As organic reach on social media platforms continue to decline and options for targeting simultaneously become more locked down, email marketing is on the rise. According to Statia, more than 306 billion emails are sent and received daily and more than 4 million people use email on a daily basis. We often tell you to meet people where they are and the truth is that people are constantly using their email accounts.
As businesses and organizations everywhere begin increasing the use of Email you might wonder how you can make the most of email marketing and set yourself apart. We’ve made a list of six simple ways that you can ensure success for your marketing campaigns.
Personalize the Subject Line and Content
People like to feel unique and human instead of like one in a sea of numbers even when receiving mass emails. One of the easiest ways to do this is to personalize the subject line and content with their name. No matter what type of email marketing platform you use, there is likely a way to set up personalization options.
For example, when you receive our monthly newsletter at Dogwood you’ll be addressed by name. The way you do this is by using Merge Tags. These tags correspond to information in your database about your clients such as first name, last name, birthday, address, etc. By using a merge tag like *|FNAME|* you can insert the person’s name into your subject line and content.
Another example of personalizing your content is sending emails that are specific to a certain region. For example, if an event is happening in Birmingham, you could send out an email informing people who live in that geographic area instead of sending a mass email to your entire list. When people feel like the content is personalized to them you’re more likely to get positive interactions.
Send From a Real Person
While you’re setting up your personalized subject lines and salutations, make sure you set the email to come from a real person or at minimum have the name of a real person. Using Mailchimp we’re able to write the name of the person we want the email to come from and the email we want it to come from independently of one another.
For example, if we wanted our newsletter to look like it came from me then we could write my name, Lauren Cumbie, but then put in a no-reply email as the email address. Depending on the type of content, we suggest sending the email from a real person’s email address as well. Doing this increases the likelihood of someone opening the email and it not being marked as spam. Not to mention it humanizes your organization or business.
Create Personalized Touchpoints
If you haven’t figured it out yet, one of the keys to successful email marketing is humanizing your organization through personalization. Yet another way to do this is to create touchpoints that are personalized to each subscriber. A few common examples of this would be birthday and welcome emails.
These types of emails help to build rapport between you and your customers by showing them that you care enough to welcome them, tell them a happy birthday, and provide additional value that is unique to them. Of course, these emails can be automated (and probably should be unless you’re really good at remembering birthdays). However, even though they’re automated it still provides added value to your constituents and hopefully bring a smile to their faces.
Provide Value Exclusive to Your Email Subscribers
Another way to make sure that your subscribers stick around for the long run is to provide value that is exclusive to them for being a part of that community. This can come in a lot of different shapes and sizes but one surefire way is to provide a discount code or piece of content that is exclusive to the mailing list.
For example, one of my favorite restaurants in town only gives out coupons via their mailing list. It’s not a ton. Usually only a 10% or 15% off every other month or so, but when I see it pop into my inbox I know exactly where we’re going to eat that night! Another example of providing exclusive value is to give email subscribers a sneak peek or first dibs on new content, products, sales, etc.
Use A/B Testing
This tip is probably one of the most beneficial and underused on the entire list. A/B testing is incredibly helpful when running email campaigns. It helps you to find out what works and what does and hone in on best practices for your specific audience.
The key to A/B testing is to test one variable at a time. Play around with your subject line, or who you send the email from. You can even send out emails with slightly different content to see which one performs better. Over time, this data will build up to help you make better-informed decisions about your email marketing content.
Track Success and Make Adjustments
Last but certainly not least, make sure that you are keeping up with the data from your emails and making adjustments as necessary. The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Okay, that’s not really the definition but it gets the point across.
If your email marketing isn’t living up to your expectations then make an adjustment and see what happens. The worst thing we can do in marketing is to become stagnant. The digital world is constantly changing so we need to change along with it. Keep up with the analytics on your emails and if you begin to see dips or increases try and find out why that might be. Sometimes it has absolutely nothing to do with what you did. It could be seasonal or societal, but these are still good trends to be aware of.
There you have it! Six simple suggestions for getting the absolute most out of your email marketing strategy. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg and there are a million other things to learn. If you’d like help coming up with a winning strategy or better yet, you’d like someone to handle all of this for you, contact us! We’d love to talk about ways we can partner together.
