Email marketing is a critical component of digital marketing. It has one of the highest ROIs and is one of the simplest strategies to implement.
However, marketing messages bombard consumers every day. To stand out from the noise, your message must resonate with your audience. Of course, it’s easier said than done, but there are some best practices to help you connect with your target market and lead them through your sales funnel.
In this blog post, we’ll review six tips to help you create an effective email marketing campaign that converts.
What is email marketing?
Email marketing is a powerful strategy businesses use to email existing and potential customers about their promotions or products. When applied successfully, recipients engage with your company and take action to convert.
One of the main advantages of email marketing is that people use email every day. In 2022, global email users numbered 4.26 billion, and this figure is set to grow to 4.59 billion users by 2025.
Because of the widespread use of email platforms, e-mail delivery services can be the perfect tool for building customer relationships that’ll help you generate leads and sales. For instance, if you’re a nonprofit organization, Virtuous, a nonprofit email marketing software, can greatly compliment these efforts by streamlining and personalizing your emails, thus optimizing your campaign results.
An email campaign can help to improve the following:
- Web traffic generation
- Brand awareness
- Conversions and revenue
Email marketing offers incredible opportunities for optimal ROI. For example, the average email campaign earns $40 for every $1 spent.
Email marketing campaigns can also help you upsell and promote special opportunities to new and existing customers. You can also target leads who might be on the fence and tip the scales in favor of purchase.
Why is email conversion important?
An email conversion occurs when a recipient takes the action you were encouraging in the message.
Promotional emails for service businesses will encourage visitors to click through to the registration page, but it only counts as a full conversion when they complete the registration.
You can measure conversion rates through a monthly email newsletter containing links to your blog content. You can then track the number of times they read the featured posts or how much time they spend on the post.
When conversions aren’t directly tied to sales, marketers can find it difficult to see value in them. It can be easy for a business owner to believe that a campaign isn’t successful if it doesn’t immediately generate revenue. However, it’s important to remember that conversions don’t always happen immediately or follow a linear path.
Indirect conversions still have value. When your email leads to other interactions with your website or product, the user is engaging with your brand and you’re staying top of mind. So, when they’re ready to purchase, chances are better that they’ll purchase from you.
How to use email marketing successfully
Most small businesses have limited marketing budgets. So, to prevent waste, it’s crucial to avoid marketing tactics that won’t resonate with your target market.
The list we’ve curated for you offers a framework for success that you can elaborate on as you learn more about your audience.
Without further ado, let’s check out our list of six tips for anyone who wants better conversion rates through email marketing.
Bonus Tip: Check out this list of Marketing Tools to level up your marketing game overall.
1. Build an email list
For an email campaign to be successful, you must have a sufficient email list. An email assistant can help in building the list.
If you want it to be effective, you need to make your sign-up form obvious without interfering with the user experience. A great way to do this is by creating a small window that pops up on the screen as they begin to navigate away from the page.
The pop-up should be engaging and friendly and ask for their email address, but also be simple for them to close if they choose.
It’s important to understand how building your email list can affect your website’s SEO. You want to avoid anything that reduces visits or time spent on the site. In other words, don’t annoy people or make them want to leave your site.
We recommend using a double opt-in to build your email list to confirm your subscribers actually want to receive your emails. This will avoid most unsubscribes early in your campaigns and should increase your open rates. A double opt-in can be a verification email the subscriber must reply to that confirms their subscription.
Image provided by Erin Wigginton
It’s also a good idea to share your emails via social media and include social share buttons to allow your subscribers to send them to friends.
Another option is to provide an ebook, coupon, etc., in exchange for subscribing to your mailing list. For example, AppSumo offers 75 business ideas that don’t require coding knowledge or experience in exchange for your email address.
It’s equally important to only ask visitors for necessary information, so signing up is quick and easy. Remember, you can always ask for more details later. In fact, studies show that asking for too much information creates a barrier and lowers conversion rates. Also, don’t forget to make your email list robust by using an email verifier and taking other necessary steps.
2. Email marketing design
Any successful email marketing campaign requires a good email design. Emails with poor design reflect poorly on you, which can put readers off.
You can’t deny that emails with images look better, but be aware that some recipients disable them. If people can’t see your images, your email still needs to work. As a general rule, the best emails have more text than images.
Images shouldn’t contain any hidden information. Additionally, you should keep people with disabilities in mind and remember to use alt tags to explain and describe images so that users know what they’re supposed to see.
If you need help designing the layout of your emails, you can always use free email templates and tools like Canva. Or, if you want to go the extra mile, hire a professional designer or freelance writer.
