Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 3
CHAPTER 1 – WHAT’S EMAIL MARKETING AND WHY YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS IT . 6
WHY YOUR BUSINESS SHOULD IMPLEMENT EMAIL MARKETING ........................ 9
CHAPTER 2 – GETTING STARTED WITH EMAIL MARKETING .............................. 14
ESTABLISHING YOUR GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ............................................................... 14
BUILDING YOUR BUSINESS EMAIL LISTS ....................................................................... 15
CHOOSE THE TYPE OF CAMPAIGN YOU WANT TO SEND .................................................. 16
CREATING YOUR FIRST EMAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGN ................................................... 21
CHAPTER 3 – BUILDING YOUR MAILING LIST .................................................... 23
LEAD MAGNETS ..................................................................................................... 24
CHAPTER 4 – WRITING EMAILS THAT WILL INSPIRE YOUR AUDIENCE TO TAKE
ACTION ............................................................................................................ 29
UNDERSTANDING YOUR AUDIENCE ............................................................................. 30
PARTS OF AN EMAIL ................................................................................................ 31
KEEPING YOUR EMAILS BALANCED ............................................................................. 33
WRITING GREAT SUBJECT LINES ................................................................................. 34
BEST PRACTICES TO FOLLOW WITH YOUR EMAIL ............................................................ 35
CHAPTER 5 – MEASURING RESULTS AND OPTIMIZING YOUR STRATEGY ........... 39
DELIVERY RATE AND BOUNCE RATES ........................................................................... 40
DEFINING YOUR GOALS ............................................................................................ 43
CONTINUOUS OPTIMIZATION .................................................................................... 44
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 45
Introduction
 |
Email marketing
for businesses isn’t a new concept. In fact, compared to other online marketing
channels like social media, mobile device applications, and even search
engines, email marketing might seem a bit outdated.
A lot has been
happening over the past few years with email marketing, and the discipline is
still always in motion. Altered behaviors and expectations by consumers call
for new email marketing methods. Approaches like personalization and
segmentation are transforming company newsletters from anonymous bulk emails
into customized emails.
Today, most
consumers read their emails on their mobile devices, and checking for emails
has become the most common activity carried out by smartphone users. The
competition for attention in consumers email inboxes is forcing more companies
to attach increasing importance to well-designed emails which are personalized
and have relevant content, ensuring that the emails will be opened and read.
Statistics show
that email marketing has a broad reach, as well as being one of the best
marketing tactics for return on investment.
Just about
everyone has an email address these days, and the majority of users prefer to
receive advertising messages that way.
Plus, with
smartphones, emails are always right in the pocket of consumers and can be
retrieved at any time. According to recent estimates, the importance of email
marketing will continue to grow over the next few years. It’s clear that any
online marketing strategy your company employs should include email marketing
campaigns.
Email marketing
requires more than just sending out the occasional newsletter. Today, marketers
also need to set up and maintain subscriber lists, create and design relevant
emails, and send these out systematically.
For your email
marketing strategy to be effective and successful, it is imperative that you
utilize the technical options available
continuously
optimize the process through the use of modern analytical tools.
Despite the
widespread use of the digital juggernaut that is email, many entrepreneurs have
yet to implement an effective email marketing strategy for their business
because they don't know how to do it or haven't yet recognized how powerful it
can be.
Email continues
to serve as the core communication platform of the Internet and will only
continue to grow. Currently, more than
3.7 billion
people have access to email, and more than 3 billion non-spam emails are sent
and received every hour of every day.
If your business
isn’t already taking advantage of this powerful and massive marketing channel,
you're missing out on an effective way to reach your target audience.
Chapter 1 –
What’s Email Marketing and Why Your Business Needs It
Email marketing
is a kind of Internet marketing that allows the user to send customized
messages in the form of an email to their readers to inform, advertising, or to
solicit certain actions from their readers.
