Email Marketing Do’s and Don’ts
The days of sending letters using traditional posts have long come to end. Any marketer or business owner worth their salt knows that email marketing is the quickest way to reach people today. Emails can be received and read from any computer, or mobile anywhere in the world, so long as the user has an internet connection. An email can be integrated with emailing marketing tools such as Hubspot, SharpSpring, Drip, Get Response, and MailChimp.
Quick facts:
● Most people today are more likely to open their email than a letter sent via the post office.
● There are 3.9 billion people who are using email today, and that number is expected to jump to 4.3 billion by 2023.
● Email is still one of the cost-effective ways to promote a brand.
● Companies are expected to use emails for the next 100 years to send newsletters, welcome emails to new customers, re-engagement emails to customers who previously showed interest.
Some benefits to using emails you shouldn’t ignore
The advantages of using email to market your business outweigh the disadvantages. One of the benefits of using email includes allowing you to target people, generating new leads, acquiring new customers, and retaining customers.
For instance, if a potential or existing customer has subscribed to your newsletter, you can always target them with emails that will appeal to them.
In order to yield the best results in your email campaigns, there are several things that you should get right. They include using email to guide customers through a buyer’s journey:
What is a buyer’s journey?
Well, a buyer’s journey is a typical journey most customers go through before they make a final decision to buy your product or service. Every buyer typically goes through the following journeys before they make a purchase: awareness, consideration, and decision. You can utilize email marketing to drive them through that journey.
No matter what the size of your business, or the industry that you are in, your email marketing should be divided into the following email marketing series:
● Welcome Series – These are emails that you’ll be sending people who have either signed up to use your service, buy your product, or just subscribed to your newsletter. In this email you can first thank them, then tell them what the next steps would be. Always make sure that you leave your contacts and encourage them to reach out to you.
● Nurture Series – This series of emails for people who have shown interest, and for whatever reason, decided to abandon their registration. So, this email would serve as a reminder to them. Again, make sure to leave your contact details so that they can easily contact you should they encounter trouble completing their registration.
● Abandoned Cart If you run an online store, you’ll be sending this email to remind potential buyers about products they have picked a few days ago. This email doesn’t have to be pushy, all it needs to do is nudge the potential buyer to revisit the online store, checkout, and then make the payment. You can add a link to your online store to this email.
● Re-Engagement Series – this campaign is suitable for people who have previously bought your products or services.
The Dos:
In order for your email campaign to be a runaway success, there are certain things that you should get right.
Let’s dive in.
1. Determine your marketing goals first
The very first thing you should do before sending out bulk emails is determining your email marketing goal. What are you trying to achieve with your email campaign, is it generating leads, brand awareness, an invitation to a webinar, or just a promotion campaign? How many leads do expect to generate, and so on. Once you decide this, it will be fairly easy for you to craft a message that hits the mark.
2. Observe the CAN-Spam Act
This one goes without saying. If you are one of those business owners who collect emails on LinkedIn then sends emails without asking permission from the user, be careful. While it’s legal to send spam emails, there are instances when you could be penalized for it.
The CAN-SPAM Act, enacted in 2003, gives recipients the right to stop you from emailing them, if you persist you might be penalized for spamming them. You can pay up to $43,792 in penalties.
3. Categorize your email recipients before launching your campaign
Before launching any email marketing campaign it’s crucial to spend some time organizing your list. If you have all your recipients’ contact details stored on a spreadsheet, go through that list and check the following: the recipient’s contact details, did they request to be unsubscribed, make sure that you unsubscribe them immediately.
Are there any duplicates? If you find any, remove them. Remember, some people use more than one email address, so you don’t want to send the same campaign to them many times.
4. Have a strategy in place
Come up with a strategic plan that will be guiding you from start to finish and stick to it. In your plan, detail the number of words each campaign should use, the kind of visual content such as images that will be included, who are you going to target with your campaign, your expected open rate, clickthrough rate, and so on.
Also, each email campaign should have a killer headline. The number one reason why people don’t open their emails is a vague headline. Your headline should be captivating enough for people to want to open your emails.
While writing killer headlines is not easy, with practice, you can soon know how to write great headlines. Just invest the time to research headlines, and you’ll be on that will make an impact. You can do this by OB testing several headlines and choosing only those that are performing well.
5. Write an engaging copy
Another thing that you should do is writing an engaging copy for your emails. The core message of each email campaign should be clear, concise, and relevant. Every well-written email copy should contain the following: a salutation, an introduction, body, a clear call-to-action, and a signature. To ensure that your campaigns yield great results, write several copies and then only use the best one. Also, it is advisable to have someone proofread your email copy before launching your email campaign.
The Don’ts
Avoid making the following mistakes and your email campaign will be a success.
1. Avoid addressing recipients by their second name
Using a salutation such as Dear Mr. Smith, Good Morning Mrs. Johnson, sounds too formal, and would only make someone want to delete your email. Start your email with a professional or friendly salutation such as Hi John, or Hello Sarah. While some marketers have adopted using informal salutations such as Hey Peter, stick to hi or hello.
Just make sure all names are not misspelled as this mistake may put off many people from reading your email further. There are email campaign tools that allow you to use the recipient’s first name.
2. Don’t send your bulk email without adding a clear call-to-action
Never make the mistake of hitting the send button without establishing if your call-to-action is clear. Remember, at least 90% of visitors who read your headline are likely to read your CTA as well.
There are different call-to-actions that you can explore. They include Buy now, Save today, Shop birthday gifts, Register now, and many others.
3. Don’t forget to use your company logo
Sometimes what makes people want to subscribe to your emails is not just the quality of your content, but your brand identity as well. Because they trust your brand, they may be willing to forward your emails to friends and colleagues. Adding a company logo to the content of your email gives your campaign an identity. Your logo will also play a huge role in setting your email campaign apart from your competitors.
4. Avoid sending a long email copy
While some experts believe long emails make you look busy, most people tend to postpone longer emails. If you are sending a long blog post, instead of sending it in the body of your email, you might want to format the content, then add a link where recipients can click in order to open it.
5. Don’t bombard your recipients with too many emails
Never make the mistake of sending your recipients too many emails, or else you risk losing subscribers, or even being marked as spam. Many people may unsubscribe.
Lastly, always make it easy for people to unsubscribe. Each and every email campaign that you launch should have a clear unsubscribe button at the bottom of your email so recipients can easily opt-out if they no longer want to receive your emails.
Need help with your email marketing campaign? Contact Big Hit Creative today!
