In 1978, the very first email marketing campaign was sent by Gary Thuerk to his 400 recipients. This email blast was sent as a promotion for his company's computers, which resulted in $13 million in sales.
Since then, email marketing has been right under our noses, and inadvertently, we have made email marketing the best way of marketing.
Email marketing has definitely evolved with time and changed the way companies contact their potential and existing customers, but the only thing that hasn't changed with time is the conversion rate.
Without further ado, let us begin with the 'whats' of email marketing, shall we?
What is email marketing?
In the simplest language, it is literally, marketing through emails.
'Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It involves using email to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales or donations.' – Wikipedia.
Well, that is from Wikipedia, let me help you to understand it better.
Email marketing is the process of sending promotional or commercial emails to your existing customers, and or, potential customers which in turn might convert them and result in sales.
To elucidate this further, let me give you an example, do you receive emails from Starbucks when they are coming up with a new frappe flavour?
Do you receive emails from your respective banks when there is a new service launch, or probably, just to inform you about your balance? Or maybe, just to thank you for being a loyal customer?
That's it. Any email you receive from any brand or company wherein they are giving you information about their products and services is email marketing.
Sounds simple, right? It is actually.
Did you notice in my definition of email marketing, I wrote 'email marketing is the process of…', simply because it is a well-strategized and well-planned process of marketing.
Email marketing cannot be just a blast of emails sent to random people for the sake of it. If you keep doing that, you'll end up in the spam folder of your customer's mailbox, which is literally the last thing you would want, trust me.
Why email marketing?
Before we get into the process of email marketing, we need to understand why it is so important, even in 2020.
So, let me ask you something. Why do companies' emphasis on email marketing so much when we have social media now? Inevitably, we spend more time on social media than checking our email. It seems like a no-brainer, but let me break it down to you the 'whys' and 'hows' of email marketing. Why email marketing is so important even today when our maximum attention is glued on social media.
· It is professional
· There are approximately 3.9 billion email users on daily bases
· Around 80% of businesses feel that communicating through emails result in more customer retention
· Segregated campaigns result in 760% increased revenue
· Email open rate is around 99%
· ROI (returns on investment) is around 4,000%, which is humongous
The very first difference that you may notice is that email is the most efficient way to communicate with your customers.
You literally own your list, meaning, your social media account may get deleted or blocked for some or the other reason but your email list will always be there for you.
For every dollar you send on email marketing, you get around $40 in return. This is why the ROI is so high in email marketing, and if you think that social media can do better—you are wrong!
There are 3.9 billion email users on daily basis and it's expected to rise to 4.3 billion by 2023. (Statista, 2020) And with this amount of future email users and 90% of open rate, you do the math now.
It's all a number game.
How should one do email marketing?
To get started, the first thing you would need is a list of email addresses of your (potential or existing) customers. Assuming that you have it already, (we will also talk about how to grow your email list later in this blog) you just need to segregate your email list as per your customer's needs, and last but not the least, an email service provider. Once you have achieved this, automation will take care of the rest.
Now, this was a very quick summary of what will the process look like, but let us jump in headfirst to understand 'how to do email marketing.'
First things first, you need an email list. If you are starting email marketing for the first time, it is needless to say that you might not have a single email address in your list. Or if you have a bunch of emails already, you still need more. So, how do we create or grow a list?
The very first idea of attaining your customer's email address is the infamous 'opt-in' form on your website. It barely works. Truth be said, no one wants a blast of emails from companies.
But then there is no other way of getting email addresses because if the customer doesn't opt-in proactively, they might put you in the spam or report you. So, how would you force them to click on that opt-in radio-button?
The simple answer is, give them something in return.
It can be anything from PDF to some free template or anything that will cost you the least or nothing.
When you are giving your customer something for free and in return, you are just asking them for their email address, you are more likely to get email addresses than just asking them to opt-in. Give them something of value that they are looking for, something that will download from your website but just before you give them what they want, ask them to opt-in.
