Tips And Tricks To Win Your Email Marketing Game

February 25, 2022 Maya Benabdelhadi Email Marketing  

Email marketing is one of the well-known tactics that can yield high returns, but it does take a little work to make it sing and distinguish it from competitors. With our tips and tricks, you can turn your newsletter into an anticipated high-conversion email for your audience!

 

Craft a strategy

It’s all well and good to send emails when you have something to say, but without a plan to tie all these newsletters together, your communication will look a little disjointed and inconsistent. The right strategy will complement your other sales and marketing activities, elevate the perception of your brand and deepen the relationship with your audience.

To create your email marketing strategy, ask yourself the following questions:

  • What do I want to achieve with this tactic?
  • How do I want to be perceived?
  • What main message(s) do I want to convey?
  • What impact do I want my emails to have?
  • What is my audience looking for?
  • What does my audience need?

Out of the answers to the above, create three main themes that you will follow in your email communications.

 

Segment your email list

This will come as no surprise: the most well-received and sales-effective content is tailored to its intended audience. The more personalised the message, the more your audience will find it valuable and take the time to read it and convert.

The key to good personalisation in email marketing is cutting your overall email list into smaller groups with one common feature. Here are some ways to help you segment your mailing list, but remember to pick your segmenting factor based on what makes the most sense for your brand.

  • Age group
  • Status (i.e. prospective customer, current customer, former customer)
  • Purchase volume
  • Time since last purchase
  • Interest
  • Industry

 

A/B test

A/B testing, also called split testing, consists of sending out two versions of the same message to your audience. Half of your audience segment will receive one version and the other half will get the other version of your email.

This technique allows you to experiment with copy, design, tone of voice and more to figure out what is more effective on your audience and each of your segments. It’s an easy but powerful tool to refine your communications by learning more about your audience.

 

Think experience

Copy and assets must complement each other and your message to create a distinctive experience that supports your brand. First impressions are key here. You need compelling headers and eye-catching visuals that will draw your readers into the core of your email where the copy can keep them there… and push them towards sales.

 

Make it mobile-friendly

46% of emails are opened on a mobile device. This means that roughly half of your potential readers will check – and hopefully open – your email on their phone, so make sure your newsletter is readable and appealing on a phone or iPad. 

Think of your fonts, their size and the type of visual assets you use, along with where you use them… Any email marketing platform worth its salt will have a feature for you to preview the email as opened on a phone or desktop.

 

Timing is key

You don’t want your email to pop up when your audience is unavailable or doesn’t have the time or inclination to read it. If this happens, they’ll either delete the email altogether or leave it for later to read.

Later, however, is also known as this mystical land where your gym membership, learning how to skydive and eating healthier live. In other words, there’s a good chance the email will sit unread in their inbox until it’s deleted. This isn’t the impact you want your snazzy email marketing to have.

Most people check their emails in the morning, on their commute or when they get to their desk, but don’t stop there. The best time for you to send your email will depend on a few things, namely:

  • If your target audience is leisure or business
  • The nature of your message (sales communication first thing in the morning is not terribly exciting)
  • Your industry’s key dates
  • Public holidays
  • Where audience members are at on their customer journey
  • Day of the week

It’s well worth your time to do a little research into your target audience’s habits and trial your top days and times before settling on one.

 

Go beyond promotions

We all love a good promotion, but email marketing is also a great way to nurture and deepen your relationship with your audience. You want them to get to know you, identify with you and consider you as more than just a supplier. You want the marketing dream of creating an emotional connection with your audience.

To do so, you need to go beyond products and promotions in your communication. Use your email marketing as an opportunity to share what your brand is truly about, its purpose and values, without forgetting all the good things you do beyond selling products.

 

Want an audit of your email marketing game? Give us a shout at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

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How To Kickstart Your Email Marketing

December 20, 2021 Freya Whiteside Email Marketing, Insights  

Here are our top tips and tricks for writing emails people actually want to read. 

 

With the new year nearly here, there’s no better time to get your email marketing in hand. If you’re staring at a blank screen and wondering where to start – after all, with inboxes fit to burst and plenty of junk, who wants more pointless emails? – here are some tips on how to get started!

