10 Practical Email Marketing Tips to Boost Sales
Now, there will always be businesses who don’t believe in the power of email marketing. This happens mainly because they fail to see any positive results with their email marketing efforts due to their own shortcomings. Sometimes these business owners just need a few email marketing tips to increase the value of their emails.
Does email marketing work? If you manage to use the right email marketing tips, the answer is a resounding yes.
Email is one of the most successful marketing mediums on the web. Studies have shown that email marketing helps generate even more sales than social media giants Facebook and Twitter, which is why you probably want all the email marketing tips you can get.
For every one pound companies spend on email marketing, they’re able to generate £40 in sales. Read more about the true return on investment email marketing tips can create for you.
Regardless of what some people think about email, it is still the most reliable (and straightforward) way to generate more business. By tapping into the power of email marketing small businesses can not only get more quality leads but also connect to their prospects at a higher level – eventually converting them into customers. This applies to almost every industry or niche out there.
However, in order to get the most out of our list of email marketing tips, you have to go beyond just sending emails to your list. You have to take the right steps to make your email marketing campaign stand out from the rest.
Keep in mind that your customers and prospects are bombarded with email offers on a regular basis. Which is why your approach needs to be competitive and in line with current best practices and email marketing tips.
Boost Your Sales with these 10 Email Marketing Tips
Let us look into 10 practical and effective email marketing tips that you can apply today to improve your sales numbers.
Tip #1: Know and Understand Your Target Audience
Out of all email marketing tips that we’re going to talk about in this blog post, knowing your audience is the most important. It’s the starting point of it all.
The email messages that you send out to your subscribers need to be relevant to their interests. This can only happen when you know and understand your target audience well enough.
Every subscriber on your email list is different, which is why it would be a mistake to send them the same email message. Emails relevant to the recipient tend to drive 18 times more revenue when compared to general emails. So taking a targeted approach definitely makes a difference.
So how do you really go about sending the right message? What do you do to make sure your email content is relevant enough? How do you ensure your email isn’t ignored?
The answer is email list segmentation. Which allows you to divide your email list into smaller, more targeted sub-groups.
Segmenting your email list based on your age, gender, geographical location, and buyer personas helps you send relevant emails. Which in turn improves your chances of getting a higher number of sales in the long run.
Here are some of the positive results you can expect with email list segmentation:
Let’s look into some more ways to segment your mailing list and improve your return on investment:
* Survey results
* Sending frequency
* Purchase cycle
* Past purchases
* Email activity
Email marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. As long as you are able to connect with your subscribers at their interest level, and give them relevant and valuable content, you will find success with it. Email list segmentation helps you do just that. Now let’s look at the other nine email marketing tips we have for you.
Tip #2: Send Regular, Consistent Emails
Let’s face it, the last thing you want to be called is a spammer; especially when you’re trying to do legitimate email marketing. However, the fear of being accused of spam is irrational if you are sending out emails to subscribers who have willingly joined your email list. So do not hesitate to send out regular emails to your list because doing so almost always results in a higher number of sales.
What’s more, studies show that most people check their email daily. So by sending regular emails, you are doing the right thing. You are doing what your competition is not ready to do, which is showing up.
Know the real definition of spamming: it is sending out email to people who you do not share a relationship with, and who have not given you the permission to email them. You are not spamming when contacting your existing subscribers. When you are building and nurturing a list of loyal subscribers who open and read all your emails, you shouldn’t have any problems sending out weekly or daily emails to your list, and getting more sales.
Tip #3: Keep Your Emails Short
Many email marketing tips you find online talk about improving the open rate of your emails, but very few discuss about keeping the attention of the reader once the email is opened. The point we’re trying to make here is, email messages that you write need to be clear and concise so that your subscribers get the message, and act on it.
Keeping your emails simple helps you get a better response from your campaign. The idea is to make your subscribers aware of the offer you have for them. It is not to hard sell them, but to give them a soft nudge. If they find your offer interesting enough, you will find them visiting your website to learn more about it. By keeping your emails short and to the point, you make it easy for people to take action.
