Mastering Email Marketing: How to Craft the Most Click-worthy Newsletters and Campaigns
Imagine Instagram or Facebook shut down overnight. Would you lose access to all your clients and customers? If the answer is yes, this blog is for you!
Having complete ownership over your marketing touchpoints and assets, such as an email list ensures you can consistently reach and connect with your audience, regardless of third-party platforms, paid media or your content marketing efforts.
Email marketing remains one of the most useful strategies in your holistic marketing toolbox, helping to build your brand and boost your sales. In this post, we'll explore the world of email marketing and provide you with the top tips and strategies for success.
Why Email Marketing Matters
Email marketing is here to stay. It has several advantages that make it a valuable and often superior marketing strategy compared to other methods. It's also suitable for businesses of all sizes and all industries. Here's why:
Direct Communication: Email provides a direct line of communication to your audience. Unlike social media or other platforms, where your message can get lost in the noise, emails go directly to your subscribers' inboxes, giving you a higher chance of being seen. You're reaching people who have willingly subscribed to hear from you, giving you a more open, interested and receptive audience.
Cost-Effective: Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing channels. You can reach thousands of subscribers for a fraction of the cost of other advertising methods. There are no printing or postage costs, and you can reach a large (even global!) audience without a significant budget. It's proven to provide a super high return on investment (It's estimated that for every $1 spent on email marketing, the average ROI is $42)
Personalization: Email allows for high levels of personalization. You can segment your audience and send the most tailored, relevant content, making recipients feel valued and understood, thus increasing engagement and conversions.
Measurable: Email marketing provides precise metrics, allowing you to track open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. This data is invaluable for refining your strategies for better results.
Automation & Consistency: With advanced email marketing platforms, you can automate various tasks, from welcome emails to follow-ups, saving time, increasing efficiency, and ensuring brand consistency. You can use your brand's colors, logos, and messaging to reinforce your brand identity.
Longevity & Reliability. It's a massive risk to rely solely on third-party marketing channels for leads. As social media algorithms and tech platforms are constantly changing, it can also be exhausting to constantly stay ahead of trends. Diversifying your marketing strategies is the key to longterm sustainability and success!
Again, while email marketing offers numerous advantages, it's essential to use it in conjunction with other tactics as part of a comprehensive, complementary and well-rounded marketing strategic plan.
Email Marketing Types
There are several different types of emails that a business could send, all varying in their purpose and intent depending on where the customer is in their buying process. Many refer to this as the "marketing funnel"
Step 1: CREATE AWARENESS
Lead Magnet Opt-in Email: An autoresponse sent immediately after a sign up, typically offering a bonus perk, incentive or valuable resource.
Step 2: BUILD INTEREST
Indoctrination Email: Sent shortly after subscribers join your list to introduce them to your brand, offers and services.
Step 3: ENCOURAGE DECISIONS
Newsletter Email: Regular emails providing educational, informative, inspirational, or entertaining content to keep your audience engaged. Share helpful and relevant content to position yourself as the industry expert, build rapport, trust and cultivate your relationship with them.
Re-Engagement Emails: Sent to inactive subscribers to encourage them to re-engage with your content and emails.
Step 4: DRIVE ACTION
Promotional/Sales Emails: Promote existing products and services, extend special offers and build buzz about new launches.
Abandoned Cart Emails: Sent after a prospect leaves their shopping cart without making a purchase, reminding them of the abandoned purchase.
Step 5: FOSTER LOYALTY
Post-Purchase Emails: Used to enhance customer retention (repeat business!) and foster overall customer satisfaction. Can thank for purchase, ask for feedback/offer surveys, and encourage social media following or new business referrals.
Ready for the top tips and tricks for masterful email marketing? Let's dive in!
Build Your List
Your subscriber list is the foundation of your email marketing success because these are your most engaged and interested potential customers.
Place a compelling sign-up form on every page of your website. You can also have a CTA for signups on social media posts, and other touchpoints like in-person events.
To ensure you don't get bots or spammers, implement a security captcha and double opt-in process for sign-ups.
To encourage voluntary sign-ups offer an incentive. Examples include: discount codes, freebies, a quiz, or access to exclusive or gated content
Regularly clean up your email list by removing inactive or unsubscribers. This keeps your list up to date and improves deliverability rates. Set your list to get rid of 90 day unopens every 90 days or even up to 1 year. If you have time you can even send out a final "plea" to get them to stay.
