These days, email marketing is an essential part of promoting any business.
Small businesses, in particular, are very reliant on email to stay connected to their audience and advertise their products and services.
79 percent of small business owners say that email marketing is an important part of their business strategy.
Do you need help creating an email marketing campaign that just works? And are you unsure of where to start or how to construct effective and eye-catching emails?
If so, keep reading. Listed below are nine email marketing tips you can implement today.
1. Start with Your Email List
All of the other tips included in this list mean nothing if you’re not working with a targeted email list.
All successful email marketing campaigns begin with a list that contains qualified leads, which is people who have expressed an interest in what it is your business has to offer.
How to Build a Targeted Email List
There are a few different ways you can go about building a targeted email list.
The most effective option, though, is to start with the people who visit your website.
These people already have a certain level of interest in your business (otherwise, why would they be visiting your website?), so it’s easier to get them to sign up for your email list.
Many business owners get email list sign-ups by offering some kind of free download on their website.
For example, you could provide visitors with a free eBook or a free guide that gets delivered to their inbox after they sign up for the email list.
Here’s an example of how an ebook popup could look:
If you want to create a converting popup, read my 15 Best Popup Practices to Build Your Email List in 2020.
Seriously, you don’t want to miss it.
Anyways, you can also offer them a discount on their first purchase in exchange for signing up to receive emails from you in the future.
Can You Buy an Email List?
Some third-party companies will offer to sell you an email list full of qualified leads.
This might seem tempting, but don’t waste your money.
Not only will many email services (more on those later) refuse to let you use purchased email lists, but this tactic also is not effective and won’t help you to boost your bottom line.
After all, most emails that get sent to the addresses on these lists end up straight in the spam folder.
2. Set Clear Goals
In addition to creating a targeted email list, it’s also important to set clear goals before you kick off your email marketing campaign.
As with any marketing endeavor, you need to think about what you want to accomplish.
There are lots of reasons why you might want to start an email marketing campaign, including the following:
Welcome New Subscribers
This might be a good goal for you if you have a lot of new email subscribers or have recently launched your business.
You can use specific emails to get people more interested in what you have to offer and start building a relationship with them.
Increase Website Engagement
You can also use marketing emails to increase engagement on your website.
If you want more people to read your blog posts or participate in a webinar that you’re hosting, for example, this might be an appropriate goal.
Nurture Leads
Maybe you’re interested in nurturing leads and converting them into paying customers.
With the right types of emails, you can show them just how beneficial your products or services are to them.
This, in turn, can help them see why they need your business and will convince them to make a purchase.
Re-Engage Old Subscribers
Perhaps you’ve seen a drop in engagement with past email list subscribers.
Maybe they’re not opening your emails as often as they once did.
If this is the case, you might want to create a campaign designed to reignite their interest in your business.
It’ll probably look a little like this:
3. Get to Know Your Audience
Once you’ve decided on a goal for your email marketing campaign, you need to start thinking about your audience.
Who are the people who will be receiving your marketing emails? How old are they? What are their interests and pain points?
This is also known as a Buyer Persona.
I’ve written a guide on How to Find the Buyer Persona for Your Blog.
Let it inspire you.
The more you know about your audience, the easier it is to create email content that resonates with them and will convince them to take specific actions.
It’ll be easier for you to start seeing results from your email marketing efforts, too.
In the beginning, this can be tricky, especially if you’ve never created an email marketing campaign before.
Consider using your website or social media analytics to learn more about the people who engage with your business the most.
These sources can tell you a lot about people’s location, age range, and interests.
4. Choose the Right Email Type
There are many different types of emails you can send out as part of your marketing campaign, and the type of email that you send to your subscribers will vary depending on your specific goals.
The following are some of the most popular options you might want to consider:
Promotional Emails
Promotional emails are one of the most common types of emails used in marketing campaigns.
As the name suggests, their purpose is to, you guessed it, promote something related to your business.
You might send this kind of email out to get people excited about a new product or service that you’re launching soon.
You might also use it to share information about an upcoming sale or a contest that you’re running.
Relational Emails
Relational emails are used to help you create or nurture a relationship with the people on your email list.
The most frequently used relational email is an email providing a subscriber with a free download or discount code after they’ve signed up for your email list.
Relational emails can also provide subscribers with useful information they can use in the future.
This might include information on how to get in touch with you or other relevant details about your business, for example.
Transactional Emails
A transactional email is usually triggered by an action that your subscriber has taken.
An example might be an email list sign-up confirmation or a welcome message.
Order and purchase confirmations fall into this category, too.
Admittedly, these aren’t the most exciting emails.
They’re still important to the success of your business, though, and help you to craft a professional image.