There are
certain essential components of email marketing that include:
·
Message automation
· HTML responsive layout
· Advance list maintenance
· CAN-SPAM compliance built-in
·
An easy integration
· A dedicated IP address
· Help for deliverability
Message Automation
The message
automation is the feature of email marketing that allows you to send different
emails in response to a particular action. If a consumer just signed up for a
discount, they will receive an automatic welcome message that will serve as a
confirmation of the subscription. Message automation can also be set up to send
proof of orders when someone makes a purchase on your website.
HTML Responsive Layout
The HTML
Responsive layout will allow you to send customized emails in plain text or
HTML format. It also allows you to make use of HTML and CSS to create
responsive templates that can adapt to all devices in the world.
This makes email
marketing campaigns capable of being read on mobile devices. The good part is
that you don’t have to learn how to code HTML because this feature is
automatically loaded with the software.
Advanced List Maintenance
This feature
allows you to add and remove email subscribers from your list quickly. You can
use this feature to automate subscription and opt-outs. It helps you keep your
email lists updated.
CAN-SPAM Compliance
This is a
feature that is designed to check compliance with the unsolicited pornography
and marketing, CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. This act has given the United States
Federal Trade Commission the right to enforce all necessary standards to
protect email owners from unsolicited contents like pornography.
Easy Integration Feature
This feature
allows for the integration of other services into your email marketing
campaign. You can incorporate your e-commerce website with your email campaigns
through this feature, and you can also include several mobile apps, loyalty
programs, and social media apps to your email marketing campaign.
You can connect
Google analytics to your email campaign through Easy Integration feature so you
can track the clicks on your email, as well as incorporating product
recommendation features into the email, through the use of this feature.
Dedicated IP Address
A dedicated IP
address is incredibly essential for the integrity of your email. This IP
address should be one that is solely dedicated to your business, and it should
be the only one used to send emails to potential customers. Your email
recipients will have peace of mind when they receive your emails with this
dedicated IP address.
Deliverability
Deliverability
is a feature that is included in an email marketing software that ensures that
your emails are delivered to the right place. If your emails aren't delivered,
then your marketing strategy just won't work. This features constantly deploys
the tools that you need to track down deliverability issues with your emails.
Why
Your Business Should Implement Email Marketing
Email provides
you with the opportunity to send a message to your audience for any purpose on
any day of the year that costs you next to nothing. This makes email an
incredibly powerful way to communicate with your target audience.
When you are
able to create a solid email marketing campaign and send the right messages to
the right people at the right time,
you are sure to
build an audience of highly engaged fans that can't wait for your next message
to hit their inboxes. Additionally, they are ready to buy whenever you have a
product or service to promote. There are several compelling reasons why you
need to start implementing email marketing for your business.
Generates Massive ROI
A recent study
conducted by the Direct Marketing Association found that businesses will earn
an average of $43.00 for every dollar invested in email marketing.
In fact,
marketers have consistently ranked email marketing as the single most effective
strategy for generating awareness, acquiring leads, generating sales, and
improving customer retention, compared to the other marketing strategies most
commonly employed.
Generates Long-Term Results
In 2010, the
company MarketBeat first started collecting opt-ins for their newsletters.
Almost two decades later a good number of subscribers that signed up during the
first year continue to read their content, engage with their advertisers, and
buy products and services from their business.
Your email list
is a long-term asset that will continue to generate revenue and social capital
for your business well into the future.
Most Customers Want Email from Companies
MarketingSherpa
conducted a study that showed that 72 percent of U.S. consumers say that email
is their favorite way to communicate with the companies that they do business
with.
They also
discovered that 61 percent of consumers like to receive weekly promotional
emails from their favorite brands, while 28 percent of consumers would like to
receive promotional emails more frequently.
Additionally, 70
percent of consumers say they will always open email from their favorite
companies, and 95 percent of people who opted in to receive an email from
brands say that the marketing emails they receive are incredibly useful.
Outperforms Social Media Marketing
A recent study
found that businesses are more than 40 times likely to create a new customer
from email marketing than they are through social media. When it comes to email
marketing, many marketers feel that it delivers a better return on investment
than social media marketing.
Email is Universal
Almost 87
percent of the U.S. population has access to the Internet in their home, and 95
percent of consumers use email. With email marketing, you don't have to worry
whether or not your target audience has an email address or not, unlike social
media.