 

Be inspired 

How often do you receive an email and think about bookmarking it? We receive so many emails a day, and while the ones we like might tempt a spontaneous purchase, it’s unlikely that many of us sit back and review the crème de la crème of our inbox. 

To write really good emails, you’ll need really good emails – the website, that is. This treasure trove of email marketing is the best place to start your strategising, whether you’ve got an eye for design or a love of great copy. Scroll, search and save your favourites! 

Things to consider? Email copy is often short and sweet; it should complement a design that’s stylish, readable and not too busy. Always make sure that your emails are optimised for mobile, and be direct with subject lines so that people can’t help but click. Personally, I usually can’t resist an email from brands like Glossier, Smol and Bloom & Wild, who know exactly when to send a well-timed discount.

 

Go with the flow 

Part of the beauty of email marketing is the personalisation you can achieve through segmenting. Not only does it make your customer feel a bit special, but the right email at the right time communicates essential information, improving the customer journey and keeping your client in the loop. After all, if you’re expecting a parcel, you want to know when it’s on the way and if you’ll be in to collect it! 

By creating email flows, you can make each and every customer feel like a VIP. From abandoned cart flows to post-purchase updates, letting customers know they’re at the top of your priorities is such an effective way to build brand loyalty (and reassure them that their product will reach them unharmed).

Services like Klaviyo and Mailchimp are an easy way to get started in the world of email flows. All you need to do is write up your email, make it look pretty and choose who it’s going to. Much of the process is automated, meaning your customers will get your email as and when they need it.

 

Choose messaging that matters

Why should someone take the time to read your email? If there’s nothing new to see, they won’t want to hear it – so make your messaging count!

There are some obvious things you’ll want to tell your audience about: new product launches, what you’re doing for upcoming sales events and of course, precious discount codes. However, email is a direct way to communicate with consumers, so don’t stop there. 

Your email marketing is a great place to show off what sort of brand you are. From sensitivity around big events in the calendar, such as opt-out options for events like Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, to anticipating user needs (Christmas coming up? Here’s a gift guide that’ll help you finally figure out what to get your granny), email marketing is a more direct way of showing off what your brand is all about.

 

Which brands are sending your favourite emails – and could you do better? Get in touch with me at [email protected] to see how our team could help you upgrade your email marketing.

 

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Why Email Marketing (Still) Matters

November 22, 2021 Maya Benabdelhadi eCommerce, Email Marketing, Small business  

When I say email marketing, what comes to mind? Mountains of spam, I bet. I think we can all agree that way too many useless emails are floating about, and that’s saying nothing about that nasty “won’t you leave me alone” feeling we all get when spotting one of them crowding our inboxes. Let’s get one thing clear: that (insert shudder) isn’t email marketing. It’s death by a thousand cuts, also part of How To Make Your Customers Disappear 101: Noise Pollution… or, in less heated terms, spam.

 

So what is email marketing?

Simply put, email marketing is the practice of using email to promote an organisation and/or its product and services to targeted customers. And here is the key: targeted customers. This means individuals who have opted to receive communications from your brand. Email marketing carefully curates engaging and compelling content to a meticulously selected audience. As such, indiscriminately bombarding anyone you can with emails about lawnmower sales does not qualify as email marketing.

 

… And what makes it worthwhile?

Email marketing enhances the customer experience

It enables you to tie the different touch points (your website, organic social media, partners, paid ads) your customers go through together to create a smooth and continuous customer journey across your multiple platforms and channels. Email marketing works as the bridge that links all your customers’ individual experiences on different platforms together so that they form a seamless, overarching experience.

 

It’s a brand awareness booster

This is the most obvious benefit of email marketing: reminding people you’re there! This is more important than one might think. All of us have a thousand and one big and small interactions with multiple brands each day, which makes it difficult to remember any one in the medium (let alone the long) term. Audience members may or may not stumble on your brand or its communications again, thereby rekindling the brand awareness spark, but it is not guaranteed. 

