Are You Taking Full Advantage Of Email Marketing?

There are many different options out there to help you promote your business. Website? Check. Social media ads? Check. Influencer collaborations? Check. But one of your most valuable promotional tools might also be one of your most underused – email marketing.

Even amongst the newer, flashier marketing methods, email marketing can still be one of the most effective for your business. It’s simple, affordable and helps put you right in front of your target audience. Using email marketing to its full potential could result in some great returns for your business, so what are you waiting for?

Learn how to take full advantage of email marketing for your business and see the impact it could have on your success.

The benefits of email marketing

Email marketing has several benefits that give it huge potential for success as a promotional tool for your business, including:

• Low-cost
• High levels of personalisation
• The ability to define your audience accordingly
• Drive traffic to your website
• Increase sales
• High return on investment
• Easy to analyse and improve 

The effectiveness of email marketing is largely in its personalisation and targeting, allowing businesses to tailor their communications in a way that helps build brand awareness, develop relationships and encourage sales. It is also seen as a trusted source by consumers, more so than social media ads and website ads that are constantly flooding their screens. 

Newsletters and other mailers are also easy to evaluate, with most email marketing platforms providing detailed insights. This can help you establish quickly whether or not your communications are a success, and adjust your strategy accordingly – all without spending too much of your marketing budget.

How does your email marketing strategy shape up?

Does your business have a solid email marketing strategy? The first thing you need to do is compare email marketing metrics to get insights related to your industry and see how you’re doing. If your stats are comparable, congratulations – keep up the good work! But if not, these metrics could provide some valuable benchmarks to help you refresh your strategy and improve your performance. 

Getting the most from email marketing

Want to get the most from your email marketing campaigns? Use the following tips to help you get on the right track:

Run an effective subscriber campaign

To enjoy success with email marketing, you’re going to need some subscribers. Whether you’re starting out or you’re hoping to improve your reach, you need to focus on getting some contacts on your mailing list. From signup boxes on your homepage to online competitions and exclusive discounts, there are several ways you can grow your email list ready to get your messages out there.

Always have a goal

Setting objectives is the key to success with any type of marketing campaign. Decide what you want to achieve to help you design your communications and stand the best chance of making an impact. 

Choose software that works for you

Explore different email marketing providers to help you find one that meets your needs. You will need to consider factors such as usability, cost, and the features included. It’s also important to consider software that’s scalable to ensure you can still send out communications as your subscriber list grows. 

Be smart with targeting

Email marketing allows you to target your audience in detailed segments you create based on things like purchase behaviour, location and even their birthdays. Using targeting effectively, you stand a better chance of earning a high open rate and getting the click-throughs you need to achieve your goals. 

Create stand-out content

Once you’ve set your objectives and defined your audience, it’s time to focus on the content. This is where you can have fun with the creative and design something that’s going to wow the recipient. Some tips to consider here include: 

• Start strong with an attention-grabbing subject line. Stand out in their inbox to hook the reader in.
• Create a template that’s on brand, featuring your colours, fonts and logo to help encourage brand recognition and build trust.
• Keep your content snappy – avoid long sentences and paragraphs.
• Add some personalisation to further enhance your targeting efforts.
• Ensure your mailer is mobile-friendly.
• Use images and graphics to add interest, but be careful to use an appropriate resolution to ensure emails load quickly and don’t end up in spam folders.

Always evaluate your success

Evaluating the performance of your email marketing campaigns is essential to ensuring success. Your stats will help show how many people received your email, how many opened it and how many chose to unsubscribe. Some of the key metrics to analyse include:

Open rate

See how many people opened your email versus the number who received it. 

Click-through rate (CTR)

Learn how many people clicked on links within the email, which can be useful to help you see which calls to action were the most successful.

Click-to-open rate (CTOR)

This builds on your CTR to help understand how many people clicked on any link after opening your email.

Conversion rate

See the complete journey and learn whether your recipients completed different actions after clicking a link within the email.

Bounce rate

Measure how many emails failed to deliver due to incorrect contact information, helping you clean up your subscriber list. 

Unsubscribe rate

See how many people chose to unsubscribe from your communications, which could be a reflection of the content, frequency of emails or relevance to the audience.

Analysing your email marketing data can soon help you see whether your efforts are providing ROI, and help you make adjustments as needed to future strategies. Most email marketing tools will provide these stats in an accessible format, helping you see at a glance how your messages are performing.

Email marketing may be one of the earlier forms of digital marketing, but it remains one of the most effective. If you’re looking to increase sales, build brand loyalty and recognition, then using email marketing should be a key part of your strategy. Plan your communications carefully to create engaging, impactful email content that reaches your customer directly and generates amazing results for your business.