It’s a Resilient Technology
Email has
existed in its current format since the early 1980s, a full 15 years before
most homes had a personal computer and Internet access, and 25 years before the
first iPhone was released. Despite the world's massive amount of technological
progress and the proliferation of smartphones, personal computers, and tablets,
the technical specifications for email have only been updated a handful of
times.
While other
communication technologies have come and gone, email continues to withstand the
test of time. When your business invests in email marketing, you know that a
bigger and better thing won't replace it in the next couple of years.
Email Marketing Is Federated
When you build
an audience on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram, you are at the mercy of
companies whose best interests aren't aligned with yours.
You can put a
lot of time, energy, and money into building an audience on one of these
platforms only to have that platform change the rules in a way that kills the
profitability of your campaign. That will never be the case with email because
no one company has control of the technical specifications for email or control
over the technology infrastructure that allows email to be delivered to the
world's six billion inboxes.
Email marketing
will continue to be one of the most effective and most resilient marketing
strategies for both brick-and-mortar companies and digital businesses. It is
hard to match the potential ROI offered by email marketing, and you can rest
assured that your efforts will continue to generate revenue well into the
future.
Chapter 2 – Getting Started with Email Marketing
When it comes to
starting an email marketing campaign, there are specific steps that you should
follow if you want to be successful.
You need to
establish clear goals and objectives, build your business email lists, choose
the type of email campaign that you want to send, create and design your first
email campaign and measure your mail campaign results.
Establishing Your Goals and Objectives
Like with any
marketing strategy, you need to develop clear goals and understand your
objectives before you dive in head first.
Before you sign
up for an email marketing tool, you have to clearly set out what it is you want
to achieve with the emails that you want to send to your target audience. You
want to make sure that your email marketing campaign aligns with your broader
business goals and objectives.
For instance,
your business goals might be to attract new leads to sign up for your branded
products and services, or perhaps to get more attendees to attend your company
events, or maybe you are looking to get more donations for a specific cause.
Whatever your overall business goals are, you have to make sure you take the
time to think about how you are going to use your email marketing campaign to
reach those goals.
Building Your Business
Email Lists
After you've
established your email marketing campaign goals and objectives, you can start
to create your email lists so you can start sending out your email marketing
campaigns. There are several ways that you can go about building your email
lists. The first option is by importing emails from known contacts.
These are
typically the details that you have on your existing customers that you can
import into your email marketing tool. You can either manually enter these
addresses into your email marketing software, or you can link your email
marketing tool to your email account to automatically extract the information.
Another option
that you may want to consider is to build an entirely new list of emails from
scratch. If you don't have any new contacts currently, you might want to head
over to social media to try and entice people from your network to subscribe to
your email list by providing them with special discounts or freebies.
You can also
utilize your company's website for this as well. You need to make sure that you
write compelling content that will get your audience to take action, as well as
offering an exclusive first order discount or a freebie for those people who
submit their emails from your website or social media network.
Choose the Type of Campaign You Want to Send
You can maximize
the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign by following the ten most
common and popular formats of emails. These formats have been tested for years
and are practiced by top businesses people and established companies.
Each format is
unique and has a distinctive purpose, which attracts the interest of different
kinds of audiences. Whichever format you choose, each will generate its own
kind of reaction.
Newsletters
Newsletters are
used for company information, upcoming events, etc. The typical format consists
of two columns: one narrow
column with a
table of contents, logos, sponsors, and feature articles and another wider
column with stories and original communication articles and materials.
If there is more
than one article, then it's better to use section breaks to make it look smart
and eye-catching. You can even put a Read More or Learn More button at the end
of each article for detailed information for readers who are interested to know
more.
Events and Invitations
This type of
email is time sensitive, so you have to be aware of the perfect timing. There
should be a buffer of at least a month after an event/invitation email is sent
so that your subscribers can decide and make time to prepare.
Every
event/invitation email must contain call-to-action buttons, such as a Save to
Calendar button, Register for Event button, which will redirect them to another
site consisting of forms and Post-Event Feedback Survey Form button for your
company’s convenience.