Things that you can give them for free:
· Simple templates
· Some percent discount
· Coupons
· eBooks
· Free step by step guide
· Tip and tricks
· Ultimate hacks
Well, the list can go on and on.
When you give them something in exchange for an email address, you need to make sure that you are giving your audience something that is looking for which is not too long, which can bore them, and not too short.
Whether you are giving them a tool or a skillset, it has to be informative which is as valuable as your product or service.
Now that we know what is email marketing, why is it so important, and how to do it; we still ought to know its types and segregation.
What is email segregation?
Email segregation is the process of splitting your email list into different minuscule groups to send them more personalised and accurate emails, rather than broadcasting a blast of emails to your entire list.
This is not a WhatsApp broadcast.
If you keep sending emails to your entire list, chances are that they will put you in the spam folder or ignore your emails. But, on the other hand, if you segregate your list and send them exactly what they are looking for, chances are that they will open your email and you might get a sale.
Segregation has proven to increase email open rates and click-through rate, while also decreasing the unsubscribe rate. You just need to classify your email list, once it is done, just sit back and let the automation take care of the rest (we'll talk about automation in the section below). Once you accomplish that, you'll find it easy to draft subject lines according to the segregated list and attract just the right response.
Just like GetResponse, it has made it amazingly easy to collate emails and helps you to segregate it as per your requirements.
There is a lot of different ways to divide them into your list, but here are a few:
· Newcomer: a welcome email for your new subscriber
· Interests: subscribers who want to just read about your blogs, sales, etc.
· Location: inform them about any local event, seminars, etc.
· Open rate: subscribers who open your email very often, give them some discount or a special offer
· Inactivity: People who are inactive, remind them about your products and services, or give them some free template or PDF for more engagement
There are many more, but these are some basic ideas that you can follow. The more creative and personalised list you create the more engagement you can expect.
You need to keep in mind that there is an umpteen number of emails that are exchanged every day. And, there even more types of emails that marketers send to their customers to lure them into their sales pit.
What are the types of email?
When I say 'types of email', I mean the aesthetics and the visuals of your emails that will entice your customer. It can be funky, quirky, professional, personal, academic, philanthropic, etc., but one thing that you need to keep in mind is that you need to keep it simple.
Welcome emails:
By the name itself, it is for the new subscribers. A thank you email that needs to go to your subscriber immediately, confirming that they have successfully subscribed and they are welcome in your company.
A welcome email has to be a bit exuberant and jovial, making them feel that you are excited to have them and that they will learn a great deal from this subscription. Appreciating your customers goes a long way, trust me.
Announcement emails:
Announcement emails are very important. These are the emails where you promote your upcoming projects for maximum expected engagement. It can be for your webinar, seminar, eBook, sale, new product, service, etc., but the main objective of this emailer is 'call to action'.
When drafting this emailer, you need to keep in mind that the focal point of this email is the offer itself. The offer that you will offer to your customer is the center of attraction. So, make sure that the copy of this email is brief and to the point. Not too long and not too short.
The call to action button has to be large and clear on the page with simple language.
Newsletters, blogs, and digital magazine
This barely needs any explanation; we all know this and probably love this too. No matter if you are a blogger, newsletter writer, or a digital magazine company, you will agree to this, that you need to keep it visually appealing.
There are companies that send their customers round-up emails monthly, fortnightly, weekly, or ever alternate days; so, you don't want to inundate your reader with a ton of words on its first appearance. The more visually easy it is to understand the more likely you will grow your email list.
With these images, you need to give a brief introduction of the topic and call to action for the reader to read more, which will also transfer the traffic to your website. In this way, you are not pouring words on your customer and you will also gain more traffic.
Event invitation
Again, visual appearance is the key. An event invitation is used when you are inviting your customers for an event that you think they will like to attend. To guarantee their attendance, you need to make sure that they will get something valuable from this event. It can be a seminar or a webinar that you are hosting, to attain the most RSVPs, you need to provide them with a staunch reason as to why this event will be awesome, apart from being valuable.
