TOP EMAIL MARKETING BEST PRACTICES

TOP EMAIL MARKETING BEST PRACTICES

Experts agree that email marketing is the most effective marketing channel there is, even with the advent of social media. In fact, it’s 40 times more effective at getting you new customers than Facebook or Twitter based on a study conducted by McKinsey. Even better, people prefer to receive promotional content through email and are more likely to click-through your email marketing campaign than one they see in a tweet. And if that’s not enough, according to DMA, an email marketing campaign should earn you an average of $38 for every $1 spent which means a 3,800% ROI.

Obviously, if you want your business to boom, this is the way to go. But it’s not always that simple. If you want to make the most gains out of your email campaigns, then you need to learn what to do and what not to do. Below is a list of email marketing best practices that should help you get more subscribers, boost engagement, optimize deliverability, and increase your conversions.

What is email marketing and why to use it?

To most people, email marketing is synonymous with bulk email. And they probably wouldn’t be far off. Email marketing is when you use email to promote your business to your current and potential customers. It enables you to cultivate relationships with them, keep them updated and informed about what’s happening with your brand, and provide them with promos to increase their loyalty. It’s similar to all those promos and letters you got through snail mail from your favorite brands. You are marketing directly to your consumer.

Obviously, email marketing is already considered old school. It has essentially been around since the Internet was born. But that doesn’t negate the fact that it’s incredibly useful in increasing your revenue and has a much wider reach. Even compared to social media. According to Forrester Research, 90% of the email you send will get delivered to your targeted audience while only 2% of your Facebook followers will see your posts in their feed. In addition, 99% of consumers check their email every day.

Today, it is estimated that half the world’s population has email. And it is also expected that the number of active email accounts will reach 5.6 billion by the end of 2019. And here’s another interesting fact – 73% of millennials prefer connecting with their favorite brands through email. It’s safe to say that email marketing is the most useful tool you’ll ever have in your marketing arsenal.

5 Top Email Marketing Best Practices of 2019

Before you start sending off any bulk emails to your list of customers, you should note that doing so is not effective email marketing. Sending a mass email to large groups at once is just spamming them with content that they may or may not want to get. If you want to get a boost in your sales, then you need to apply the best email marketing practices.

1. Spend time creating and improving your subject lines and preheaders

This is one of the most crucial steps in creating a successful campaign. After all, if the subject line fails to grab our recipient’s attention, they aren’t going to be opening the email and clicking your link. In short, all your efforts to create the perfect content will go to waste. This means that you should invest in your subject line.

In addition, the small preview of text found below the subject line that is shown to users when you send an email (a.k.a. the preheader) also helps determine whether a subscriber will open your email or not.

There are several things you can do to make your subject line more attention-grabbing. Making it personalized can increase your open rate by 37% while using hard numbers can increase it by 52%. How do you know which one is more effective? Test it out. Don’t guess.

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2. Integrate your email marketing strategy with social media

While we have clearly stated that email marketing is more effective than advertising on social media, it doesn’t mean you should ignore it altogether. The best way to promote your business is to integrate the two marketing strategies. Not only will it allow you to grow your email list, but it also extends the reach of your email campaigns.

To do this, you can start by including links to your social media accounts inside your emails so that customers can easily know how to find you on the various social media networks. Using YouTube videos inside your email can boost engagement dramatically. In fact, it can increase your open rate by 19% and click-throughs by 65%.

3. Find the best times to send

If you’re going to apply only one out of all of these email practices we’re sharing, this should be it. Generally, increasing the frequency of your emails can gain an increase in revenue. To put it simply, the more emails you send, the more likely you’ll get conversions. However, there’s a line between frequent and spam. Too many emails can lead to customers unsubscribing or marking your email as spam which, in turn, affects your email deliverability. Now, if you send too few, there’s a good chance that you may be missing out on opportunities to boost sales and engagement. So, you need to find the sweet spot between too much and too few.

In addition, you also need to find the best time to send your email. While people open their inbox all the time, it doesn’t mean they’ll be opening all their received messages at the same time. According to research, readers prefer to open certain emails during different times and days. For example, marketing emails are more likely to get opened during a weekday than a weekend. Wednesdays are generally better than other days. And emails sent around 10 in the morning usually get the best engagement rates. Of course, the best email send frequency and time for you will depend on your type of business and the expectations of your audience. And to find that out, you’ll need to do some testing.

4. Personalize your emails

No one wants to get generic emails. Sending one is a surefire way to get less engagement from your customers. There’s a good chance that some readers will feel alienated and cause them to view your email as spam. If you want to get their attention, don’t stop with the catchy subject line and preheader. Make sure that the email you send them speaks directly to them. Use their name in the email if you can. Make sure that the content of your email is in line with their purchase history, demographics, and customer behavior. In line with this, you should make sure that your list is segmented so you don’t send emails that don’t fit with your recipient’s personal information. Recent studies have shown that more than half of consumers are willing to share their personal information if it means that they’ll be receiving personalized email offers and discounts.

e-mail marketing

5. Build and maintain a clean email list with Email Validation

For an email marketing campaign to be successful, you have to have a list of quality subscribers – people who will engage with your brand, And since a typical email list can lose as much as 25% of its subscribers each year, you’ll need to make sure that you continue to build your list to account for the attrition.

In addition to building a quality list, you also need to make sure that it’s a clean one. You need to make sure that all the email addresses you collected are valid. If any of the email addresses on your list are dormant or inactive, your email will likely become blacklisted which can affect your email deliverability. To check the validity of your list, you can use email marketing solutions such as email validation tools and data appending services.

To build and maintain a list of quality subscribers, use a data appending service! For more information, please read our resources here.

Huge hat-tip to fulcrumtech.net for much of this information.

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