6-Step Guide to Improve Your Email Marketing Strategy
About 4 billion people use email daily. Each of these email users is a potential target for an email marketer. With such a large audience pool, it seems impossible to fail, yet some thrive while others don’t do so well in this field.
This form of digital marketing is incredibly effective. Its ROI is so impressive that it’s suitable even for those with a stretched budget.
The difference lies in the quality of their email marketing strategy. With that in mind and without further ado, here’s a brief six-step guide to help you improve your email marketing efforts.
1. Verify your email list regularly
Making an email list is a complex task; however, every list needs to be updated twice yearly. This task will be easy with the proper email validation and verification tool. This is why you should do it biannually.
Working with an inaccurate list is a waste of time. Sure, you’re sending emails automatically, but you need to personalize some templates manually. Doing so for emails that bounce is not an effective use of your time and resources. You can avoid all of this by verifying your email list.
Also, having a list with too many bouncing emails can raise suspicions. Once you get marked as a source of spam by too many emails, it might be soon that Google starts paying closer attention to your activity (and not in a positive way).
2. Get the right email marketing and automation tool
With so much work to do, the sooner you find the right email marketing tool, the more time you’ll save. Also, a good marketing campaign will focus on both quality and volume. The problem with this is that while quality goals are pretty straightforward, the volume of emails might become the problem.
What do you get from Moosend and alternatives?
Automation platforms like Moosend can help you collect and store data about your customers. This way, you can manage subscriber lists, segment your customers, and make personalization (the next step in your email marketing strategy) easier. For those who are reluctant to commit to the first platform we’ve mentioned, there are several Moosend alternatives worth considering. Some are just as good, while others are even superior in some segments.
3. Personalize emails
Except for extreme circumstances, no one wants to receive a generic email from a source they don’t know well. What does this mean? They’ll assume you encountered their email by chance and sent a circular email to them and others.
If you skip this part and find a way to personalize the offer, you can drastically improve the effectiveness. First, they're more likely to pay attention by addressing them by their name and starting the conversation in a more human tone.
You’ll get a general idea of their interests by tracking their activity across your pages. Mentioning a discount is more impactful if it’s an item that they checked out. This is especially true if they check it more than once.
Lastly, this is a fantastic opportunity for upselling and cross-selling. You check the previous product they’ve bought and suggest something that complements it. This way, you’re also using a chance to help them progress down the customer lifecycle.
4. Optimize for mobile
The majority of people open emails on mobile devices. Even if people don’t use mobile devices as a primary form of email inspection, they might still click the app just to see if it’s something important. Then, if a video is involved or requires a response, they might answer from their laptop/desktop.
This is why optimizing emails for mobile devices is so important. Make sure that the font and font size are readable on mobile devices. The best way to check this is to send a mail to yourself and check it via your phone. Remember that not all phone screen sizes are equal and that some people use tablets to check their emails. Focus on responsiveness.
When adding your CTA button, make sure it’s clickable for mobile users. In other words, try to make it as touch-friendly as possible.
5. Work on your subject line
Most email recipients decide whether to open the email based on your subject line. Some misinterpret this concept and pack their subject line with clickbait to increase the open rate. While the open rate is important, it’s not the only thing that matters.
If they see that the content of the email has nothing to do with the subject line, they’ll just leave immediately. This practice will keep your CTR low and increase your bounce rate drastically. This is why being honest in your subject line is so important.
The next thing you need to do is learn how to be descriptive. You need to show them exactly what they will see when they click to open the email. Understand that some people are just not interested in your offer, no matter how good, or hard you try. This is one of the most important things you need to learn to improve your lead generation. These people were never your target audience, to begin with, so don’t fear losing them if you reveal too much in the subject line.
With any business proposition, managing expectations is pivotal. You need to start doing this as early as the subject line.
6. Improve your CTA
Regardless of your goal, every email's end goal is for the recipient to respond to your CTA. You want people to be intrigued enough to follow the email link or click the CTA button. Now, the format of this button may also play a role in your CTR.
People respond well to visual stimuli, so you must use some tricks to improve the situation. For instance, you could:
Including a video in your email can drastically improve your CTR. According to some estimates, by as much as 200-300%. Still, this is the most impactful on desktops.
Each of these steps can improve your email marketing strategy for the better
The main reason why a step-by-step approach is so important is that it gives you a more systemic approach to email marketing. The chance that you’ll skip something important will diminish, and your success rates will sore high.