This email should also consist of a link for a call to action so that they can RSVP.
If it is going to host a webinar, which is highly in demand due to COVID 19, you can also give them free guides, PDFs, eBooks, etc., once they register or after they attend the webinar.
Merger emails
These types of emails are best when two or more companies decide to come together just for an event. This is clearly not a company amalgamation, don't go by its name, it is just when two companies join hands for a single event for a campaign, seminar, webinar, etc.
For e.g. When you see a Jio ad on TV in partnership with Apple, which means when you buy an iPhone with Jio you get a special discount. This doesn't mean that Apple and Jio are a single company now.
These types of emails need to have a clear message as to why they are merging and both of them should be benefited out of this. Both company's logo should be conspicuous with a theme that helps them both.
Again, in the above example, Jio will send emails to its customer list who are interested in buying Apple products.
Internal email marketing
This has more to do with your own employees, which is in fact your main audience. You need to keep your employees up-to-date with all the changes and internal updates. Over here, you need not worry about the aesthetics, you need to worry about the clarity.
When drafting such emails, you need to keep it simple because you not here to impress them, just inform them and let them be. Keep the format to the point and in a way that will be helpful for the employees; highlight the most important message, and voila, you are there.
Confirmation emails
Completed an online payment and did not receive the confirmation email? And, then you try to click on 'make payment' again and that deducts the money twice. Yeah, that is a short horror story.
No one wants to keep worrying about the payment or booking they make online. It is more than a nice gesture, it a norm now. You have to and have to, send a confirmation email to your customer.
When sending a confirmation email, no one wants to read anything apart from the message they have been waiting for. Just confirm that you have received the payment and don't try to sell anything there, unless, you have any special offer or discount offer just for them, then it makes sense.
Automation
Now that we have understood what is email marketing, its uses, and why email marketing is so important, we have reached the second last segment of our blog.
Automation is a chain of emails that are sent out periodically through segregation. These emails are sent when the occasion asks for, you cannot just randomly send these emails. You can use automation when:
· New joining
· Browsing habits
· Buying a product
· Inactivity
· Sale
These are just a few examples.
When you have a segregated list that is inactive, you need to set an automated email, written by you priorly, that will be sent to your inactive users after a set number of days.
In the same way, when you know your customer's browsing history, because caches, and if you have that product you can send an email marketing it.
But the best time is the first time. When the subscriber is new, don't miss this chance to convert them into your loyal customer. Send them a welcome email, post which you can flaunt your freebie with some call to action that will generate traffic on your website. You can also use a call to action to ask them to follow you on your social media.
Automation is unequivocally the marketer's best way to market and their most powerful tool. Automation is literally an autopilot that will create sales for you on your behalf using your sales funnel.
Improve your open rate
Everything needs an update from time to time. Just like that, even your customer list needs one. If you keep sending emails to your inactive users this will not help you even in a million years. Or, if you keep sending them emails from an email address that looks or sounds suspicious, Nah, you are just banging your head on the wall. But, how do we improve our list?
First things first, avoid being thrown in the spam folder. How?
Make sure you send emails only to those who have opted in
Send it from a verified email address/domain
Don't sound too pushy or like a salesperson
Keep it clean and to the point
Delete inactive users from your segregated list, and update it timely
Understand the timing
You need to know when your customers are more likely to open your emails, don't send them emails in the middle of the night. Watch your weekly stats and learn at what time most of your customers are active online. Once you know that, send them an email at that time to gain more engagement
The subject of the email has to be very clear but unique
Talk to them in the first-person perspective, don't make them feel like they are your customer
If possible, make it humorous
Optimise it for the mobile version, because 46% of emails are opened on mobile phones.
Be creative when it comes to improving your list. These are just a few points that can be used. Think out of the box and amaze your customers.
コメント