5. Invest in Email Marketing Services
The easiest way to launch a successful email marketing campaign is to invest in email marketing services.
There are tons of different online platforms out there that will help you create marketing emails and automate the process of sending them to your subscribers.
When searching for an email marketing service to use for your business, consider the answers to the following questions:
- How easy is it to create and automate email campaigns?
- Do you have access to email templates and workflows?
- Does it integrate with other software, such as WordPress?
- Does it provide tools to segment your audience (breaking it up into subgroups for more targeted email campaigns)?
- Do you have access to analytics to help you assess campaign performance?
Let the answers to these questions guide your decision-making.
They can help you feel more confident in your email marketing campaigns and ensure you’re choosing the right service for your business’s specific needs.
6. Write Great Copy
If you want your email marketing campaign to be successful, you need to make sure you’re creating great cold email copy.
It doesn’t matter how good your email marketing service is or how much research you’ve done on your audience if you’re not creating content that appeals to them, does it?
Here are some specific tips to think about when you start drafting your emails:
Be Clear and Direct
When writing copy for your marketing emails, it’s important to be clear and direct.
Face it: People don’t spend a lot of time looking at emails.
The average read time for an email is just over 13 seconds.
If you want people to get the gist of what you’re saying and take a specific action, get straight to the point when creating your email copy.
Consider the Formatting
The formatting of your emails matters, too.
Don’t use large blocks of text when writing the copy.
Keep paragraphs to three or fewer sentences and use plenty of white space.
It helps to include headings and bullet-point lists, too, to make content easier to skim (remember, you only get about 13 seconds, so make them count!).
Include a Call-to-Action
Marketing emails should always end with a call-to-action.
A call-to-action gives the reader a job to do and increases the likelihood that they’ll do what you want them to do, whether that’s checking out your latest blog post or heading to your online store to make a purchase.
7. Don’t Forget About Design
Design matters to the success of your email marketing campaign, too.
If your emails don’t look attractive and align with your brand, people are going to be less interested in reading them.
Pay special attention to the colors you use in your marketing emails, as well as the types of images you include and the fonts you use when writing your copy.
All of these elements play a role in setting your campaign apart from other marketing emails your subscribers might receive.
Good design helps you stand out and make a great impression.
If you’re not particularly design-savvy, don’t panic.
Most email marketing services offer tools that make it easier for you to design eye-catching marketing emails.
Look for one that provides templates or that allows for easy customization so you can change colors or fonts to match your branding and other marketing materials.
8. Try A/B Testing
A/B testing is a great marketing tool, especially for email marketing campaigns.
It allows you to test out different versions of the same email to see which one is more effective and is best received by your subscribers.
Make sure your email marketing service allows for A/B testing, and don’t sleep on this technique when you’re testing out different types of emails.
You can use A/B testing for various aspects of your marketing emails, including the following:
- Subject lines
- Design elements
- Call-to-actions
Let the results from your A/B testing guide you when creating other marketing emails, too.
Once you learn more about what your audience best responds to, you can take a lot of the guesswork out of the equation and create emails that help you achieve your desired goals.
9. Measure Your Success
Be sure to measure the success of your marketing emails in other ways, too.
If you’re not paying attention to your analytics and keeping track of email performance, what’s the point?
Here are some key factors to consider when you’re determining the success of a particular campaign:
OR (Open/Send Ratio)
The open/send ratio refers to the number of marketing emails that get opened relative to the total number of emails sent.
If you have a targeted email list, you’ll generally have an easier time increasing your OR.
CTOR (Click to Open Rate)
The click to open rate measures the number of unique clicks your emails receive relative to opens.
It tells you how effective your marketing emails are and whether they inspire recipients to follow through with your call-to-action.
Bounce Rate
The bounce rate refers to the number of marketing emails that can’t be delivered.
Ideally, this should be as low as possible.
List Growth Rate
You should also keep track of how fast your email list is growing.
How many new email addresses are you collecting?
Pay attention, too, to how many people are unsubscribing.
If that number’s climbing, consider what steps you and your team can take to keep people around.
Conclusion: Create an Impressive Email Marketing Campaign Today
It doesn’t matter if you’re putting together your first ever email marketing campaign or if you’re looking to revamp your current approach.
Either way, it pays to know the ins and outs of creating a campaign that works.
Be sure to keep the tips listed above in mind and you’ll have no trouble seeing great returns on your email marketing efforts!
If you want to monetize your email marketing campaign, take a look at these 3 Affiliate Email Marketing Tips to Boost Your Revenue.
This article has been written by Jakob Staudal who is the face behind jakobstaudal.com. He teaches his followers everything they need to know about starting a blog and turning it into a business.