How to Ensure Your Email Marketing Campaigns Are Reaching the Right People
Why do so many digital marketers fail so miserably when it comes to email marketing campaigns? Successful email marketing isn’t as easy to achieve as it once was. Many people who are targeted via email generally don’t open unknown emails because of all the spam and scams that are currently circulating the internet.
So, how do you build a successful email marketing campaign that is going to convert? Let’s have a look at some of the things to consider to ensure your campaigns are as effective as possible.
Build Your Email List
Building an email list isn’t that hard when you think about it. If you’re looking for subscribers through your blog, all you need to do is provide good content. Of course, there is more to building mailing lists than just content. You can find many guides and tips online to help you build your email list. There are many different methods.
Whatever method you choose to use to build an email list, you need to build one that you can send marketing materials to on a regular basis. Of course, what you want in an email list is quality rather than quantity. Otherwise, you’re going to end up spending money on your email campaigns with very little reward.
Once you have built an email list using any one of the many methods out there, it’s time to verify those emails to ensure any marketing emails you send don’t bounce or end up in a spam folder.
Verify Your Email List
Compiling an email list is actually one of the easiest parts to email marketing. Compiling a list of consumers that are going to read your content is the hard part. Just because you have thousands of email addresses on your list it doesn’t mean that sending out automated emails is a fast-track route to success.
You need to verify those emails to make sure they’re human for a start. In addition, you need to ensure they are the right target audience, so you’re not wasting your time.
There are tools out there that can help with bulk email verification; Quick Email Verification is one such tool that can help businesses check emails on a marketing list. They also offer a free trial with 100 credits daily which is useful. The best tools are not free, but they are accurate, which is important.
It’s vital that you have a bulk email verifier tool at your disposal, the tool will help you test the accuracy of the email addresses to ensure you are not getting as many bounce backs and your emails reach recipients.
Ensure Your Emails Don’t Look Like Spam
If you’ve been sent spam emails in the past, you’ll see how easy it is to spot bogus content from a mile away. Spam emails often use subjects that contain capital letters and plenty of exclamation marks. They try to get your attention by using methods to make you think the email is urgent when it’s clearly not. The last thing you want is your subject lines to look like spam.
Many people now use inbox filters and other automated tools to send suspicious emails straight to the spam folder. There are ways you can counteract this issue by being careful when you design your marketing emails. Try to address the recipient personally rather than write a generic email that looks as if you’ve just sent the same email to thousands of people at the same time.
Constantly Measure Results
It doesn’t matter how much good advice you follow or what tips you choose to implement into your email marketing campaigns – there are no guaranteed results. This is why measuring your data and studying previous marketing campaigns could prove pivotal in your next email blast.
Look at the data to see what emails were active and how many conversions you had from a particular email template style. This is basic stuff, but you can’t afford to ignore the obvious. Always measure your results and it will help you come up with new ideas and strategies to ensure future email marketing campaigns are much more effective.
Make It Easy to Unsubscribe
Having someone unsubscribe is not the worst thing that can happen. If someone is not interested in what you’ve got to offer, there is very little you can do about it. You should always make it easy for your readers to unsubscribe from your newsletters – not adding an unsubscribe link or hiding it away will only cause irritation, which has a negative effect on your brand.
Only send emails to people who actively sign up for marketing messages. These recipients will appreciate what you are offering and are more likely to convert into customers.
Write Clean Content
Content is truly the king of email marketing – and any other marketing method for that matter. If your content isn’t interesting or doesn’t provide any benefit to the reader, they may unsubscribe or just automatically put your future emails in their spam folder.
It’s very easy to lose subscribers just for the smallest of mistakes. For example, readers don’t like poor grammar or a long, rambling email. Always ensure you produce clean, crisp content for your readers, so they have an easy time navigating your emails and an even easier time knowing where they have to go to buy your products.
Create Mobile-Friendly Emails
There is absolutely no excuse if you’re not producing emails for mobile devices these days – nearly everyone uses smartphones. If your emails look unreadable on handheld device browsers, they will be deleted.
Even today there are many email templates out there that are already optimized for mobile email users, so you have no excuse. Just a few lines of HTML code can really make a huge difference in securing new clientele.
Test Your Emails
A/B testing is a big part of a successful email marketing campaign. Send yourself some dummy emails so you can see what your readers on the other end are faced with. If you’re not entertained by the email – your readers won’t be. Test emails and then test them again to make sure they have the best chance of being successful.
Send your colleagues emails to see what they think (always ask for their honest opinion) – it will help you create better emails that could lead to a higher conversion rate.
Always Provide Value to Your Readers
It’s all well and good sending out an email to inform your readers that you have updated your products or website, but how will that benefit them? Let them know what you’ve done and what you’re currently doing to make the whole experience better for them.
Of course, providing value in terms of the content you provide via email is also beneficial. If a reader isn’t wowed by your email subject line, then chances are they’re not going to be wowed by what is inside.
An email marketing campaign can be highly effective if you follow the above tips. If you’re not spending time using tools, producing clean content, or providing an easy way for your readers to unsubscribe should they feel the need to – then you’re doing it all wrong. You need to set your emails apart from all the spam out there, and that can only be done by investing time and effort into your email campaigns.