You can also
send your audience event details after the event date to all those subscribers
who showed interest in the event email, both the attendees and the
non-attendees. You may have to send dozens of emails before, during and after
the event, so keep your emails short and to the point.
Promotions
This format is
used for promotional discounts and special sales of your products and services.
You can highlight Limited Edition or Stock Limited products in these emails and
get a quick response from your customers. You can also put a call-to-action
button like Book Now or Order Now if you are an e-Commerce store.
Setting a
deadline on the offer in the email gives the customers that extra push to use
the offer right on the spot. Your email marketing campaign will be highly
successful if you can make your customers buy products directly from the
promotional email.
Press Releases
If you want to
share any company information, like the latest business partnerships, new CEO,
or new product launches to the local media, then you have to follow the press
release format of the email. For this kind of email only, you should make a
separate email list where there are just a few addresses for the local media
outlets.
Press release
emails are different than other formats because others will use it as a
reference when they show this information on TV or in the newspaper. Magazines
and news portals will write an article based on the information that is
contained in your press release, so you need to make sure that it is full of
valuable
information and that it is share-worthy. There are four sections in a
press release: the headline, the body, any statement or quote, and an “about”
section.
Announcements
This is similar
to a press release, but the audience you will send these emails to is entirely
different. Mainly the customers and those who are interested in your company's
latest updates are the ones that should get announcement emails.
Announcements could
be moving into a new location, product updates, or upcoming product launch
information. Only facts and specific information are put in announcements
emails, so there is no need for any call-to-action button.
Holiday Greetings
You can design
and use special email templates during the holidays, such as one for Halloween,
Christmas, or New Year's. Nowadays you can use special HTML or GIF images to
make your greeting cards more interesting.
Currently, many
ESPs allow you to track customer's birthdays so you can even send them a
birthday wish email on their special day. This can help to boost your image and
prove that you care about your customers.
Welcome Note
You can set an
automated system to send a welcome email to new customers that have recently
registered and subscribed to your email service. With a simple “Hello X!
Welcome to Y” message you can create a friendly atmosphere with your new
customers.
Thank You Email
When you reach a
certain level and have hundreds of loyal customers that are buying your
products and using your services for years, it's important to show them
appreciation. Every year or even twice a year, you should send out thank you
emails to your loyal customers.
Most of the time, companies send thank you emails on the day when the
company itself was founded. It shows you appreciate your customers and it
allows them to feel a deeper connection with your brand.
Notification/Reminder Emails
These kinds of
emails remind subscribers about any renewal notifications or service reminder
notifications. These kinds of emails typically don’t require a call-to-action
button to be placed in the body of the email.
Certifications and Confirmation Emails
You would
typically only send this type of email for verification of certain agreement
forms and certifications, which require step-by- step tasks. You must make
these steps as easy as possible by including several call-to-action buttons.
The “I have read the terms and conditions and agree” type of email falls under
this category.
Creating Your First Email Marketing Campaign
The first step that you must take when you create your first email
marketing campaign is to structure it for easy reading. With adult attention
spans getting shorter and shorter, it is essential that you create emails that
are easy for the average adult to get through.
You want to create precise copy for the sole purpose of driving your
audience toward the final call-to-action.
Next, you are
going to want to customize your email campaign. You can utilize a segmented
list or even the third-party integration that comes with most email marketing
programs to personalize your campaign.
To encourage
more interaction with your campaign customization, you want to make sure that
you add the individual name on the subject line to attract the reader's
attention, and then create copy that includes relevant information based on
their interests.
You want to make
sure that you are using all of the data the subscriber provides when the sign
up to determine the kind of content you want to send them.
You also need to
make sure that your email campaign makes it extremely easy to convert the
reader to a new lead or customers. You need to ensure that your email campaign
is easy to read since more than 40 percent of readers open their emails on a
mobile device. This means it's essential that your email campaign is compatible
with mobile devices.
Chapter 3 – Building
Your Mailing List
If you want to
develop a successful email marketing campaign, you will need to develop a
consistent strategy for building and growing your email list. One of the
foundational elements of any list-building initiative should be collecting
email sign-ups on your website.
