As outlined in Madhuri Thakur’s article, email marketing can be a powerful tool for growing your business by targeting potential customers. However, it is important to understand how to harness its true potential.
By building a quality subscriber list, personalizing content, crafting compelling subject lines, and leveraging automation, businesses can unlock the full power of email campaigns.
1. Build a Strong Email List
Email marketing is a great way to nurture and convert customers. However, in order to leverage the power of email marketing for your small business, you need a strong and growing list of subscribers.
Fortunately, there are several strategies you can use to grow your subscriber count. One of the most effective is implementing a referral program. This is where you reward your existing customers for referring new subscribers to your business. This is a win-win for both parties because the current customer gets access to perks and the business expands its audience.
Another way to grow your list is by creating compelling opt-in forms. This can be done by offering lead magnets, such as a free eBook or discount code. It’s also a good idea to promote your email signup form on social media and your website.
Once you have a strong list of subscribers, it’s important to keep them engaged. This can be done by sending targeted emails that are relevant to their interests. For example, if you have a new product line that your subscribers might be interested in, you can send an email to let them know about it. Additionally, you can also use the email to offer exclusive discounts and other benefits to your subscribers.
2. Personalize Content
Personalized emails increase engagement because they make recipients feel like the message is meant for them. Using data insights to customize content is a powerful way to create an email marketing strategy that works for your small business.
Personalization can start with something as simple as using a subscriber’s name in the subject line to grab attention. Incorporating their birthday or gender can also add a touch of exclusivity and urgency to an email that encourages click-throughs.
Other ways to personalize an email include adding a custom image that references a subscriber’s previous actions or purchases, or referencing their geographic location to highlight relevant offers. If you’re a B2B brand, addressing the industry in which a subscriber works can further enhance the relevance of your email.
In addition, a thoughtfully-crafted subject line is key to getting an email opened. Try experimenting with different subject lines to see which ones resonate with your audience, and then incorporate those into your email marketing strategy. Use intriguing phrases, open-ended questions, cliffhangers, or humor to pique a reader’s interest and generate excitement and curiosity about what lies ahead. This type of content personalization can help you drive more conversions by delivering the right message to the right person at the right time.
3. Craft Compelling Subject Lines
Email subject lines are your first, and often only, chance to grab your audience’s attention. Subject lines should be intriguing, provocative or enticing to encourage recipients to open your message and learn more.
Consider using personalization tokens in your subject line, such as a recipient’s name or location to add a sense of familiarity. EF Tours does this with their subject line, “Cheap Date Ideas” to help entice recipients to check out the contents of their email. Adding a touch of humor or a sense of urgency can also increase click-through rates, such as Wish’s subject line “Time-Bound Sale”. Viewers will be compelled to see what this limited-time offer is all about.
When creating your subject lines, it’s important to avoid overused words and phrases that could trigger spam filters and erode trust with recipients. Instead, use actionable language or ask a question to draw people in, but make sure that your subject line accurately reflects the content of your email. False subject lines will not only confuse your recipients, but it may cause them to unsubscribe from your emails in the future. Instead, focus on delivering content that meets the needs of your recipients and they will keep coming back.
4. Deliver Engaging Content
Email marketing is a powerful tool for small businesses that gives you the ability to engage with customers and clients in multiple ways—keep them top of mind, share content, drive traffic, conduct surveys and more. But the inbox can be crowded and it’s important to create an engaging experience that will keep your business’s emails out of the spam folder.
One way to do this is by writing in a conversational tone that feels natural and authentic. Often, people check their emails on the go and don’t have their full attention. Emails should be brief, and if you do need to say more, signpost readers to blog posts that expand on your point or eCommerce pages where they can purchase related products.
Emails should also be visually engaging, with captivating images and graphics. This doesn’t have to cost a lot—there are online platforms that allow you to turn regular images into interactive experiences. For example, a product photo can have clickable icons or popup text that highlight specific features of the product and direct viewers to your website for further information. This type of email content adds value to the customer, and it also helps brands stand out from their competitors.
5. Optimize for Mobile
Email is an excellent way to nurture existing customers and drive repeat business. With tools like win-back emails, cart abandonment emails, and reminder emails, small businesses can keep their brand top of mind with consumers while delivering value to their customer base.
As a result, it’s important to optimize your email campaigns for mobile. A mobile-first approach can help your business better align with consumer behavior and deliver a more seamless experience across devices. Emails that aren’t optimized for mobile may have slower loading times or content that is cut off, which can lead to a poor user experience and lower engagement and conversions.
Start by making sure your emails are responsive to fit any device and that forms are easy to fill out on mobile. Next, focus on the content. Keep your messages short and punchy to make them easier to digest on mobile. Also, avoid large image files, which can slow down the load time for your emails on mobile. Finally, don’t forget to include social sharing buttons. This allows your subscribers to share your emails on their own networks and helps you reach a larger audience.
6. Test and Optimize
Email testing is a key element of email marketing for small businesses. It allows you to experiment with elements like subject lines, send times, email copy, and buttons to find out which ones resonate with your audience. With a consistent testing strategy, you can improve key metrics such as open rates and click-through rates, and drive conversions.
Once you have collected data from your test campaigns, it’s important to act on the results. For example, if you have found that CTA A gets more clicks than CTA B, then you should consider using it in your future emails. Moreover, you should also look at the performance of your test campaigns by audience segment so that you can tailor your messaging and offers to your unique audiences.
Having a solid email marketing strategy is vital for a small business. By following the dos and don’ts of email marketing, you can maximize your campaign performance and grow your business faster. Remember, a high conversion rate is the most important goal of your email marketing efforts. To achieve this, you must send relevant content to your subscribers that is interesting and engaging. In addition, you must optimize for mobile and personalize your content.
7. Leverage Automation
Email marketing has the power to grow a business, promote products/services, generate sales, build brand loyalty and foster long-term relationships. By implementing the key strategies of building a quality email list, personalizing content, crafting attention-grabbing subject lines and delivering engaging content, small businesses can leverage the true potential of email campaigns to drive growth and increase customer retention.
By leveraging automation and triggered emails, businesses can automate the delivery of personalized content to each segment of their audience, which enhances customer engagement and increases conversions. For example, software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies can set up automated email sequences for new customers that include onboarding tips, tutorials and personalized recommendations to drive product adoption and customer satisfaction.
Unlike other marketing channels, which are subject to algorithms that change frequently and may leave businesses out in the cold, email is a reliable and stable platform. By leveraging audience segmentation, hyper-personalized content and strong calls-to-action, and incorporating automation and performance tracking, small businesses can unlock the true potential of email marketing to drive growth and boost sales.