One more thing that you need to keep in mind is the fact that more and more people are now accessing and reading the emails on their mobile devices. So the emails that you send out to your subscribers are more likely to be read on mobile than on a desktop. Remember, you are essentially trying to reach out to people who don’t have much time on hand. They’re busy. Which is why you will find them reading their emails when commuting from work or during a break.
Here’s how you can keep your emails short without miscommunicating:
* Avoid beating around the bush and write as much as required to convey your message
* If you want to share more information right in the email, use bullet points to break your email
* Have one major call to action per email message rather than adding multiple ones
So take the brevity approach and try to keep your emails as concise as possible. Don’t beat around the bush when you can convey the message in a few sentences.
Tip #4: Personalize Each Email
Email marketing works great when it comes to creating a unique experience for your prospect or customer. By leveraging the power of personalization, you can make them feel exclusive or special, which increases that chance of them doing business with you. According to email marketing company Campaign Monitor, emails that have a personalized subject line have a 26% more chance to be opened when compared to emails that have a generic, non-personalized subject line.
So if you have access to the first name of your email recipients, it makes sense to use it in the subject line and as well as in the body of the email. You can also go about asking easy and relevant questions in the email to give a personalized feel.
You can even take things a step ahead by adding your own personal details to the emails such as your name and photograph. The idea is to think outside the box.
Being a business, you should understand the importance of adding a personal touch to your email marketing as it has a direct impact on the number of conversions you get.
Tip #5: Make the Most of Your Subject Line
Our list of email marketing tips would not be complete without talking about the subject line. Look at it as the main, opening headline of your email. Which is why it needs to be transparent and not shady or gimmicky. The more straightforward you are with it, the better. Because your ultimate aim is not only get your emails opened once, but build a trusting relationship so your subscribers open your emails again and again.
The open rate of your email solely depends on your subject line. If people don’t open your emails, the content of it wouldn’t matter. So investing in it will immensely help your email marketing campaign.
Here are a few things that you need to keep in mind when crafting subject lines:
* Connect to your subscribers on an emotional level so that they enjoy reading your emails. Keep your subject lines natural to let them know that they are receiving emails from a real human and not a robot.
* Keep each subject line short and to the point. Longer subject lines are not only confusing but are also hard to read and understand. According to a study done by Retention Science, the optimum length of a subject line is six to ten words. They found that a whopping 21 percent people opened emails with a subject line in this range. Anything longer or shorter had a poorer open rate.
* If humor goes with your branding strategy, then by all means add it to your email subject line. Emails that have a personality are liked and shared. However, don’t go overboard with it as you may come off as unprofessional.
* Questions and numbers are proven to get you a higher click-through rate if done right. Use them along with other types of subject lines. But make sure you’re not confusing anyone.
If you want to go a step further and get the most out of your email personalization in terms of using their name, do the following:
* Talk to your subscribers and ask them if they’d like be addressed by their first name or their nickname. Not many businesses take this extra step but it can make an actual difference to your open rate. If Rebecca wants to be called Becca, then so be it.
* Keep an eye out for misspelled names so that your customer or prospect doesn’t get the wrong impression when they see their name in your email. The same goes for name initials.
* Do not use the subscriber’s name more than twice in your email. It’s completely unnecessary and will make you sound unnatural. Avoid going overboard with your personalization for best results.
One of the most common reasons why emails get trashed immediately is because they aren’t personalized. So make sure you spend some quality time on your subject lines, as it will have a direct impact on the sales you generate. You now have half of the best email marketing tips we have to offer. Keep reading to become an email marketing master.
Tip #6: Split Test Your Emails
One of the best email marketing tips we could probably give you is A/B split testing. It is the holy grail of online marketing. It’s the only method that removes guesswork from your email marketing and gives you a road map of what changes you need to make. A/B split testing is nothing but a method to split your email audience into multiple segments or groups and find out which version of your email gives the best results in terms of conversions. By testing out different versions of your emails, you’ll be able to eventually perfect your overall campaign and get better results.
The three main benefits of split testing your email marketing campaign are:
1. Open rates increase when you find the right subject line
2. Click-through rates boost when you test and change your email copy
3. Gain a better understanding of what customers want
So what elements do you test when optimizing your email marketing campaign? Anything that can be split-tested on a landing page can be tested with your email. For example, you may want to test the opening of your email or test the call-to-action to see what kind of response each version generates.
