Running an email marketing campaign in 2018 is still a viable marketing strategy. While social media marketing, influencer marketing, and video marketing seem to be taking center stage, don’t get distracted by the flashy new trends. Email marketing has quietly been responsible for convincing people to spend 138 percent more than the average customer.
So, if you want to take advantage of the power of email marketing, nurture those leads, and turn your business ideas into profitable ventures, take a look at these four key components to building and executing an effective email marketing campaign.
- Start With Goals
Before you ever type out a single word, you need to begin by establishing what your intent is with this email marketing campaign. At this point, some of you might be saying, “I want to increase conversions” or “I want to increase engagement.” While I can certainly appreciate where you’re coming from, those vague goals aren’t going to do much for you from a marketing strategy perspective.
Your email marketing strategy is unique from your social media marketing strategy because it relies so heavily on your ability to collect and properly interpret the data you collect. So, instead of trying to rely on those vague goals, focus on crafting realistic, specific goals that can inform your decision-making process.
Change ‘increased conversions’ to “increasing the conversion rate of product Z by five percent in the next three months.” Turn increased engagement into “increasing your Twitter follower count by 500 in the next month.” These not only help you appreciate when you’ve successfully executed your marketing campaign, but they also give you a chance to recognize when your strategy isn’t working and improve upon it.
- Tone And Value
The reality of implementing an email marketing campaign is that you need to be sure that the quality and tone of your emails are both consistent and appropriate. When it comes to creating a brand voice, you need to start by developing a deep understanding of your consumers and make sure that you truly know the needs of your audience.
Just like when it comes to goals, you’re going to have to focus on the specifics. What’s the average level of education for your audience? What communities do they frequent? When it comes to your competitors, which pieces of content do they resonate the most with? From there, you’re able to start determining your actual brand tone. If your audience has a high level of education and responds to complex case studies and ebooks, you can afford to be a bit more in-depth with your emails and have a more professional brand voice.
If your audience has the typical level of education and seems interested in actionable videos, then find a way to incorporate visual elements into your content and keep your brand voice more personal. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re looking to create a truly impactful email marketing strategy, you’ll need to make sure it offers plenty of value to your subscribers.
To be clear, when I say ‘value’ I don’t mean just letting them know you have a sale going on. The point of these emails is to offer them value at every turn. In fact, your emails should actually have more value than your blog posts and other forms of content, as a way to encourage subscribers to stick around. The value you offer needs to fit into one of two categories. Either it offers something in terms of education, or it entertains your subscribers.
While entertainment can be tricky, educational content is relatively easy to pull off, provided you’ve done your research and have a strong grasp of the audience’s pain points. If, for example, you’re selling Juul e-cigarettes through an ecommerce store, you may want to send email newsletters updating your clients about new research into vaping’s health benefits over traditional smoking.
- Start Strong
When it comes to email marketing, subject headers matter. The first few sentences of your email matter. How you start the interaction will dictate whether or not they’ll keep reading. Make no mistake; just because you’ve earned that initial subscription doesn’t mean that they’re obligated to sit there and listen to you. With every email, you’re fighting for your spot in their email, hoping to remain valuable and relevant enough to deserve their attention.
Avoid the industry jargon, keep it short and make sure it feels personal if you want subscribers to stay signed up for your email list and grow a following that rivals that of the main character in the film People You May Know.
- Address Every Aspect Of The Sales Journey
When you’re creating an email marketing strategy, it’s crucial to remember that you’re building a single email marketing stack, but each component of that stack needs to apply to subscribers in different stages of the sales journey. Some people have just signed up for your email. Others abandoned their cart a few days ago. If you want to experience success with your email marketing campaign, you need to prepare for every stage of that journey and ensure that each email feels personalized to their specific scenario.
What email marketing tips do you have for new business owners? Share your insights in the comments.