People who are
interested in your business are probably already visiting your site often.
That's why you should be using your website as one of the primary ways to
gather email sign-ups.
Lead Magnets
In exchange for
signing up for your email list, you need to offer your subscribers something of
value. This can be a resource list, a discount coupon, or a free report. In the
world of email marketing, this is known as a lead magnet.
Many website
visitors are hesitant to enter their email address into an opt-in form on a
website because of the perceived risk of receiving more unwanted spam email.
However, if you develop a compelling and valuable offer so that potential
subscribers will desire your lead magnet enough to outweigh any possible fear
of receiving more unwanted email.
Your subscribers know that their
email address is valuable to you, and you need to offer them something of equal
value in return.
A good lead magnet will help your website visitors learn a specific
skill, accomplish a particular task, or solve a specific problem. The lead
magnet on any given page of your website should be directly related to the
content on that page.
While you may be required to create multiple lead magnets for different
parts of your site over time, the additional work will be well worth it when
you significantly improve your opt-in rates.
Here are a few
common varieties of lead magnets that you can include to help build and grow
your email list.
Free Report or Guide
These are the
most common kinds of lead magnet that are used to gain new email subscribers.
The report or guide that you offer should help your audience learn about
something they are interested in or help them accomplish a specific goal.
For example, if
you had a website about marketing, you might offer a free guide that helps your
audience create their first Facebook ad campaign. The content of your free
report should not otherwise be available on your website.
Resource List
A resource list
is merely a list of products, services, tools, and worksheets that will help
your subscribers get started more quickly with what you want to teach them. If
you have a personal finance blog, you might provide new subscribers with a list
of software budgeting tools and resources to help them keep track of their
debt, ensure they have the right kinds of insurance, and determine whether they
are saving enough for retirement.
Free Trial
If you run a
software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, you might think about offering new
subscribers a 14- or 30-day trial of your service as a lead magnet. Offering a
free trial will get users engaged in your SaaS application and give you the
opportunity to send them marketing content via email.
Downloadable Software
If your company
produces any kind of software that can be downloaded, you might think about
requiring users to enter their email address in order to download the software.
Discounts or Free Shipping
Often,
e-Commerce stores will offer a one-time coupon for use on their first order
with your company. While providing a discount to new customers might lower the
total price of a customer's first order, it will significantly increase the
probability that they will become a customer in the first place, because they
will be receiving an email about your company's products and services.
Physical Products
If having a
physical mailing address for your subscribers is essential, then you can offer
an inexpensive-to-produce physical product as your lead magnet. Small tools
like flashlights,
screwdrivers,
and knives are often used as physical product lead magnets. In order to make up
the cost of producing and mailing a physical product, you can also charge a
small shipping and handling fee that will generally pay for both the product
and the shipping.
If you aren't
sure what lead magnet will work best for your website, there are a large number
of resources that are available online that offer specific ideas for lead
magnets. You can do a Google search for "lead magnet ideas" that will
return dozens of pages of articles that contain ideas for lead magnets that you
can model. You can also check out your competitor’s websites to see what kinds
of lead magnets they may be offering.
Messaging and Copy
After you've
determined the lead magnet that you are going to use, you will need to identify
the kind of message you are going to use to get your potential subscribers to
sign up for your mailing list.
The language
that you use on your opt-in forms will have a significant impact on the number
of email signups you receive. By creating a compelling and relevant offer, and
using strong language with clear calls-to-action, your opt-in rates will be
much higher.
While other
list-building strategies might require an upfront cash investment, subscribers
that opt-in through your website are effectively free. If you spend sufficient
time writing compelling copy, creating a highly-desirable lead magnet, and
implementing an opt-in form plugin, your mailing list will steadily grow over
time.
Chapter 4 – Writing Emails That Will Inspire Your Audience to Take Action
Undoubtedly,
you've written thousands of emails in your life. You probably regularly send
and receive emails from your family, friends, coworkers, and even strangers on
a regular basis. While writing an email to any one person is a straightforward
proposition, sending an email to a large group of people requires an entirely
different set of skills.