However, there are a few elements that you should test at all costs, which include the subject line, day of the week, and the time of the day you send your emails. You may also want to send the name of the sender to see if it makes any difference.
Tip #7: Have a Dedicated Landing Page for Your Campaign
The email marketing tips we discussed until now dealt directly with email, but this one goes beyond it. As you know, A/B testing is essential to finding success with email marketing and get a higher number of sales from your efforts. Guesswork simply won’t get you the kind of results you’re looking for.
However, your split testing efforts should not be limited to email. You also need to give equal importance to where you send your traffic from your email. Yes, we’re talking about the landing page.
Most of the time your subscribers click-through from your email to your homepage, product page or specific landing page. In order to get higher conversions and get the best return on your investment, it always makes sense to create a dedicated landing page and direct your email traffic to it. A dedicated landing page is much more relevant and targeted, which makes it really effective.
Make sure your landing page has the following important elements:
1. A strong headline that makes the visitor want to read further.
2. A sub headline that supports that headline and re-emphasizes the headline.
3. A support image or video that explains the purpose of the landing page in under a minute.
4. Social proof such as customer logos, testimonials, etc.
5. A call to action that converts your subscribers into customers.
Keep in mind that the message that you convey with your email should match the one on the landing page. Or else it defeats the very purpose of creating one. The offer on the landing page should be relevant and specific. Don’t dilute it with other offers. Last but not the least, it’s always a good idea to have no navigation on your landing page. This way they’re more focused on your offer, which is exactly what you’re looking for.
Tip #8: Use A lot of White Space
Your prospects and customers are busy people. Even if they find the time to check your email, it’s obvious that you’re not the only company sending emails. Subscribers who open and read your email are telling you that they’re interested in what you’re offering. They’re giving you their attention, and you should make the most of it by making your emails scannable.
The structure of each of your emails needs to have a lot of white space. In other words, you need to keep your paragraphs short, use subheadings, add bullet points wherever applicable along with any mentionable facts. That’s how you get the undivided attention of your prospects and increase your chances of converting them.
There will be times when you have to send a longer version of your article or a long sales pitch. In such a scenario, it makes sense to give a brief intro in the email and then direct them to your website with a “read more” link.
When compared to paragraph blocks, scannable content is more readable. Which indirectly improves your reader’s experience, leading to better sales in the long run.
Tip #9: Make Your Emails Valuable
If your email doesn’t offer value, then it’s going to get ignored. Which will also affect your open rates. Any information that you send out to your email list has to be valuable. Not once, not twice, but always. Consistency in delivering value is the key to getting your emails read again and again. And bringing down the unsubscribe rate.
You can send out emails and expect to make sales only when you understand the importance of value. Because not everybody on your email list is going to become your customer. Only a percentage of prospects will hit the “buy” button after they receive your emails. So try to have a healthy mix of quality content, promotions, and offers. Having the right balance can make a world of difference to the number of sales you make in the long run.
However, prospects who have specifically requested to learn about your new products or services, should receive content needed to make a buying decision. In such a scenario, promotional content works in your favor rather than against it. Ultimately, the kind of value you deliver to your email subscribers depends on what kind of content they’re looking for. Which means you need to have a solid understanding of their likes and dislikes.
The bottom line is: you cannot and should not compromise on value when doing email marketing. Because that’s the only way you win the trust of your email list. And trust is what’s required to convert prospects into customers.
Tip #10: Repeat Your Successful Emails
When you create an email marketing campaign and make it successful, chances are that the success can be repeated with new subscribers and the ones that did not make a purchase. This will not only help you increase your sales, but will also give you more room to understand your prospects.
Also, you can use your email marketing program to resend your emails to subscribers who did not open them the first time. You can even tweak these emails when sending them out to non-buyers. It’s a good opportunity for you to change and test different elements of your email such as the call-to-action. The point is get the most out your campaign when it has already tasted success.
Conclusion
The email marketing tips that we discussed above may seem simple at first, but once applied, you will see positive results. Try to take a step by step approach to improving your email marketing. It won’t happen overnight, but it will get better if you take the right steps at the right time. Remember, your email marketing campaigns will turn profitable only if you take care of the details, which make up the big picture.
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