. It’s important to take advantage of this channel so that you can reach your target audience, build relationships, and generate leads. Start using email marketing today to see the benefits for yourself!

Despite the high average ROI, a good email marketing campaign still needs a lot of work. Today and in the coming years, email’s greatest strength will continue to be its ability to hyper-personalize branded content, turn interested visitors into first-time and repeat customers, as well as foster loyalty in your audience. 

But to do that, you need to truly take advantage of the curated nature of your contact list, create a positive and unique culture in the email copy and branded content that you create, and continue to expand your email list in ways that draw in interested users and potential customers, without pulling in too many uninterested visitors or shooing away fresh traffic. 

Let us help you set up your email marketing campaign and use this classic digital channel to supercharge your sales by tapping into your existing audience and creating new loyal customers through increased traffic from organic SEO

Categories
Email Marketing

Why Opens Aren’t Everything in Email Marketing

Email opens aren’t everything in email marketing – more critical metrics include click-through rates, conversion rates, and ROI. Engaging content that prompts action is more valuable than opens. Focusing on segmenting audiences for personalized content and testing different subject lines, formats, and call-to-actions can provide deeper insights into email marketing effectiveness beyond just open rates.

Marketers love the idea of high open rates on emails. Unfortunately, opens don’t necessarily mean conversions, and that means over-relying on them as a form of analytics can be misleading or even damaging to your campaign.

You, the valiant marketer on the other end, sees all those opens and assumes it means your content is on track and working. Your audience, on the other hand, still isn’t motivated enough to follow through.

Today, we want to help you understand exactly why opens aren’t everything in email marketing. We’ll also tell you what you should be paying attention to, and how you can tell the difference between success and failure. Success is possible!

Discover the 12 Benefits of Email Marketing and Why it’s More Important than Ever here

Opens are Not the Goal

Here’s the problem: it’s completely possible to have a high open rate and not land a single sale or signup. Your audience is reading, and even interested, but once they land inside the email, what are they really doing?

The goal of every email marketing campaign is to:

  • Get people to see your email
  • Get them to open the email
  • Convince them to take action

Now, that action might differ depending on the nature of your business, sure. A newspaper obviously wants people to either subscribe to home delivery or click through to their website to subscribe online. A manufacturing company wants to attract clients who either call them or visit their website to order a service.

Either way, the end goal is the same: convince them to do something specific that (hopefully) improves your brand awareness or makes you money.

You Have to Open to Unsubscribe

Here’s a slightly terrifying statistic: 69 percent of email marketing recipients report emails for spam based on the subject line alone.

“That’s okay,” you’re thinking. “I have great personalized email subjects and tons of opens. It’s pretty clear it’s working.”

Or is it?

What many marketers manage to forget is the fact that most email programs require that you open the email before you can report it as spam or unsubscribe. Angry Dan Jones who just received your email and is totally going to report you now counts towards that successful open count you thought you had.

How many others are just like him?

Relying on open rates alone gives you a shallow picture of your success because it doesn’t tell you what your audience is actually doing once they’re inside. In this instance, leads tracking and monitoring unsubscribe rates might paint a very different picture of your campaign’s overall success.

Without tracking deeper analytics, you can’t possibly know whether Angry Dan Jones unsubscribed, reported you for spam, or reported it as a phishing attempt.

Previews Count as Opens

Some email programs, including Outlook and most ERP or business management software platforms, show a preview panel for emails. When an email comes in, the panel shows the reader a short, truncated view of what they’ll see if they open it further. The premise behind this is to reduce risks from email worms and viruses and allow the user to avoid reading junk mail.

Unfortunately, some email marketing programs and platforms count preview panel views as opens, especially if the user adjusts settings to show a significant portion of the email content.

It’s completely possible to have a high open rate even though your list isn’t even opening your emails at all. Instead, they’re glancing at them in preview, and then moving on or ignoring you.

This is a difficult issue to overcome, but we do have a few tips. Focus on being catchy and snappy in the first 25 percent of your email, and work hard to create personalized subject lines that really grab attention. Preview aside, a good subject and introduction should be enough to tempt them to click in for real.

High Opens + Small List = Sub-Par Results

This problem is particularly endemic to first-time email marketers and smaller businesses who don’t really have much experience with analytics. They see a high open rate and assume they’re succeeding, yet they’re only sending out emails to 120 people. Sixty percent of 120 is still only 72 people – people we aren’t even sure are turning into actual conversions.

So you, the new marketer, sees that your audience is opening your emails and assumes you’re succeeding. In reality, you forgot you added several employees and all of your friends and family to the list to help you get started. That’s great, but it’s probably not going to result in conversions or high sales anytime soon.

Remember that high opens can appear deceptively high when you look at percentages alone. Look at hard numbers instead; how many people actually opened your email? How big is your list? If it’s low, focus on growing your list further and then start factoring in opens when “high” has more impact.

Sudden Spikes Often Mean Trouble

Sometimes, it manifests in a slightly different format – a business sees a sudden remarkable jump in open rates and assumes the content they just sent out is the key to future success.

What they aren’t considering is the fact that the email they sent out contains a mistake. The product sale within it says the item is on sale for $0.99 cents, not $9.99, which is a highly motivating but totally incorrect figure.

“Boy, that’s some sale,” your audience thinks, “I better jump right on this.”

Then, one of two things happen:

  • They get inside the email and realize it was too good to be true
  • The email is wrong, too, and they click through, only to bounce away
  • Your site price is wrong, too, and you lose thousands due to the misprint

Incorrect pricing and typos happen (just look at this incident from Vibrant Body Company as proof). But this is just one example of why a sudden spike in email opens isn’t necessarily proof of success.

You could also offend people so seriously that they click through the email to report you for abuse. Or, maybe you used a trigger word and Gmail told them it’s a phishing attempt; they opened it to report it as such.

Then, there’s also the fact that all email marketing campaigns have occasional spikes. Sometimes, theses spikes help us identify trends and audience “loves;” other times, it seemingly happens because it’s a full moon. Take spikes as they are: a clue that may or may not be transient. Look at analytics success over time, not just from a single day, week, or month.

At Sachs Marketing Group, we know the value of patience, dedication, and holistic analytics in email marketing. If you’re struggling to get your start or just need some advice, we’d love to talk. Contact us using this link to get started.

Exit mobile version
Skip to content