As far as online communication goes, email almost seems archaic these days. With new social and messaging platforms emerging every day, many people believe email is a thing of the past.
The truth is that email is alive and well, especially in the world of marketing. Just look at our infographic below: it’s still one ofthe most profitable ways to connect with customers, with an ROI of $38-42 for every dollar spent.
Over 90% of companies use email marketing, with 81% saying it’s their top channel for acquiring customers. Email marketing is 40 times more effective at acquiring customers than social media, and customers would rather receive emails from companies than any other type of communication. Email might be fading as a way to connect in our personal lives — but its marketing power is only getting stronger by the day.
At Digioh, we know that email marketing is here to stay. It’s time to fully leverage the power of email marketing. Here’s how.
Tip #1: Send behavioral emails.
Regular email campaigns send emails to your subscribers based on your company’s marketing agenda. Behavioral emails are sent to customers based on (you guessed it) their behavior. After a potential customer interacts with your company via social media, your website, PPC ad, or other platform, they’ll receive an automated email that’s customized to their actions. Behavioral emails get more clicks than “business as usual” emails, increasing customer engagement and acquisition, and maximizing your marketing spend.
To get you started, here are three ways to make behavioral emails work for you:
- Welcome email: If you’re not already sending a welcome email as your first touchpoint with potential customers, you’re missing out on massive revenue — 320% more revenue, to be exact! When done right, welcome emails are one of the most effective parts of email marketing. So be prompt, be personal and keep it simple to kick off a lasting customer relationship.
- Cart & checkout abandon: Ever shopped online, adding items to your cart, only to leave the site without buying a thing? We all have. Chances are you’ve also received a follow-up email to remind you what you left behind. A well-timed abandoned cart email is one of the quickest ways to recover lost revenue, earning a high click rate and $5.81 average revenue per recipient.
- Products viewed: Approximately 43.8% of potential visitors to your site will view specific products, but only 14% will add an item to their cart. Sending a personalized list of products viewed gives customers a gentle nudge to come back and complete the sale.
Tip #2: Get creative with email segmentation.
Email segmentation is the simple term for categorizing your subscribers based on set criteria, such as demographic, location, interests, purchase history, and so on. Segmented campaigns perform much better than non-segmented campaigns, to the tune of 100.95% higher clicks. Getting hyper-specific about who you’re targeting is a foolproof way to improve your email marketing efforts and reduce list churn.
So how exactly should you segment your subscribers? First, you can use website behavior to identify what your customers are looking for to better tailor your emails to meet their needs. For example, let’s say your company makes camping gear and you notice a lot of visitors are looking at pages related to tents. You can add them to a specific “tents” list to target a group of people with a common interest.
You can also use interactive forms, such as product recommendation quizzes, to gather data about your customers and help them find the perfect product. For example, if someone takes a “What’s Your Skin Type?” quiz, you can use their responses to send segmented email campaigns for their personal skincare needs. Lastly, you can build segmented campaigns based on customers’ responses to emails, such as clicks on links, opens, and so much more.
Tip #3. Pay attention to your unsubscribe rates.
No one likes to think about losing email subscribers, but it’s an inevitable part of the deal. Unsubscribe rates for marketing emails range from 0.019% to 0.4%, which might not sound like much but it makes a huge difference whether you're at one end or the other. If you're at the lower end of that range, after a year of weekly emails, you're losing 15% more subscribers than if you’re at the higher end. Bottom line: it's worth the effort to work on lowering your unsubscribe rate.
As for why people are unsubscribing, 26% leave because they get too many emails and 21% opt out because the emails aren’t relevant. So the best way to reduce your unsubscribe rate is to let subscribers control their email preferences. Give them the option to change the frequency of emails (or pause emails for a while) or to unsubscribe altogether. You could also offer other lists they might be interested in to make sure they’re receiving content that’s relevant to their needs. Learn how to design an effective preference center here.
Tip #4. Capture more emails with personalized sign-up forms
Think about the emails that hit your inbox every day. Some probably have you searching for the “unsubscribe” button while others might entice you to make a purchase. The difference likely comes down to how personalized the email is. A whopping 80% of website visitors are more likely to shop from companies that deliver a personalized experience, and this customization begins with your email campaigns.
Personalizing your forms starts, as all good marketing does, with data based on your customers’ behavior, such as pages or products viewed, traffic source, or previous purchases. Dynamic content, such as copy or images, changes based on the end user to provide more relevant content. It allows you to personalize your sign-up forms and display special offers for different types of website visitors.
For example, someone looking at a certain product category (e.g. Women’s Jeans) will see content based on their interests, such as a 10% offer on women’s jeans. Another subscriber who has previously purchased shoes will receive content based on that product category. The more data you have about your customers the better, as it will help you narrow down their purchase preferences even more. This can all be done with one dynamic form that pulls data from your email service provider (ESP) to display the most relevant content to your customers.
Tip #5. Bonus tips to get more emails opened & clicked
Of course, it doesn’t matter how beautiful and personalized your email campaigns are if they’re not getting opened in the first place. Good email marketing starts in the subject line, so here are some hard-and-fast tips to get eyes on your campaigns.
- Use short subject lines. Most emails are read on mobile, which cuts off at 33 to 43 characters.
- Try emojis in subject lines. Some studies show that emojis increase open rates.
- Use the subscriber’s name in the subject line.
- Consider using a button instead of a text link.
- Test plain text emails. Hubspot found they boost opens and clicks!
If you’ve been wondering whether email marketing is still worth the effort, the numbers don’t lie: it’s proven to improve engagement, increase customer acquisition, and boost your revenue exponentially. Ready to learn more about how Digioh can help you get better results from your email strategy? Contact us today.
Infographic: Supercharge Your Email Marketing Program
