Four tips for a winning email marketing strategy
Do you know the best way to reach your consumers in 2015? If you thought a website alone was enough, or that cold calling or social media was the way to go, you’d actually be wrong.
Compared to all other strategies, email marketing remains king – and has been proven to reach more consumers that any other method. In fact, according to global management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, email marketing is 40 times more useful for acquiring customers than Facebook and Twitter marketing!
Sending the odd email update about a sale or a new service is not enough though. Consistency and a proper email marketing strategy is key if you want to make a positive impact on potential consumers and their behaviour.
With this in mind, we thought we’d share four ways to improve your marketing strategy, to make 2015 your most successful year yet!
Four ways to refresh your strategy
1) Design your emails with mobiles in mind
While it’s important to design for all devices – from desktop computers to tablets and smartphones – starting with mobiles in mind and building from there is often the best strategy.
A study from Mobile Ink found that 65% of emails are opened on mobile devices – a trend that is increasing day-by-day. So your emails need to be readable on a mobile device. This is typically achieved by using responsive design, meaning that whatever device a user is reading from, the email is displayed correctly. Some email service providers provide responsive templates, but it you would like some help kicking off your email marketing strategy, get in touch.
It may also be worth using a serif font for headlines and sans serif for your body copy as well as a reasonable sized text. You want your emails to be easy to digest and quick to read – opening an email should never be a hassle for your reader.
2) Write for your audience
Don’t just ask yourself what you think your audience wants to hear, ask them! Whether you create a poll on social media, or use a free survey product, getting that interaction with potential consumers is key.
Remember to keep your survey short with a maximum of seven questions. Get the information you need and quickly – your consumers will probably be short on time.
Ask about their priorities, their knowledge gaps and their interests and frame your questions to get this sort of information out of them.
3) Measure your impact
There’s no point trying out a new method of marketing without being able to assess the impact it’s had. You need to find out if your headlines were engaging, if your contact database is up to date and if people are switched off to be able to review your strategy and move forwards.
Metrics worth measuring include:
- Conversion rate – How many people are doing the thing you want them to following your email. For example, buying that product, clicking that call-to action link or downloading your guide.
- Bounce rate – Is your contact list up to date or are lots of emails coming back as undeliverable?
- Open rate – Are consumers interested in your email – is your headline engaging?
- Unsubscribe rate – Are you emailing too often, or perhaps your content isn’t quite hitting the spot?
4) Feature good quality content
Your email marketing strategy doesn’t just have to consist of standard monthly newsletters. Why not link to or include useful information from your website too, such as case studies, blogs and images. If you’ve got a YouTube channel or videos you’ve put on your website, these are also great to include in your emails to potential consumers.
You need to make the most of your content. Your emails needn’t require much new copy – you could just take the best bits from your website and share with consumers who’ve probably not have the opportunity to see it. Just because you know it’s there, it doesn’t mean everyone else does.
Remember to just include a teaser though – a snippet of a blog post or an image of a new product. Let consumers navigate to your website should they wish to find out more.
If you’d like some professional help with your email marketing strategy get in touch with Sam Fletcher, our Marketing Director. He’ll be more than happy to talk you though what we can offer and share some recent case studies.
