Can email technology be considered “old school?” Absolutely! But unlike MySpace or Snapchat, it still has many advantages and is paramount to a successful marketing plan:
- It’s less expensive than many other marketing tactics.
- Messages can be personalized.
- Results are easy to measure.
- The content is easy to share.
- Its ROI is 4x higher than other digital marketing tactics.
Whatever your business’ size, below are five email marketing tactics to help you make the most of your campaigns.
Tactic one: Attention-grabbing subject lines
To break through the 281 billion emails sent every day, an eblast must have a compelling subject line. If you don’t capture the subscriber’s attention immediately, the hard work you put into the rest of the messaging and design will quickly find itself in the trash.
Tactic two: Personalized emails
If you’re looking for an effective marketing edge, consider creating personalized email messages as opposed to generic, “one-size-fits-all” eblasts or automated responses. Through the collection of customer data and purchase history, routine emails addressing customers by name and highlighting relevant products and promotions can be sent.
Even if your business doesn’t sell products or have an e-commerce store, your email marketing strategy can still benefit from distributing personalized messages.
Tactic three: Expiration alerts
Eblasts can be used to remind subscribers about a coupon or points-based incentive that hasn’t been redeemed.
Redemption-focused messaging adds an increased sense of urgency to the call-to-action and is especially appreciated by customers if their discount or points are about to expire.
Using certain email software, these “event-triggered” emails can be set up so they’re automatically sent as an expiration date approaches.
Tactic four: Abandoned cart reminders
How many times have you left an online store without purchasing the items you placed in your shopping cart? Quite a few, if you’re like most online shoppers!
In fact, some industries see an average cart abandonment rate as high as 80 percent! And while that statistic may seem alarming if you’re an e-commerce-focused business, there is hope!
Abandonment emails (emails reminding customers of the items they’ve left in their online shopping cart) have remarkably high open rates—typically around 40 percent! And out of those opened emails, 21 percent receive click-throughs, with 50 percent of the users who click making a purchase.
In short, email marketing is a super effective tactic to turn a contemplated purchase into an actual purchase. To increase conversion even further, consider adding a small discount to the reminder eblast.
Tactic five: Marketing through the receipt
Order confirmation emails present an easy way to up-sell and cross-sell to customers.
According to a study conducted by Experian, confirmation emails receive 8 times as many opens compared to regular marketing emails. A similar study found that confirmation emails also average the highest click rate (18.1 percent) amongst automated messages.
E-receipts can also be used to invite customers to follow company social media pages or check out a blog post.
Final thoughts
To increase engagement, conversion rates and revenue through email marketing, you must take time to evaluate your strategic and creative decisions. Keeping a pulse on analytics and continuously testing and tweaking your plan will help you pinpoint the tactics that work best for your brand and industry.
Related Resources:
- Consistent Marketing is King
- How to Ruin Your Content Marketing Strategy
- Email Marketing Q&A: Top 10 Questions
