5 Strong Facts On Why You Should Have an E-mail Marketing Strategy and How to Tackle Them
Many businesses underestimate the worth of a well-kept database. No matter if it’s big or small, if you have a list of people who have agreed to receive information from your company, you have a treasure and you have to nurture it.
We give you 5 reasons why keeping an updated database is a must, and tips on how to make e-mail marketing work to grow your business.
Reason no. 1: E-mail automation and e-mail marketing is a huge deal. Statistics don’t lie: According to MarketingCloud.com, 91% of consumers check their email daily. Just that fact is enough for business owners to understand that every morning, and at least once a day, a potential customer can come in contact with a brand by just seeing its name in their inbox.
Keep in mind that the more a person recognizes a brand’s name and assets (logo, colors, slogan, etc…), it would be more likely for that person to opt for that brand when looking for such type of products or services in the future.
Take action: If you don’t have an e-mail database yet, it’s time for you to start. Many software options are available for this purpose, and your selection will depend on your business nature and company size. If you have a small business, you can benefit from using easy email management programs such as Constant Contact or Mail Chimp. They have different plans available to suit your needs.
Reason no. 2: 74% of consumers prefer to receive commercial communications via email. “E-mail is preferred over direct mail by a margin of nearly five to one adult”, the results of a whitepaper entitled “View from the Digital Inbox”, published by Merkle Inc, said in 2011. “There are relatively small differences by age, unlike the very large age differences that exist for preferred personal communication channel”.
I mean, who doesn’t think that receiving text messages from a company is beyond annoying? Everyone agrees. Mobile phones are a very personal way of communicating, thus the higher preference of keeping business on the inbox, and personal stuff on the phone.
However, even though people prefer to receive commercial emails to their inbox, 48% of them might open your email on their phones, according to Litmus. Keep in mind that “69% of mobile users delete emails that aren’t optimized for mobile”.
Action: Avoid sending more than one email campaign a week to the same list, you don’t want to overwhelm your customers. Make sure your subject line is interesting and gives a preview of what your email is about without revealing it all. Your subject line is like a movie trailer that needs to get people interested. Don’t forget to create a mobile version of your email campaigns, so that everything fits and looks good on mobile devices.
Reason no. 3: According to the Direct Marketing Association, “66% of consumers have made a purchase online as a result of an email marketing message”. This is the real deal, in the end is all about conversions and leveraging sales. Therefore this is the most powerful reason why you should take advantage of email marketing campaigns.
Action: It is highly important to be clear on your message. What do you offer? How can customers get it? Are you giving a special offer? Do they need a promo code? What are the limitations? All these things must be clear. However, since it’s better to keep your message short, it is necessary to link this information to your website in a proper way. Provide links for customers to see the complete information they need directly to the page where they can find it. If they click on your link and don’t find what they are looking for immediately on your website, you lost them. Nobody has time for an online scavenger hunt!
Test, test and test. Never send a campaign without testing it previously to see how it looks and how the links work in both, desktop and mobile. Once is sent out, there’s no way back.
Reason no. 4: An updated database increases your campaign’s effectiveness. If your customers are not getting your emails, your work is useless, you are shooting arrows to the air.
Action: Dedicate at least one hour a week to work with your email database. Are you getting auto-replies saying this email is no longer in use or email have changed? Try to call your customer and confirm that they want to continue their subscription to your list, then update their email with the new address. Delete all those you can’t reach, even if that means less contacts. You don’t need quantity but quality, and quality means good leads.
Always review the “best practices” specified by the e-mail management service you use. Here’s an article of a few things you must keep in mind.
Reason no. 5: E-mail marketing can help you increase your newsletter or website readership up to 30%. That was the case for the Digital Marketing Institute. When people provide their email voluntarily, without previous purchase, it means they are genuinely interested in your brand. Organic leads are the best because they are usually the most engaged customers and are very likely to purchase more than once.
Action: Create an easy and short subscription form. Name, address, phone and email is all you need to start. Age could be another good info to get for future targeting and segmentation. Make the access to this form easy and convenient at the front page of your website, and highlight it! Take this case as a good example.
—
Share your experience with us. Comment below and let us know how you used these tips or share your own.