[Want to reach your audience in an organic and powerful manner? Email is the way to go. Thanks to the prevalence of smartphones, people are checking their email more than ever. In other words, people are looking harder than ever for content with the ability to move them. Make sure it’s your content that they read.
Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple, especially for challenger brands. You don’t have a database of millions of consumers at your disposal. But what you do have is your skill and your ability to think outside the box.
Consider this – even the best email marketing pieces generate a click-through rate of around 4 percent. For every million emails a leading brand sends, there are 960,000 people ignoring them. You, on the other hand, have the potential to wow every customer that receives an email from you. All you’ll need is a smart and creative approach to email marketing.
- A Reason for Every Email. Most large companies spam their email lists into oblivion, to the point that consumers are used to tuning these emails out. You don’t want to fall into this trap. Provide value with every email, and you’ll see results over the long haul. Even a monthly newsletter is enough if you pack it full of information and promotions that interest the reader.
- Use Your Subject Lines Wisely. People choose which emails they’ll read based largely on the subject line. Use a subject line that’s short and to the point, but doesn’t give everything away. Remember, the point is to get the reader to open your email. Don’t resort to gimmicks like clickbait titles or trying-too-hard tricks like emojis. Your emails should convey a sense of authority, and so should your subject lines.
- Set Goals for Your Emails. Not every email you send is going to result in a sale, and you shouldn’t expect it to. What you should have, though, is a set of objectives you’d like to achieve with a given email. For instance, a nurturing email might simply try to get a reader to click through to a blog on your site. A more aggressive email, though, might want the reader to put the item in their cart. Set goals, and hold yourself accountable to those goals.
- Curate Your Email List. People sign up for email lists for a variety of reasons. And as we just saw, not everyone is ready to buy today. Consider the sources of your email traffic and use those as your guides for the types of emails you’ll send. This helps you to get to know your audience better, which produces better emails, which ultimately yields a better customer experience. If email recipients feel like you know and understand them, they’re much more likely to move down the path to purchase.
- Listen to Your Audience. Test your emails constantly. Listen to every piece of feedback you receive, and respond to everything you can. Any sort of feedback you can get from your audience is tremendously valuable. Take the voice of the customer into account, and take the appropriate action so that you’ll exceed customer expectations. These are the kind of things that the bigger brands can’t (or won’t) do. But as a challenger brand, you owe it to your customers – and to your business – to make sure your emails are as good as they can be. A loyal and well-nurtured email customer is one of the best customers there is.
Email marketing can either provide mediocre returns, or it can be the tool that transforms your entire approach to marketing. Reach out to us today and let us help you get maximum value out of your emails.
