The line between intelligent e-mail marketing and unwanted spam is thin – both the campaign’s success and the business’ sales heavily depend on it. This makes knowing and adequately implementing the steps of an e-mail campaign essential for achieving the wanted results.
What is e-mail marketing?
E-mail marketing (a part of digital marketing) is one of the most affordable methods for advertising your business. It promotes the goods and services of a company, with the idea of eventually accumulating profit. It is also a channel for communication with the audience, with which you can actively engage with your potential clients while promoting your brand.
What are the benefits of e-mail marketing?
E-mail marketing is extremely popular due to its undeniable advantages. It provides an opportunity to reach a broad audience with a minimum of resources and efforts and a solid return on investment. Moreover, when users are appropriately targeted, and the proper steps are intelligently implemented, the results are easy to track and analyze. Last but not least, this type of marketing facilitates personal and systematic contact with customers.
The main disadvantage of e-mail marketing is its popularity – users’ mailboxes are full of advertisements. This means that your message competes with dozens or even hundreds of others for customers’ attention and can often remain unopened or even considered spam (something that is highly undesirable and does not lead to the achievement of your goals.)
How to set up a smart and profitable e-mail marketing campaign?
There are several things that you should consider before conducting a smart e-mail marketing campaign. We will try to present them briefly in the following lines:
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Contact list
You simply can’t run an e-mail marketing campaign without knowing your (potential)customers’ e-mails. One way to get a contact list is to buy or receive it from companies that offer such services. However, this practice often turns out to be a bad idea, leading you to an untimely failure. Sending e-mail newsletters to a contact list that is in no way pre-selected increases the chances of the same messages being reported as spam. The legal provisions on personal data protection applied to the GDPR are another reason to avoid this method of providing contacts for conducting e-mail marketing.
The other much-preferred option for getting a contact list is for users to provide their own e-mail addresses willingly. Ideally, this happens once users register to follow your e-newsletter. To entice them to leave their e-mail, you can offer a discount or an e-book, which is received after registration. This will fill up your list of addresses faster and easier.
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Title and content of the promotion message
An exciting and relevant title is essential to the success of your campaign. The title is the first thing users will read before they decide whether to open the message. If you are having a sale or a special offer, write it in the title. Personally addressing the customer and making him feel special is also a winning move. Creating quality content, though, is the foundation of a successful e-mail marketing campaign. Keep this in mind when planning one.
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The design sells just as much as the content
Make sure the design of the message is refined to the last detail. The appearance of the message will be noticed before the text is read. The more unusual, engaging, and eye-catching it is, the greater your success will be. Don’t miss the images, don’t be extravagant with the text. The two formulas for success are to be short and precise. If you want to say something else or convey longer messages – do so by reference. During the workweek, users have neither the desire nor the time to read long advertisements. If yours is such, then there is a real danger that it will not receive the necessary attention and will quickly be marked as “spam.”
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Don’t overlook the possibilities of automating your e-mail marketing campaigns
A successful e-mail campaign requires specific automation tools. Currently, there are various reliable e-mail marketing tools that you could use. Make sure they are suitable for your purposes and that they work well. Choose the ones with which you will get the most out of your work and efforts.
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Understand the audience you’re advertising to
Create separate campaigns for different types of users. For example, if you sell a variety of goods, offer the mothers an e-mail containing information about your children’s products and the gentlemen one that is tailored to their interests. Sending an e-mail with diaper information to a user who has purchased a computer game from your store is not only inappropriate and unprofessional but also marks your e-mail as spam. Divide your users and send the right messages to individual groups, which have related interests and needs.
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Readers can opt-out of receiving e-mails or customize the content they receive
The law requires that you indicate in each message how a user may refuse to receive your e-mails or unsubscribe from your newsletter. Be resourceful and point out to the user another opportunity – to note how often he would like to receive your e-mails. This will allow you to keep a user who would unsubscribe because of daily messages but would not mind receiving your ads once a month. Flexibility and customization are your helpers in this case.
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Remind the customer about your brand by being resourceful
At some point, the loss of customers is inevitable, but you must minimize this effect as much as possible. It often happens that the consumer sees a product or service, even puts it in the cart but does not complete the purchase for various reasons. A reminder for a forgotten shopping cart with a price reduction offer or free shipping is an impressive gesture of attention and attitude for the consumer and an optimized chance for a successful sale for your business.
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Personal attitude always wins
Create an e-mail marketing calendar containing your customers’ birthdays and send them a personalized greeting with a gift – a discount or other tempting offer for their holiday. Personal attitude and attention are always a winning strategy.
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Analyze the results
They will clearly show you what works for you and your business and what type of messages are a waste of time and money. By analyzing the results and making the correct conclusions, you will better plan your next campaign and make it more effective and profitable.