When deployed correctly, email marketing can be a powerful tool in your marketing outreach. Email campaigns can be personalized, can be automated, and can be easily reconfigured over time—exactly what any agile marketing strategy needs. But to guarantee that your emails make an impact beyond simply cluttering up user inboxes, you need the right strategies backing you up.
1. Get in front of their objections
If you know your market, you should have an idea of their biggest concerns and what factors are holding them back from buying. More likely than not, these will be customers who have just subscribed to your mailing list but haven’t taken the purchasing plunge. Structure your email copy as a series of easy to read Q & A’s that address their objections ahead of time and start establishing yourself as a trusted authority.
2. Customize based on behavior
One of the most powerful uses of automated email campaigns is the ability to set custom campaigns that engage users based on specific behaviors. If your marketing software allows it, try setting up filters to capture different groups within your mailing list. You’ll likely see small subsets of users who frequently open emails, who never open emails, and everything in between. For example, if 30 percent of your subscribers never open your emails, you might want to work on your headline copy and re-engage them with a fresh approach.
3. Recommend products
For online retailers, suggesting items to customers based on their previous ordering history can be a great way to drive additional revenue. Keep track of items commonly bought together and set up email filters based on this data. From there, you can send out emails suggesting additional purchases—such as recommending phone cases or screen protectors to those who have recently bought phones, for example.
4. Offer service upgrades
Businesses that offer services rather than products can take a different approach to their email marketing. Instead of offering new products, your revenue can be boosted by offering discounted service upgrades throughout your email campaign. As an example, offer to switch them from a monthly service to an annual service while stressing the value offered by the yearly subscription pricing.
5. Gather feedback
There’s a reason so many businesses offer incentives for customers to fill out feedback surveys–direct customer feedback is powerful. Include a call for subscribers on your email list to fill out surveys on their preferences and behaviors. Most won’t take the time to do it, but the few who do will provide incredibly useful information for tailoring your marketing strategies.
6. Make it urgent
Another tenet of human psychology is that people hate to miss out on things. Use this to your advantage. Making offers that expire after a certain point can trigger customers into action, even those who are naturally cautious shoppers. For added effect, retail businesses can set up email filters that will deploy a message when users leave a site with items in their cart.
7. Get personal with them
As an added touch to all emails, make them personal. Include warm greetings, casual language, and even a sign-off from a company founder or CEO. The idea is to make customers feel special rather than like another tally on your ledger.
Create Emails They Love to Open
Email marketing is all about observing behavioral patterns in your customers and adapting your email strategies to reflect their preferences. Always monitor the actions of your customers and update your emails to guarantee that your emails aren’t just what you think they want see—they’re what they actually want to see.