You need to be
able to craft a message that not only attracts the attention of a diverse
audience, but also clearly communicates a single object and inspires the
readers to take the desired action, and it all must be done without the use of
audio, video, images, and other dynamic content. You also have to figure out
how to
deal with the technical peculiarities of email, avoid spam filters, and
maintain compliance with anti-spam laws. Writing effective emails is both a
science and an art.
Understanding Your
Audience
You have to
understand who your audience is if you want to write to them effectively. You
need to know how old your typical subscribers are, what they do for a living,
their gender if they are married, and a ton of other demographics. If you don't
know these things, then you should conduct a survey and ask people to share
their information with you so that you have a better idea of who makes up your
email list.
It is highly
recommended that you create a fictional character that epitomizes your typical
customer. This is known as an avatar. By creating an avatar, you will have a
better idea of who you are marketing to, and it will allow you to get inside
the minds of your subscribers.
When you write an email to your mailing list, write as if you are sending a personal message to your
avatar. Ask yourself what your avatar would like to hear in order to take
action based on your email.
When you write
to your avatar and use a lot of "you" language, your subscribers will
subconsciously think that you email was
explicitly
written to them and they will be more likely to engage with the message. You
need to keep the focus on your subscribers as much as possible, making sure to
make your emails about them, and not about you.
Parts of an Email
When you are
getting ready to put together an email, it is easy to think that the only thing
that you have to worry about is writing the message body. However, there are
several different components of every message that you send to your list.
If you want your
email marketing campaign to be successful, then you need to put as much thought
and effort into the other parts of your email as you do the main message body.
Here are the components of an email that are key.
Subject Line
This is the subject of your message. It is the first thing that your
subscribers will see, and it is what will determine whether or not they open
your message.
Preheader
The preheader is
the preview text that is included after the subject line in some email services
like Gmail. It can serve as a second
subject line
that should further encourage the reader to open your email. If you don’t
intentionally add a preheader, most email services will use the first sentence
or two of your email as a preheader.
“From” Name
This is the name
of the person who is sending the email. You want to use your personal name
rather than the name of your company because most email users are more likely
to open an email from an actual person.
Message Body
This is the main
text of your email. It will contain the message that you want to convey to your
subscribers.
Call-to-Action
This will be a
hyperlink situated at the bottom of your message body that will persuade
readers to take a specific action, such as clicking on the hyperlink.
Signature
You want to keep
your email signature simple. Long email signatures can be a distraction to the
main content of your email.
The best
signature is your personal name on the first line and the name of your company
on the following line.
Postscript
You may want to
consider periodically using a ”P.S.” below your email signature to serve as a
secondary sales tool after your primary email.
Footer
The footer will
typically contain an unsubscribe link and other
information that you need to include to stay compliant with anti- spam laws.
This might include your mailing address and the name of your company. The
footer will likely be the same for every email that you send out.
Keeping Your Emails Balanced
While you will
send your audience emails for a variety of reasons, you need to maintain a
healthy balance between sending emails that provide value to your audience and
email that take value away.
Emails that contain information that is helpful to your audience, at no
cost to them, such as educational content, tips, resources, and training
videos, provide value to your audience. Emails that ask
your audience to
purchase a product or take action that benefits you more than them will take
value from your audience.
You should
consider sending at least two value-added emails to your audience, for every
one email that takes it from them. Ideally, you will provide so much value to
your audience that they respond to your sales and marketing emails out of sheer
gratitude for the value you have already provided.
Writing Great Subject Lines
The most
important words that you will write as part of your email marketing strategy is
your subject lines. If you write a subject line that is uninspired and doesn't
grab the attention of your subscribers, they probably won't open your message.
According to a
recent report, 64 percent of people say that they will choose to open an email
because of the subject line. If you write a compelling subject line, you are
guaranteed to receive higher open rates, which will lead to more click-throughs
and more sales.
A well-written
subject line can often receive double the open rates of a poorly-written one,
which will, in turn, double your click- through rates and double the sales
generated by the email.