If you want an original style, use the templates as inspiration or ask a designer to help you create something truly unique.
Keep in mind that most people read emails on their mobile devices. So make sure your mobile forms and other clickable elements look and function flawlessly on phones.
Also, make sure your emails are responsive, so they’ll also look fantastic on desktops and tablets if readers decide to check them out at work or while taking a break at home.
3. Create an inviting welcome email
When people subscribe to email lists, they expect to receive a welcome email. It should confirm their subscription, welcome them, thank them, and tell them what to expect from future emails.
Welcome emails have an average open rate of 82% and click-through rates of over 26%. With stats like that, making that first email count is essential.
Here are some ideas to add value to your welcome email.
- A strong subject line and preheader – remember, no one will read your email if your subject line doesn’t hook them first.
- Relevant, valuable content recommendations – include suggestions for other content from your website or partner sites relevant to your customers.
- Money-saving discounts or offers – everyone appreciates saving money, and this can be a great way to welcome new customers and get them shopping
- An interactive email signature – including an email signature with key details like your name, title, company logo, and contact information follows best practices and adds a professional touch to your welcome email.
This example from Casper is simple and straightforward. It stays on point with a little humor at the end, keeping the message casual and clear. Thanks to these tactics, the reader knows what to expect and is enticed to click the call-to-action button to learn more.
If you want your email campaign to reach a multilingual audience, you can also translate emails to overcome language barriers.
4. Remember to follow up
Once you’ve sent that first welcome message, sending a follow-up email is crucial.
Ideally, you should send a follow-up email within 24 hours. And most marketing experts say the value deteriorates after 48 hours, so immediate contact is imperative for optimal results.
Using an email marketing platform that tracks the prospect’s activity is extremely helpful. You’ll want to monitor your email open rates and click-through rates.
These analytics will help you determine which campaigns are successful and which aren’t. Then, you can A/B test different subject lines, preheaders, and other variables to optimize as much as possible.
Automating your email sequences to keep your customer loyalty and engagement high is also a good idea. Automation also simplifies the process and reduces the repetitive work you and your team are responsible for. We’ll get into greater detail regarding automation in a bit.
5. Have clear calls to action
One common feature among the best marketing email campaigns is clear calls to action.
A call to action, or CTA, is a written directive in marketing. It encourages visitors to act on a website. Among different CTA types are text hyperlinks, push buttons, or plain text.
However, buttons perform better than hyperlinked text. Statistics show that CTA buttons increased click-throughs by 28%.
This welcome email from Michael’s is a perfect example of how multiple CTA buttons can coexist in one message. The reader gets a 20% off coupon and is simultaneously invited to choose their preferences and browse sale items online.
CTA texts like “buy now” or “don’t miss your chance” are classic examples of CTAs that catch the eye. However, you can also get creative, like ClickUp did with their CTA below. Instead of using the standard “Subscribe Now,” they switched things up with “Get More Time.”
Calls to action are often the difference between success and failure for a marketing campaign. So don’t let yours be an afterthought.
6. Automate it
Automation can bring images of robots and conveyor belts to mind, but automating your email marketing is a smart move. And it shouldn’t mean less personalization for your subscribers.
In fact, when you segment your email list properly, you can increase your email revenue by up to 760%. Segmenting improves personalization and relevancy, and automation can help you accomplish it.
A day or two after you send your welcome email, use your email marketing platform to analyze which parts of the email your subscriber has interacted with. Then, according to their choices, you can assign tags or place them into segments that align with their interests. That way, you can personalize and target specific messages for them in the future. You can take advantage of sales lead tools to identify and prioritize the most engaged prospects, ensuring that your personalized messages reach those most likely to convert.
With marketing automation, you can guarantee your campaigns will arrive at the right time and in the right inboxes. Anything less risks the success of your marketing efforts.
By scheduling emails in advance, you prevent lapses in communication and stay top of mind. In addition, nurturing sequences guide your prospects through your sales funnel and towards conversion naturally.
Pro Tip: You can also use tools like Breadcrumbs Lead Scoring to level up your process and stay ahead of your competitors.
Note: No matter which email marketing tool (Constant Contact, ConvertKit, etc.) you choose, make sure it works well with your email service provider (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.).
Your next email marketing campaign
Email marketing is still going strong, and there’s no sign of it slowing down any time soon. Most of us check email on our phones up to 20 times a day.
That’s great news if you’re an email marketer. Use your list to grow brand awareness, strengthen customer loyalty, and drive conversions.
Remember, your email subscribers are individuals who want personalization and relevancy. With the six tips we’ve shared, you can develop a winning combination for your next email marketing campaign in no time.
To your success!
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