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There are various paths to go down when expanding your online marketing strategy. Some are more modern, such as social media and influencer marketing, and some are more “old-fashioned,” like email marketing and paid ads.
Though email marketing might sound outdated to some, it is still a very practical and effective strategy for the majority of businesses. Regardless of your business size or your industry, email marketing can help you reach new customers, make sales, and grow your brand.
This article will give a brief overview of email marketing and answer some of the most common questions about using email marketing to grow a business.
The Power of Email Marketing
Email marketing is a direct marketing strategy that involves sending out mass, personalized emails to customers, prospects, and leads, encouraging them to purchase your products and services, or complete another action.
Email marketing campaigns are essential to businesses in almost every industry, from the largest corporations to the smallest local brand. Nearly everyone checks their email daily, contributing to the exceptionally high average ROI of email marketing (about 3500%).
Thanks to the email lists that you slowly build over time, email marketing is also relatively reliable long-term. For example, on social media platforms, you might lose followers, which can significantly affect your engagement rates, web traffic, etc. However, in email marketing, it’s not the end of the world if a user doesn’t click becuase you still have their contact information and can keep trying.
How Long Should a Marketing Email Be?
Though there is no exact length that a marketing email has to be, the most effective length for the body of an email is thought to be 50 to 125 words, according to Campaign Monitor. Sending emails to prospective clients will be more effective if they don’t have to scroll through paragraph upon paragraph of text to get to the point. However, even though marketing email copy tends to be short, all the most important info must still be included.
Short and to-the-point is also a best practice for email subject lines. Your subject lines should grab the user’s attention quickly, but be aware that long subject lines can get cut off on mobile devices.
How Often Should You Send Marketing Emails?
As you get started with creating an email campaign for your business, you’ll have to figure out how often to send out emails to get the highest open and click-through rates (CTR) possible. The frequency of your marketing emails typically depends on the customers you are trying to reach.
For example, you’ll likely want to send out email content to newer email subscribers more often than you might for long-term subscribers who have already shown customer loyalty to your business. Outside of this, you can stick to a regular schedule that best suits your business and your campaign goals.
Segmenting your campaigns is also vital to ensure the success of your email marketing strategy. To boost your CTR, sending different campaigns to different groups of customers is the way to go. For example, new customers should receive different emails than long-term customers receive, and customers who recently made a purchase should receive something different than customers who haven’t purchased anything for a while.
What Is CTR in Email Marketing and How Do You Calculate It?
Your click-through rate, or CTR, is one of the best ways to determine how effective your email marketing campaign is. The CTR is a percentage representing how many individuals (out of those you sent a particular email to) actually clicked on something in your email, like a link to a product or landing page.
You can calculate CTR with the following formula: CTR = (Number of individuals who clicked on a link/Number of emails successfully delivered) x 100.
How Can You Measure the Success of Your Email Marketing?
Along with keeping track of your CTR, you should pay attention to other statistics and figures to understand how successful the campaign is.
For example, you should be checking your open rate, click-to-open rate, subscribe and unsubscribe rates, bounce rate, conversion rate, list growth rate, and more. Use UTM parameters and Google Analytics to begin tracking the web traffic that you get from your email efforts.
Boost the Effectiveness of Your Email Marketing
Once you understand the fundamentals of implementing email marketing campaigns, you should begin developing strategies to ensure that the campaign is successful. Below are some pointers on how to get the most out of your email marketing.
Personalize Your Email Campaigns
Users are more likely to respond well to your email campaigns if you personalize your messages. For example, instead of beginning the email by greeting the client with a general term, start it off with their first name. By personalizing the greeting of your emails, you will grab the user’s attention more quickly than a generic, impersonal “Hello, Valued customer…”
The more you customize your email campaigns, the better. In addition to having personalized calls to action (CTAs), product promotions, or offers, segmenting your email list for different customers can help boost your conversion rate.
Always End With a CTA
Every good email marketing campaign uses calls to action to convert users into customers. Encouraging people to take action is the push they need to actually take action, whether that’s pushing a button, signing up for an account, or taking advantage of a limited-time discount.
As mentioned above, it’s even better if you can personalize your CTAs, as they have been shown to perform over 200% better than their generic counterparts.
Track and Analyze Data
In the same way you would track and analyze data for any other marketing campaign, you should track your data in email marketing campaigns. For example, data such as user demographics, open rates, and customer preferences will help you understand how you can personalize your marketing campaign to convert more customers.
Make Sure Signup is Easy
Users will be more likely to subscribe to your email list if there is a simple signup process. Make sure that the user doesn’t have to jump through hoops to find out how to sign up for your emails. Instead, have the signup information available at multiple touchpoints, such as at the end of your blog posts and on your website homepage.
Final Words
Using digital marketing tactics to generate success for your business often starts with an effective email marketing campaign. Investing in email marketing and following the tips provided here is a great way to increase customer conversion rates.
If you’re just getting started with your digital marketing journey and want to know more about all the opportunities waiting for you, reach out to Markerly to get help with comprehensive campaign management.