There are also a
number of techniques that you can use to modify subject lines to emphasize
words and to make unsaid promises about the content of your message.
If you are going
to use any of these various techniques, it is essential that you switch them up
from email to email and don't use any one of the methods more than twice each
month.
Subscribers will
notice these patterns if you use them too often and will render them
ineffective.
Best Practices to Follow with Your Email
When you are
creating an email, there are several best practices that you should follow in
order to obtain the best results.
Don’t Rely on Images
Approximately
10-30 percent of your readers will never click "enable images" on
your emails. This means that you should never rely on images to convey critical
points in your copy. If you do decide to use pictures, make sure that you use
clear and descriptive ALT text. You can use CSS styling to make your ALT text
larger and more visible to subscribers that don't enable images.
Avoid Grammar and Spelling Errors
A huge turn off
for many email subscribers is poor grammar, capitalization, and spelling
errors. If you want to speak with expert authority to your audience, then you
need to do so with clear and proper writing.
No one will
believe you are an authority on anything if you can't write a complete, grammar
and spelling free sentence. Make sure you double-check every email you write
for errors or consider having someone else check your email before you send it
out.
Include Multiple Hyperlinks
If you have a
specific link that you want your readers to click on, then you need to add a
total of three hyperlinks to every email. Be sure to hyperlink your main
call-to-action at the bottom of your message, as well as just above your email
signature.
You also want to
add hyperlinks to a few relevant words in the first paragraph of your email to
direct readers to the page on your site that you want them to visit. Finally,
you need to include a second call-to-action below your email signature and in
any postscript that you add in the emails.
Avoid Design-Heavy Emails
Subscribers are
more likely to read emails that come from a person rather than a faceless
company. While companies frequently use templates in their email, people rarely
do. You want to try to avoid using design-heavy templates so that your emails appear more personal.
Only Use One Call-to-Action Per Email
You don't want
to try to get your subscribers to do multiple things in any single email. Each email
that you send out to your list should have a sole purpose and a single
call-to-action that you want them to take. Readers will be less likely to
respond if they have to consider which, if any, of your calls-to-action they
wish to take.
Have a Clear Unsubscribe Link
Don't try to
high or obscure your unsubscribe link. Have a clear unsubscribe link in an
average font size. If you decide to obscure your unsubscribe link, your
subscribers may report your message as spam, which puts you in jeopardy with
your email service provider if your account receives too many spam complaints.
Copywriting is a
skill that will take some time to master. For the first several months, the
emails that you send won't be perfect, and that's okay. Over time your
copywriting skills will improve, and you'll eventually become a great
copywriter whose emails get results.
Chapter
5 – Measuring Results and Optimizing Your Strategy
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In order to
determine whether or not your email marketing campaigns are working, you need
to analyze the data from your campaigns. The marketing measures, when all is
said and done, always serve to achieve a pre-defined goal, and whether or not you've
achieved that goal can only be determined by using the proper KPIs (key
performance indicators).
The results that
you obtain can also help you to decide whether you can expand your budget for
your email marketing strategy.
Also, data
analysis is an essential part of being able to optimize your email marketing
campaign continually. The only way that you'll be able to gauge the success of
your email marketing campaign at all is if you examine and analyze the most
critical measurements on a regular basis.
Delivery Rate and Bounce Rates
Among other
measurements, email marketing tools will measure the delivery rate, as well as
the bounce rate of your emails. These two measurements are mutually
complementary and depend on various factors such as technical conditions and
sender reputation.
The bounce rate
of your emails should always be less than one percent if you want to have a
successful campaign. If your bounce rates are higher than this, then you'll
need to do some maintenance on your list, and determine which email addresses
are no longer valid and remove them from the email list.
Open Rate
The refers to
the percentage of subscribers who open the emails you send to them. This figure
can be based either on the total number of emails opened, or the number of
recipients who opened the email. The latter number is more meaningful and is
known as a "unique open rate."
Click Rate
The click rate
represents the ratio between the recipients who click on at least one link in
an email and the number of emails sent out. You can use this measurement to
determine whether your email copy and call-to-actions are compelling enough to
get users to take action. This is the most crucial measurement for you to keep
track of in your email marketing campaign.
