Customer acquisition is crucial for any business, but customer retention is even more pivotal to help businesses survive. Email marketing ensures retention of customers in an affordable manner. It is widely cited to be the best strategy for customer retention, while some believe that social media combined with emails is a better tactic.
Considering that email marketing costs nothing compared to other strategies, businesses strive to send emails randomly but rarely make a headway. Free advertising and low costs are no excuse for sending shoddy email newsletters.
Here are some insights that business owners need to be aware of email marketing campaigns:
1. Use of an effective email marketing software
Email marketing campaigns are challenging to execute without the presence of an efficient email marketing software. Some businesses skip email automation services in the beginning when handling some subscribers. With the growth of their subscriber list, they need to get email automation services for attending to repetitive and routine tasks.
The best options allow marketers to automate essential tasks including the capture of email addresses, adding subscribers, sending timely auto responders, and generating reports, etc. These softwares are instrumental in creating successful email campaigns. Also, they help save and organize contacts, use customizable email templates, and create efficient campaign landing pages.
2. Build a strong email list
Depending on marketing objectives, one can employ multiple marketing techniques for promoting products or services. Violations on a social network though will destroy the work done on the page till then, without delay.
Email marketing depends on the lists of prospects you have that can be used again and again, to communicate on a regular basis with subscribers.
3. Segment your email list in terms of domains and other criteria
To build your email lists, you need to personalize emails to the intended recipients. For sending relevant emails, the lists need to be segmented based on their interests, alignments, choices, and behavioural traits.
Businesses need to properly segment their email lists based on how the message could resonate with the subscribers or love to receive, essentially. You can employ market segmentation based on characteristics using age, gender, religion, income, etc. as criteria. Alternatively, you can segment your list by location or broken into urban or rural regions. Companies now segment lists on the basis of customer behavioural data based on their buying patterns, frequency of use of specific products, or their position in the product’s customer journey. Another kind of segmentation relies on customers’ beliefs, traits, values, political affiliation, and interests.
4. Write captivating and effective subject lines
Email marketing relies a lot on its success on its subject lines. The key to getting emails opened is only because of effective subject lines that stand out on a regular basis in the inbox of hundreds and thousands of people. It is essential that businesses manage email marketing campaigns that have strong subject lines and literally, the “ticket on the meat,” as Ogilvy says it.
Use of action words and subject length of 6-10 words works the best. Create a curiosity gap and use the same as an advantage. Pique the reader’s interest to read the emails. A/B test your subject lines, sending two different versions to sub-groups checking their results in terms of open rates. Choose the winning subject line to send them to the main subscribers. You need effective preheader text connected to the email’s subject line so that the emails are effective enough.
5. Create effective gated content to reel users in the lists
Businesses need to have a wealth of information in the form of PDFs and downloadable content. They work as gated content and downloadable assets in the form of an e-book or white paper, or a checklist or free template for getting their email address. Allow website users the option to subscribe to your personal email list when they download stuff through the emails. Utilize analytics for email marketing and its impact in terms of views and sign-up forms on high converting elements and pages. Take full advantage of all the emails you send by linking keywords to your company’s sign-up form or landing page.
6. Maintain a consistent sending schedule
If you add subscribers to the email list, it implies that they would want you to share updates on a regular basis. Sending them helpful content is the first step, they should be keen on checking your emails. Since email marketing is a process, there should be consistency in achieving satisfactory results from the emails.
You need an effective email marketing calendar to plan and execute the campaigns, allocating resources with responsibilities. Identify the best periods and times for dispatch of emails, conducting your own testing of the best times to reach a specific audience.
7. Use quizzes and interactive questionnaires for lead generation
Subscriber quizzes are quite effective as a lead generation tool and known to be quite effective. Subscribers can understand what they are interested in, and businesses can send in information to their liking and preferences. Questionnaires with incentives of reports can work too for certain beauty products where you get enough input on preferences on brands and market assessments. Opt-in surveys help businesses to assess whether email subscribers are passionate about the product and for every giveaway, a short survey can be made mandatory to be answered. You can identify a wealth of information with this strategy.
Author Bio
Saumil Shah is the marketing lead at InboxArmy, an innovative email marketing agency that specializes in providing email marketing services from production to deployment. In 2014, the digital marketing bug bit him and he fell in love with helping clients succeed in the digital arena. He has helped clients in various niches grow their businesses and revenue through SEO, content marketing, PPC, email marketing, and lead generation.