Email marketing is therefore a conscious effort on your part to fan the brand awareness spark into a brand recall fire. (Excuse the fire metaphors, I am writing this in the middle of a cold Scottish winter and had fireplaces and bottomless hot chocolate on my mind). Now, you may be thinking that you can do all of this through your organic social media. True enough, social media is a great tool for brand awareness… just not as powerful as email marketing. Unless you’re following a brand, you may or may not see specific brands’ posts appear on your timeline, so it’s a bit of a gamble. 

You will definitely see emails in your inbox (remember, we’re not spam so no reason for your comms to end up in the junk folder). While 14% of individuals check social media in the morning, 58% check their emails and check them about 20 times throughout the day. And now for the knock-out punch, on average the engagement rate on organic social media is 0.58%, while email marketing has a 22.86% open rate and 3.71% of views lead to website visits.

 

It allows for personalisation

Most channels your brand will use have you addressing your entire audience at once. While this means more people will hear your message, it may not be worthwhile for everyone to pay attention to, meaning that some individuals may get the wrong impression about your brand and what it can do for them. 

Email marketing allows you to segment your messages to fit your different target audiences. This way, each type of customer gets a message that is valuable to them and aligned with their wants, needs and values. And this is the beauty of carefully built mailing lists: personalised communication is also more effective. By tailoring your message to your customer segments, you increase its readership, the perceived value of your brand, and in turn, sales.

Bonus: by using different messages per target segment, you can learn about their preferences, what works best for them and their behaviour. The better you know your audience, the best you can serve them… and increase your sales.

 

It helps you to nurture and deepen relationships

With email marketing, you are communicating with a warm audience: individuals who already know of your brand and who like it to an extent (remember, we’re not talking about spam, here). Through regular communication, email marketing enables you to slowly reveal other compatible facets of your brand to your target audience for them to get to know you a little better.

If you are clever with this tactic, you can also adapt your timing and content to fit major relevant moments in your audience life. This would demonstrate your understanding of your customer base but more importantly that you can be a partner in their lives. If you can achieve this, it will be absolute gold for your brand. This shift in perception deepens your relationship and upgrades your connection from a rational to an emotional one, which is stronger and longer lasting.

 

It’s an owned channel

Contrarily to paid advertising, email marketing is an owned channel, which means that you have complete control over the following:

  • Your message
  • Its visual aspect
  • The timing and frequency
  • The audience

This type of control is not that common when it comes to marketing. With email marketing, there are very few restrictions and templates you need to follow, allowing you to design every detail of your brand’s appearance, message and communication style.

 

It’s cost effective

In part because it is an owned channel, email marketing is an economical way to reach your audience. In the grassroots stage, all you need is a little time to write your message, basic computer skills, repurposing your brand assets (pictures, videos, GIFs) and you can send the lot through your regular email platform. At this stage, your emails are cheap and not too time consuming.

Once your business and brand stabilises a little, you can move to email marketing platforms like Klaviyo, Mailchimp and the like for a more polished look, scheduling and analysis capabilities. These platforms are relatively inexpensive, with varied levels of subscriptions to fit your brand’s needs, and they save you some time by giving you templates to work with and automating some of your work. When your brand gets even bigger, you can opt for a higher-level subscription, saving you even more time for a reasonable price.

 

Performance is easy to track and has a high ROI

Last but certainly not least, performance is easy to track and highly successful. By UTM tagging the links you include in your emails, you can review the behaviour of users who clicked on it. With this tool, you will be able to know by audience segment how many users visited your page, how many times, how long they spent on it, how many pages were visited on the website, and how many conversions (purchases if your brand is in eCommerce) were made. All of this will give you a good idea of how well each segment email performed and the overall interest in the content you have published.

Not only is email marketing performance eminently trackable and measurable, its return on investment is high, with email being one of the highest-ranking marketing tactics. In 2020, for every £1 spent on email marketing, £35.41 was earned in return! Hard to argue with those numbers.

 

… So, have we convinced you yet?

 

Want to get into email marketing or upgrade your game? Get in touch with us now at [email protected], we would love to hear from you!

 

Sources

https://optinmonster.com/email-marketing-vs-social-media-performance-2016-2019-statistics/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/283067/return-on-investment-roi-for-email-marketing-in-the-uk/

https://www.kub-uk.net/insights/email-marketing-stats/

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