There are hundreds of new and innovative ways that companies can market their products to customers – from webinars and YouTube tutorials to social media blasts. With so many new communication channels, it can be tempting to let your marketing emailing fall by the wayside.
But email is still an incredibly effective marketing tool when used correctly. Don’t just take our word for it, though. A study by Litmus reported that for every dollar spent on an email campaign, the company earns $42 in return – an astonishing 4,200% ROI!
If you want to experience those kinds of returns for yourself – just keep reading.
Marketing Emailing: A Brief Overview
As you know, at its most basic level, email marketing is sending emails to a list of contacts who have consented to receive communication from your business. These emails serve two major purposes: generating new leads for your company and keeping existing customers in the loop concerning new products and services. Typically, these communications are sent as “campaigns” – scheduled, consecutive emails that are sent over a predetermined time. There are several types of campaigns businesses utilize.
- Nurturing (or follow-up) emails: These marketing emailing campaigns are meant to turn leads into customers. Usually, the first email of the campaign is sent out automatically when the lead subscribes to your email list. Its content will be tailored to them and where they are in the buyer’s journey.
- Newsletters: Typically, these campaigns are sent once a month to current customers to inform them of corporate news and pertinent updates. They can also be utilized to re-engage leads that might have fallen off due to time commitments.
- Blog Update emails: Sending out your latest blog posts to your customer base, and prospective customers, is a fantastic way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your particular market. Especially if your blogs are informative and not full of pushy sales-speak.
- Thank You emails: Reserved for customers, these are usually sent to celebrate corporate milestones that they helped your business achieve. Win a customer service award? Send out a thank you email. Been in business for over a decade? Thank the loyal customers who supported you.
In this case, we’ll be focusing on how to launch a successful nurturing email campaign – and how it might benefit you in the long run.
Step 1: Create a Segmented List
One thing no customer wants is to receive communication that has absolutely nothing to do with their interests. According to a recent study, 56% of consumers will unsubscribe from an email list if the content is no longer relevant to them. A simple way for marketers to avoid this pitfall is to separate their customers and prospects into segmented lists. Many will segment lists by what products the contact was interested in, or what industry they’re in. Whatever metric you want to use is up to you – after all, you’re the one who truly knows your audience.
It may seem like a time-consuming task, but it’ll be well worth it in the end. Marketing teams who utilized segmented lists saw almost a 760% increase in revenue.
Step 2: Write and Design with Customers in Mind
This is another step in marketing emailing that requires an intimate knowledge of your audience and their preferences. Do they prefer emails that are straightforward and simple, or do they expect emails full of informative videos and other interactive elements? Whichever appearance your audience prefers should be your standard.
And speaking of standards, make sure that your content is not only tailored to them but also easy to understand. Avoiding technological jargon in favor of plain language will be of great help to both you and your customer base. The easier your emails are to read the more customers will read them.
Step 3: Keep it Short and Sweet
In a similar vein, more customers will read your emails if they’re short. No one has the time or patience to read through paragraph after paragraph of text. According to recent data, emails with about 20 lines of text (approximately 200 words) have both the highest click-through rates and the best response rates at around 50%. Adhering to a “less is more” philosophy in marketing emailing will lead to more engagement and more engagement will lead to more revenue
Step 4: Don’t Serve SPAM
When businesses start following up with – or “nurturing” – potential customers and clients, it can be tempting to send an email every day. Do not do it. If customers are seeing emails from you every day, they’ll either start ignoring them or unsubscribe completely.
But how do you discover your “golden sending rate” for marketing emailing? Simple! Start small and work your way up. Our suggestion is to start with one to two emails per week and see how your customers and prospects react. If you’re not seeing the best open and click-through rates, experiment with sending three emails per week, and so on. When you find a rate that works best with your clients, now it’s time to move on to step five.
Step 5: Test, Test, and Test Again
Honing your email campaigns takes time, patience, and testing. A common way to do this is via A/B testing. A/B testing refers to a process where two or more versions of an email are sent to different contacts on a list. Whichever version has the best click-through and open rates is one that’s worth looking into and replicating.
For instance, if the version with more photos and videos gets more engagement, then maybe your audience prefers emails with interactive elements. If they’re reading shorter emails but abandoning longer ones, look into reducing your word count and so on.
It is also extremely important that you review and test your marketing emailing in an editorial sense. Do your links work? Can your email be viewed correctly on a desktop or on a mobile device? Did you spell any proprietary words correctly?
Step 6: Automate, Review, & Improve
Once you’ve landed on the ideal lead nurturing campaign, it’s time to send it out. We recommend using automation to send emails on specific dates and at specific times for maximum engagement. These times will vary based on the kind of customers you serve. Are they more likely to open emails during work hours? Weekends? Mornings? Evenings? Whenever your customers are most engaged online is when you need to send them your emails.
Once the email is sent, it’s important to monitor how your marketing emailing is doing. How many people received the email, how many opened it, how many people engaged with links, etc. These data points will help you gauge how effective your campaign is and improve future campaigns. If you have a high open-rate and a high click-through rate, your campaign is more likely to be successful. If you have a high open-rate but a low click-through rate, you might want to take a closer look at what kind of content you’re including in the emails.
Quick Fact: A good email open rate should be between 17-28%, though this percentage varies by industry. It’d be best to investigate the average for your industry and compare your open rate to that.
Get All the Benefits of Marketing Emailing with GreenStar Marketing
If you’re looking for a way to qualify leads, improve your sales cycle, and keep both potential and current engaged with your content, consider partnering with GreenStar Marketing. Our team of experts takes the time to understand your audience and craft effective lead nurturing campaigns, tailor-made for your business. Contact us today to jumpstart your lead generation!
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