Once you have a solid base of subscribers, divide your list into segments based on their preferences, behaviors (purchase history), interests or demographics. This allows for highly targeted campaigns. Examples of different segments and weekly send campaigns:
Mon & Tue: Engaged List (such as 7-day opens or Buyers)
Wed & Thur: 60 Day Opens
Fri: 90 Day Opens
Sat & Sun: Whole List
Craft Engaging & Relevant Content
In a world where inboxes are flooded with messages, it's essential to stand out from the crowd, and your competition. Your email content must capture the reader's attention... and keep it! Here's how:
Craft Compelling Subject Lines & Preview Text: The subject line is the first thing recipients sees so make it count. Craft concise, intriguing subject lines that entice readers to open your emails. Similarly, make sure your Preview Text is relevant and specific - and under 50 characters.
Personalize, Personalize, Personalize: Use the recipient's name in the Subject Line or Greeting, and tailor content to their interests based on the segment. Personalization helps build a relationship with the reader, ensuring they know, like and trust you. After all, a loyal subscriber is also a loyal customer!
Structure & Flow: Each email type serves a specific purpose, so tailor your messaging and content accordingly to achieve your goals. The body copy should generally have three primary sections: the Hook (storytelling, quote, etc), the Bridge (offer, promotion, etc) and lastly, the CTA. Make sure your Call to Action is clear and compelling.
Be Authentic: Avoid being too spammy or "sales", as readers will quickly get turned off and will either keep scrolling, delete your email or worst of all - unsubscribe. Avoid generic templates and strive to create unique, engaging, and authentically aligned email campaigns that reflect your brand's voice and mission.
Provide Value: Offer content that educates, entertains, or enriches the life of your audience. This can include blog posts, exclusive offers or promotions, or how-to guides with unique solutions to their problems. The possibilities are endless so get creative! Some ideas
a warning or disclaimer
about the author
a personal confession/ "between me and you.."
an ask for help
a tribute
unpopular opinion
secrets revealed
unexpected lesson
a personal story
Optimize for Mobile: Ensure your emails are mobile-friendly/responsive, as the vast majority of people check their emails on smartphones.
Design Cleanly. Make sure your emails are easy to ready by including lots of whitespace between text and images, not overloading with too many links or images. Skimmable lists and bullet points are also great for readability.
Stay Compliant. Adhere to national email marketing regulations, such as the CAN-SPAM Act. Ensure you have explicit consent from subscribers (via your opt-in/sign-up form), and provide opt-out/unsubscribe options and a physical address in every email.
Send Strategically
The timing of your emails can significantly impact open and click-through rates. Automation is also essential for soloprenuers, helping you to work less hours and spend more time doing what matters most.
Determine Your Send Rate: The frequency that you send emails will vary on your purpose, intent and segment. Do you want a newsletter that runs Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Quarterly?
Test Send Times: Experiment with different send times and days of the week to determine when your audience is most active. Tuesday and Thursday are often peak times for open rates.
Automate Send Times: Use automation to schedule emails at optimal times based on your subscribers' behavior.
Automate Campaigns. Automation allows you to send personalized messages based on a specific target or segment. Drip campaigns for new subscribers, for example, can nurture leads by sending a series of emails automatically over time.
Diversify your Content. Make sure to mix up your email types to keep the audience on their toes. Aim to have a mix of both sales/pitching and lighter, more "trust-building" content.
Test, Monitor & Refine
The digital landscape is ever-changing, so it's crucial to stay updated with the latest trends and technologies in email marketing. Continuously test and adapt your strategies to meet evolving customer preferences.
A/B testing or "split testing" involves sending two versions of an email to a small portion of your list to see which one performs better. You can test anything but the following will be most worth your time:
Subject lines
Images or GIFs
Opt-in Incentives
CTA buttons
The following email metrics can help you gauge the success of your campaigns. Track them in a spreadsheet over time to see how you're doing and make necessary adjustments
Open Rate: The percentage of recipients who opened your email. Goal: 20%
Click-Through Rate: The percentage of recipients who clicked on a link within your email. Goal: 1%
Bounce Rate: The percentage of emails that couldn't be delivered due to invalid addresses or other issues. Goal: 1%
Unsubscribe Rate: The percentage of people who opt-out from the email list. Goal: 1%.
Lastly, be sure to track the return on investment (ROI) of your email marketing efforts. Calculate the revenue generated from email campaigns and compare it to the costs. This helps you understand the true impact of your email marketing efforts on your business's bottom line.
Remember, the more you know the more you can tweak your emails to generate more cash. The digital marketing game is an ongoing process of refinement and adaptation, so keep learning and evolving your approach to stay ahead of your competitorsho.
Wrapping it Up
Email marketing remains a reliable tool for businesses to engage with their audience and drive conversions. By building a sustainable and solid email list, crafting engaging content, and employing the various strategies listed above, you can achieve success. Remember, i
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Erin Ratliff is a certified feng shui consultant, holistic business coach and organic growth marketer for earth-loving, heart-centered soul-preneurs.
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