Having a mailing list for email marketing isn’t unusual for businesses, but many companies aren’t using this list as effectively as they can. Each and every time you send an email to anybody on your list, it needs to contain a clear message that is relevant to the recipient. You need to anticipate the recipient’s needs and address them immediately in the message. This isn’t about mind-reading, but about gathering data, using it wisely, and crafting compelling marketing messages that will convert readers into buyers.
Potential ROI of Email Marketing
Email marketing is too valuable to skip entirely, or to continue plodding along with a system that isn’t actually resulting in customer conversion. Research shows that a return of $20 for each dollar spent on email marketing isn’t unusual. So this begs the question of why you would ever skimp on your email marketing campaign. This is a way to reach people who have expressed enough interest in your company to provide their email addresses, and all that’s left for you to do is to reach them with a relevant message.
The Key: Mailing List Segmentation
If you have just one mailing list, you’re missing out on the most important element of successful email marketing. Rather than sending the exact same message to all of your subscribers, you need to segment your list into groups of people who have similar interests and needs. Subscribers can even be included in multiple groups. For example, you may have someone tagged as having a birthday in March, making two to five purchases through you in the last year and having abandoned at least one item in a shopping cart.
Tips for Writing Relevant Email Marketing Messages
- Put yourself in the shoes of the type of person you are writing to before you begin writing. Ask yourself what issues this person is concerned with, what his goals are when interacting with your business and what would get him to act on an email.
- Include a call to action in the subject line of the email and express it clearly throughout the body of the message. People need to know before they open the email that there’s something relevant for them to do now. Otherwise, it will just sit in the inbox unopened.
- Revise your email when you are done writing it. Cut anything that isn’t relevant so you keep the message short, sweet and informative. Your message needs to communicate what people should do, leaving the “why” brief or implied so they don’t feel like they’re trying to be convinced of something.
- Create automated messages to improve people’s overall engagement with your brand following specific events. For example, create a reactivation email for someone who hasn’t opened any of the last 10 messages you sent. Other ideas include customer reward emails once someone hits a specific spending trigger and follow-up emails inviting customers to review their recent orders.
Before hitting the “send” button on any marketing email, take a few minutes to consider the effectiveness of your message. If it is relevant to your recipients and contains a clear call to action, it is likely to be quite successful. As you develop the ability to craft successful emails, you’ll see a larger return on your email marketing investment.