Click-to-Open Rate
This measurement
is the ratio of the number of unique clicks to the number of unique opens. The
reference value, in this case, is not based on the total number of recipients,
but rather the number of recipients who opened the email.
If your
click-to-open rates (CTOR) are low, it could mean that the content of the email
isn’t fulfilling the expectations raised by its subject line. This means that a
large number of your subscribers opened the email, but found the content of the
email to be uninteresting and didn’t click on any of the links.
Conversion Rate
The conversion
rate is the percentage of recipients that executed the desired action at the
end of the process. This could be anything from purchasing a product,
downloading an e-book, or
registering for
a webinar. You can use this measurement to determine the final success of your
email marketing campaign.
Unsubscribe Rate
It is quite
reasonable with email subscribers to unsubscribe to an email list because they
don't want to get news from the company anymore. The unsubscribe rate describes
the ratio of unsubscribes to the total number of emails delivered.
You can typically expect to
have an unsubscribe rate of about
0.25 to 0.50
percent for each mailing. As stated previously, it is essential that you
include a clearly visible unsubscribe link in every email and to implement an
unsubscribe process that is clean and simple.
Email List Growth Rate
The email list
growth rate indicates the net increase in the number of email subscribers
within a given period. This value is accordingly negative in cases when a
mailing list shrinks.
Spam Complaint Rate
This measurement
shows how many delivered emails were marked as spam. Your spam complaint rate
shouldn’t go higher than 0.3 percent. Anything higher than that and you can
expect
email providers
to institute penalties when you try to deliver future emails.
Return on Investment
Your return on
investment (ROI), is the financial ratio that is used to measure the return of
an entrepreneurial strategy. This measurement compares the profit to the
invested capital. When used in email marketing, the term refers to the ratio of
the costs required for an email marketing measure to the revenue generated by
it.
Defining Your Goals
Before you send
out your first emails and start analyzing the results, you need to determine
the goals of your email marketing and what you are going to measure. You can
set goals like gaining new customers, increasing revenue, or raising brand
awareness, or it can be a combination of goals. In order for you to define
concrete goals, you are also going to need to establish the appropriate KPIs.
Measurements
like click rate, conversion rate, and email list growth rate should always be
on your list of metrics to analyze. However, you also need to specify and track
the correct KPIs depending on the goals you want to accomplish. For example, if
your goal is to gain more subscribers, then you need to focus on
the email growth
rate, as well as the subscribe/unsubscribe rates. If your number one goal is to
increase revenue, then you need to focus on conversion rate.
Continuous Optimization
Analyzing the
data associated with your email marketing campaigns is a never-ending process.
They should be used to uncover potential areas for improvement in your email
marketing campaigns and should immediately flow into planning for your
subsequent campaigns.
You will need to
compare the measurement results that are achieved by your different email
campaigns to get a better sense of what did and didn't work.
As you optimize
your email marketing campaign, try different subject lines, sending the emails
at different times, placing different call-to-action buttons, and so on, until
you find a formula that works. If you discover that specific measurements
results aren't satisfactory, then you need to do some digging to find out the
cause so you can further optimize your emails to obtain the desired results.
Conclusion
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When you are
getting started with email marketing, you have to pay special attention to your
audience. Since each of your subscribers will have different needs and
interests, it is essential that you analyze your data and effectively create a
variety of different strategies that you can implement to influence your
audience to purchase what you have to offer.
Make sure that
you are providing your readers with exciting, dynamic and relevant content to
keep your audience happy to receive your messages.
Remember email
marketing is an ongoing process to try not to get too frustrated if you don't
see immediate results. Your subscribers
are
knowledgeable, and you will have to work hard to provide them with valuable
information and make the connection before you can influence them to make a
purchase.
If you make the
commitment to implement great business practices, and the more you deliver on
your promises, the more your subscribers will trust you, this is the best time
to implement email marketing into your overall marketing strategy because
information is readily available, and you have many ways to obtain new
subscribers and further promote your business.
Taking the time
to implement the strategies in this book will help you become a notable email
marketer.