What’s the very first thing you do in the morning? (After hitting snooze, of course.) Check your email, right? Everything that is most important is in our email inbox: messages from friends and colleagues, various news outlets, offers from some of our favorite vendors, and so much more. We use email to conduct the business of our everyday life. Sure we delete mail from various retailers or senders we consider to be “junk”. But let us make it crystal clear: Email marketing is not an overly-spammed strategy on the edge of extinction. In fact, email marketing is a more powerful vehicle than ever for delivering messages directly to your target audience.
Did you know that 4 billion people use email worldwide, that’s over half of the population! (Radicati) Despite shiny new platforms that keep popping up, email marketing is nearly 40 times better than Facebook and Twitter at acquiring customers. (McKinsey & Company) Ultimately, email marketing has an average return on investment (ROI) of $36 for each dollar spent. (Litmus) When you want to grow your business, acquire new customers, launch a new product, or offer a promotion, just hit send.
It’s easily targeted. You can craft messages for each type of user. No other digital technology lets you hit them at any stage of the buying funnel in this way. You can send various emails to different individuals based on their stage in the buyer’s journey.
It’s accessible to the average person. While email marketing platforms have evolved, you don’t need to be a coding expert to send a successful email blast.
It enriches your other marketing strategies. For example, eCommerce websites can cross-sell products based on purchase behavior in real-time. Or they can simply use email to offer discounts. Not to mention, email can be used to nurture your customers by offering content or downloads based on their behaviors or qualifications.
It’s inexpensive. Investment in email marketing typically accounts for less than 10 percent of digital marketing spend, according to experts.
It sticks. Unlike social media posts that get buried in a timeline, emails hang around until the user takes action. While the email moves based on the user’s inbox, they can be easily referenced or searched for, as opposed to an Instagram story disappearing after 24 hours.
Use Pre-Designed Templates. There are many tools on the market today that make it easy to produce professional emails. Drag and drop technology, editable layouts, and the ability to use your specific branding make these emails far more aesthetically pleasing than plain text.
Personalize It. Using first names in the first line doesn’t cut it anymore. Connect with the recipient by providing content they care about. Tailor messages based on demographic information, purchase history, or browsing activity for a bigger chance of a business conversion. With marketing automation, you have the ability to add more personalization than ever.
Create a Responsive Web Design. As more and more consumers shift to reading on mobile devices, marketers must make it easier for them to do so. Read our helpful blog on understanding responsive design.
Jazz it Up. Include interesting typography, beautiful images, video, and animation in your email content to attract subscribers’ attention and guide them towards certain actions. Use of moving materials can enhance click-through rate tremendously.
Get Even More Interactive. Rebelmail, for example, will allow subscribers to complete an entire shopping session within an email without ever clicking through to landing pages.
Now what? Well, you want to determine how effective your efforts are. A/B testing is one way to provide a detailed understanding of the data concerning email opening, accessibility, click-through rate, comparing elements from various campaigns, and their conversion rates from email recipients. All these metrics let you track your success for a holistic picture of your email marketing.
Your program should also be able to deliver concrete ROI in the form of leads and revenue. When you take into account the cost of your program and the profit it generates, you’ll likely see why email marketing has the highest ROI of any marketing strategy.
But don’t get complacent. To be a successful email marketer, you must constantly be reaching for new ways to reach subscribers. Try growth-driven design in your emails to test new subject lines, adjust button sizes, adapt messages, and tactics, or do something as simple as boosting and tracking transactional emails. Each of these strategies can make each of your email campaigns better than the last.
If you’re just getting started with your email campaigns, we highly recommend trying out HubSpot! HubSpot makes it easy to create beautiful emails, send to users based on demographics or activity, and can prove the ROI your emails will bring in. Be sure to check out our HubSpot tools checklist to learn more about the tools HubSpot can provide for you.