There are plenty of ways to get in front of your audience nowadays. Since the rise of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, brands have more opportunities than ever to reach their target audience. What can sometimes get left out is the use of email marketing as a part of your overall strategy. Email marketing, to some, seems like an “old way” of reaching out to customers, put alongside more traditional marketing and advertising tactics, like TV or radio ads. The problem with this viewpoint is that email marketing, when done right, can be one of the most effective and profitable marketing strategies a business uses. Here are a few tips for you to nail down your email marketing.
Write A Killer Subject Line
The first thing people are going to see when they receive an email is the subject line. This tells them what the email is about and can determine if they open your email, ignore the message or, at the very worst, report your email as spam. It seems like a lot to ask from a small piece of text, but it is ultimately one of the biggest factors when it comes to email marketing performance. So, how do you write a great subject line? Firstly, you need to know what types of people you are sending your email to (more on this later!) It’s also important to have a hook in the subject line. It could be a discount or sale, or you could ask a question that piques interest. At the end of the day, people will open your email because they see a potential benefit for themselves and the subject line should highlight that benefit.
Know Your Audience
Having a strong understanding of your audience will give you a massive leg up on the competition. Businesses who actively look into a “buyer persona,” or the optimal person they want to interact with their business, have a better understanding of how to tailor their marketing to that specific buyer persona. A good place to start is by taking stock of your current audience. What is the gender breakdown? Where do they live? Are they looking at your emails right away? Getting insight into those already looking at your emails can tell you whether or not you’re heading in the right direction. If you’re not, have some internal discussions about your audience and strategize about how to better target them through engaging email campaigns.
Test Your Emails Regularly
As with other forms of digital marketing, sending emails can be a neverending battle of trial and error. Some of the tiniest changes can have sizable impacts across all of your key performance metrics. That’s why testing your emails can be a big help in keeping your audience interested and engaged with your emails. The easiest way to test your emails is with an A/B or “split” test. Create two versions of your email, or a new one, if you’re testing a current campaign. Based on what metric you’re looking to improve, you can change the layout, colors, text or whatever seems appropriate. For improving open rates, try working on your subject line and your preview text. If you’re looking for more clicks, try to make your calls to action (CTAs) as apparent and enticing as possible.
Have A Single Goal in Mind
One of the biggest mistakes people make with email marketing is doing too much with a single email. They want people to take every action they possibly can, which isn’t realistic. It’s best to know the primary action you want people to take with your email, whether it’s to buy a product or sign up for your seminar. Have a single focus, and spend your time optimizing your email to get people to take that action. A simple explanation of this is, “If you have multiple goals for one email, you have no goals for that email.”
There are plenty of ways to engage your audience. When email marketing is done right, it can be extremely effective and create a lifelong customer. Regardless of your experience or expertise, there is always room for improvement in email marketing. So, whether you need to write that killer subject line or get to know your audience, get out there and get to work!
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