5 Tips on Improving Email Marketing for Small Businesses
Email marketing has been around forever and a day.
And for good reason! It remains an effective way to reach your audience, build your brand, and drive sales too. Indeed, email’s known to deliver a median ROI of 122%.
That, according to the same source, is far better than other popular marketing channels.
Success with email is never guaranteed though. Like any marketing channel, you have to tick particular boxes and satisfy certain criteria if you’re going to reap the rewards on offer.
Unlike other channels, though, improving email marketing isn’t always that difficult! A few tweaks, some minor alterations, and a dose of new insight can make all the difference. Want some expert advice on how to do exactly that?
Keep reading to discover 5 tips for improving the ROI of email marketing campaigns.
1. Send Emails to the Right People
Think about your website. You probably have a host of forms, landing pages, lead magnets, and content upgrades to grow you email list faster, right?
If that’s the case, then it’s crucial that you segment the audience before you start sending emails. After all, each person came to you for different reasons! Some will have signed up via the homepage, others may have downloaded your e-book, a few may have subbed to enter a competition, and so on.
Sending the same email to everybody will never deliver the best results. It might only be relevant to a small proportion of people. Your open rate and ROI will suffer.
Solve that problem by tracking the places where people sign up. That way, your overall email list will be divided into sections, letting you send specific emails (such as offers, promotions, news, or updates) to people who’ll have an actual interest in the content.
2. Improve the Subject Line
What’s the most important part of the entire email?
The copy? The call to action? The offers inside?
Not quite! Each of those elements plays a role in the effectiveness of your email campaigns. Yet it’s the subject line that promises to have the biggest impact. After all, with hundreds of emails in peoples’ inboxes, this is what gets their attention. It has to be concise, compelling, and convince them to click through.
Make them funny, short, and attention-grabbing; tempt the recipient to check out what’s inside however you can! You could even think about including emojis. Eye-catching, attractive, and different from ordinary text-only emails, they offer a one-way ticket to better open rates.
3. Leverage Personalization
Email marketing has come a long way since it went mainstream back in the 90s. Back then, you’d spray and pray- launching a generic email blast to your entire list.
Given the novelty, consumers often responded well. Open rates were high, CTRs were higher, and ROIs were amazing.
Alas, times have changed and generic emails are a thing of the past.
Consumers hate having their inboxes filled with spam these days! Automatic filters funnel promotional emails into spam folders; any that slip through the net sit there untouched anyway.
To enjoy a positive ROI, you now have to send personalized emails. Only then can you expect a positive response from your recipients. It’s about building a relationship, being consumer-focused, and offering genuine value.
This is where segmenting your audience proves so valuable. Suddenly, just as companies like Netflix make personalized TV series suggestions, you can send relevant content to people on your email list. Address them on a first name basis and your email has an even better chance of being clicked on.
4. Be Human and Provide Value
You’ve done the hard work and convinced somebody to click on your email. Now you have to persuade them to stick around, keep reading, and click on the offer at the end.
That’s where your email copy comes into play.
The best approach here is to be authentic, personable, and talking to them like a human! Show your personality, be funny, and write as if you were addressing a friend.
Keep the message short and sweet as well, though. People are busy, which means they won’t want to stick around for too long. Be concise, avoid anything unnecessary, and get to the point in good time.
Think about the account from which you’re sending your emails from too.
For instance, Yahoo was once a behemoth of the web, but it’s rapidly being overtaken by its competitors. You could delete Yahoo account activity and start sending emails through Google instead. The ubiquity of Gmail versus Yahoo Mail should ensure consumers continue to know and trust your messages.
5. Use the Second Person
Keeping your audience engaged throughout an email isn’t always easy. However, you stand a better chance of success if you leverage the second person.
In other words, use ‘you’, ‘you’re’ and ‘your’ throughout the copy.
This makes the message all about the recipient! It’s no longer about you selling something to them or wanting anything from them. The email reads as if you genuinely care, that you’re messaging for their benefit, and providing value to them.
They’ll be more inclined to keep reading and engage with the email in the process. You can expect better click-through rates and ROIs at the same time.
Remember These Tips for Improving Email Marketing
Email marketing can be a major boon for business. But only when it’s done properly! Alas, it’s all too easy to waste invaluable resources on email campaigns that fail to deliver the goods.
You’re left hearing about the potential ROI of email campaigns without ever seeing it for yourself.
The good news is that improving email marketing doesn’t have to be difficult. With any luck, the tips and ideas in this post will help you do exactly that. Keep them in mind and you’ll be on your way to better open rates and returns in no time.
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