Email marketing is an extremely lucrative marketing channel that is known for providing a great return on investment. It is effective for both acquiring new customers and keeping existing ones. It’s important to be deploying the best practices in your emails that will drive real conversions. Here are some of the top tactics for getting the most out of what you’re sending to your target market’s inbox. 

Include a Compelling Subject Line

It’s all about personalization. A generic or lengthy subject line won’t give you the results that you’re looking for. Keep it engaging. When you customize your subject line to the audience you’re trying to reach, you’ll start to see more conversions on your email campaigns. 

Keep It Mobile Friendly

Conversions are happening on mobile now more than ever. The most effective email campaigns are optimized for mobile and those are the campaigns that see the best click through rates and conversions. 

Segment Your Email Lists

Did you know that email open rates are 14% higher for campaigns utilizing segmented email lists? You can separate your lists based on preferences, new subscribers and whether or not they purchased, just to name a few. This depends on the goals of your business and what you’re trying to accomplish with your campaigns. Segmenting email lists give you more control over the messaging that you are sending out and drives better results. 

Utilize a Strong CTA

The call to action is the touchdown pass to a conversion. Every email you send should incorporate a CTA that is uniquely targeted towards your audience and relevant to the content you are promoting. 

Define and Monitor Performance

Being able to determine the success of your email marketing initiatives is extremely important. Here at Today’s Business, we are constantly monitoring key performance indicators that provide transparency for how well your campaign is doing and how it can improve.                           

If you aren’t seeing the conversions you expected to see through email marketing, then it’s time to rethink your strategy. Our team backs everything up with the numbers and creates email campaigns that are designed to convert. If you’re ready to reboot your campaign or start one for the first time, let’s talk.

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What is Email Marketing?

In its simplest form, email marketing is the act of sending a custom branded, professional email on your company’s behalf. While most companies use it to promote advertisements, request for business, or solicit donations, any email communication is considered email marketing if it helps to build customer loyalty, trust, or recognition. It is an efficient way to stay connected with customers while also promoting business.

Benefits of Email Marketing for Your Business

• Inexpensive cost for your company

Email marketing is a cost-effective tool that allows you to directly reach your audience. From small businesses to large corporations, all companies can benefit from email marketing. Forget about the printing and mailing costs that quickly add up. All you need is a template, a good marketing strategy, and a mailing list to drive users to your site! Generating traffic to your website boosts sales, which is important if you want to make a profit. According to Campaign Monitor, every $1 spent on email marketing in 2016 had an average ROI of $44.

• Build trust and boost brand awareness

Sending regular emails (without spamming your audience’s inbox) is a great way to connect with both new and old customers. Not only does it keep your company on their mind, but if you segment your email list, you will be able to send specific people the content they want to see and engage with.

For example, if you sell both women and girls’ clothing, half of your email list may be interested in receiving emails about the latest products and promotions for women, while the other half may only be interested in emails relating to girls’ products. Instead of sending your entire list every email you create, segmenting your list allows you to send specific emails to specific audiences.

• You can measure your statistics

With help from Google Analytics and email automation platforms, you are able to track how many people open your emails, how many people click through to your website, conversion rate, etc. Not only does it let you see a direct ROI, but these stats are crucial insight to help improve your email marketing campaign.

Measuring statistics allows you to get to know your audience better. You can learn a lot about your target market, including: age, purchase history, special days like birthdays, location, etc. Knowing this information is helpful to keep your current customers and generate new leads.

Tips for Your Email Marketing Campaign

• Keep it short & sweet

The more content you stuff into an email, the less focused your audience will be. A crowded email blast can have customers feeling overwhelmed, with no idea what action to take. People want to read one main message. With that in mind, be sure to design your email blasts with one clear call to action.

Another important reason why emails should be kept short is because most emails are read on mobile. There’s no way around it; according to Pew Research Center, 88% of smartphone users actively check email on their phones. With that in mind, cut the fluff and keep your emails concise.

• Have a specific call to action (CTA)

Your main goal of an email blast is to get your subscribers to do something. Make sure what you want them to do is obvious! One clear CTA directs users on what they should do next. Multiple CTAs in one email may lead to a confused user, making them less likely to click altogether.

It’s important that your CTA is inline with your email subject. You don’t want to talk about your latest blog and have the link lead to your shop page. Doing so will hurt your trust and credibility with your customers, making them more likely to unsubscribe.

• Encourage your website visitors to sign up

To run an email marketing campaign, you need subscribers to send your emails to! One of the best ways to do this is by incorporating a sign-up form on all pages of your website. To quickly acquire subscribers, you can offer an incentive to signing up. Whether it be a free item, promotional discount, a white paper, etc., the sweeter the deal, the more likely someone will be to subscribe.

Start Your Email Marketing Campaign Today

If you are a company interested in connecting with your customers and increasing your conversion rate, then email marketing is the perfect tool for you to use! Our team of marketing professionals are ready to build you a great piece of email marketing material for your campaign. Contact Today’s Business to learn more about how we’ll use email marketing to grow your business.

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How to Boost Your Email Marketing Performance

1. Create an Intriguing Subject Line

The subject line is one of the most important elements of an email blast. No matter how great the content of your email blast is, no one will see it if your subject line is boring. You want to create a rapport with your email subscribers so they are more inclined to open future emails. When creating a subject line, you need to figure out how to inform your subscribers of what’s inside, while also catching their attention. Think of how many email lists you are subscribed to and which ones you actually open. Chances are, you open email blasts because you either are a long time supporter of the brand or because they caught your attention. Be sure that your subject line does not come off as spammy though, as that could lead to lots of people unsubscribing.

2. Improve Click Through Rates with a Call-To-Action

In terms of what you want to get out of your email blast, the Call-To-Action (CTA) is the biggest key. There are many different CTAs and the one you should use depends on the content in your email. For example, if you’re in the retail industry and your biggest goal is to sell your products, a perfect CTA would be “Shop Now.” However, maybe you are a plastic surgeon and you have a new procedure you are offering. In this instance “Shop Now” wouldn’t be the way to go. Your target market is going to want to learn more about the procedure before they schedule their appointments. Instead, a CTA along the lines of “Learn More” would be more appropriate.

3. Come Up with an Incentive People Actually Want

People love incentives! How many times have you seen something that says “Subscribe now and get 10% off your next purchase” or “Subscribe now and get a free product?” Incentives are vital to grow your email subscribers and are extremely effective. The type of incentive you want to use to entice people to sign up for your email blast is entirely up to you. Just make sure it’s something people actually want. You’re not going to get many people to sign up if the incentive reads “Subscribe now for unique content.” Of course an email blast is going to have unique content! If it didn’t, why is it being sent out in the first place?

4. Figure Out the Right Frequency

The number of email blasts you send out on a monthly basis can impact your subscribers tremendously. If you don’t currently have an email blast, it is recommended that you start out at a minimum of one email per month. At the very least, this will allow your business to stay top-of-mind among your consumers. This also proves to your consumers that every month new and exciting things are happening with your company. If they were to opt out and unsubscribe, they’d be missing important news, sales and other updates. The ideal number of emails sent out per month will depend on the industry you are in. Make sure you are tracking your emails so you have a baseline of data. You will notice different trends with your engagement and click through rates, which will help take your email marketing campaign to the next level.

5. Content is Key

Last but certainly not least is content. Content, similar to your subject line, is what makes or breaks your email blast. Yes, your subject line is critical because it makes people open your email. Now that you got your consumers engaged, you have to keep their attention with your content. Each email you sent out should have one focus. Having too many CTAs in one email blast will lower your engagement and click through rate. Always think: “What is in this for the consumer? Why should the consumer interact with this content?” When looking for content to fill your email blast with, be sure to include a healthy mixture of articles, videos, and special sales (to keep them wanting more). Keep industry trends in mind, and subscribe to other company’s email blasts in your industry to come up with creative ideas.

Start Your Email Marketing Campaign Today

If you need assistance with setting up your email marketing campaign, look no further than Today’s Business. Being experts in the digital marketing industry, we can help you boost your business with email marketing, social media, SEO and website development. For more information, please contact us today.

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