The world of digital marketing is vast and there are new ways to engage audiences emerging every day. In both B2B and B2C markets, the need for a strong email marketing strategy can’t be overlooked. From lead nurturing to welcome emails and promotions to email newsletters, there's a lot to unpack. But the gist of it is that you can use email marketing to maximize your revenue, increase your repeat sales, and improve customer retention.
According to industry experts, you should be aiming for an email marketing open rate average benchmark of at least 20%. If you find that your open rate is falling below this benchmark, it may be time to make some adjustments. But what are the right tools for improving your email marketing? We share some helpful tips and tricks to take your email marketing strategy to the next level.
1. Segment your audience
So you've crafted a meticulous email complete with a value proposition and graphics that are meant to catch the eye of potential clients. However, it’s important to think about how you talk to your current or potential clients when doing business. More specifically, you shouldn’t present the same selling points to those just discovering your products and those that are ready to buy. Figuring out your audience, what their pain points, and what their needs are is the single most important step of your process.
Not meeting your audience where they are is where many marketing email strategies fall short. If you're sending the same email to your entire mailing list, then you're not effectively communicating with your audience.
You need to be relevant to each target audience to ensure your email marketing campaigns have the best chance of success, whether it be through immediate sales or increasing interest in your products or services.
One effective way to do this is by breaking your list into segments, based on what stage of the buyer journey each contact is in. The three main stages of the buyer journey are:
- Awareness: A potential client identifies a need
- Consideration: A potential client considers options to fulfill that need
- Decision: A potential client decides who will provide the solution
You can refine these stages even more depending on the industry or role of the people you're targeting.
One useful way to help you segment your audience is through our Lead Nurturing Wrkflow that can organize your recipients depending on where they are in the sales conversion funnel, as well as identifying potential use cases and providing customized product sheets. This is helpful for both your Marketing and Sales teams.
2. Personalize your email subject line
The first thing a potential customer will read (after the sender's name) is the email marketing subject line. How many times have you received an email and you check it on your phone and all you see is the sender and subject? If it's not something that seems interesting or relevant, then what is the incentive to open it?
There are a number of effective approaches for crafting a subject line that grabs attention. For example, you could focus on creating some urgency with your subject line so the potential client opens it now and not in two weeks' time. It could be in the form of a limited-time offer. Speaking of offers, you could also mention a reward for opening the email (free sample products/services, as examples).
Chances are people have signed up for your email list because they see you as an authority and want to be kept informed about news from your industry. Mention trending topics or even big names in the subject line that pique curiosity. But don’t give away everything—create a bit of mystery so the potential client wants more.
There’s also a lot to be said for personalized subject lines based on client data and buying behaviours. In fact, a study by Yes Lifecycle Marketing indicates adding a personal touch to a subject line can increase your email marketing open rate by 50%. Another way to grab attention is by using the first name in the subject line or gearing it towards a product/service that brought them to you in the first place. Don't underestimate the power of personalization in the overall message. Statistics suggest tailoring details to suit the customer can also drive revenue by up to 760%.
3. Keep your outreach short and snappy
Your potential customers are as busy as you are, meaning they don't have time to wade through a long, elaborate email about your product's benefits. To put it into context, close to 300 billion emails are sent and received on a daily basis.
Email statistics predict that by 2025, this number will reach 376.4 billion.
Treat the first line of your email like a lede on a news story. What's it all about? What's the hook? Often this first line also becomes the preview text, which is ranked near the subject line in terms of importance.
From there, make sure you keep your paragraphs short when crafting the remainder of the message. You don't want your customers to get lost in a sea of text!
Avoid sounding like a robot—instead, try and sound like you're chatting with a friend over coffee. Throw in some interesting facts and links, and consider using real and relatable images to boost engagement. Try not to make your email overly "busy" with too many elements and typefaces or you could end up causing your readers visual fatigue.
4. Make accessibility a priority
Put yourself in the shoes of your email recipients. You may think the formatting of your email is clear, but it might not be to them. Instead of using generic terms such as "click here," use anchor text that is concise to the landing page. This will also be helpful to your audience using screen readers.
Not only is accessible content design important from a human rights perspective, but it's also important in business as more than 1 billion people worldwide have some kind of disability. Links that go nowhere and text that is hard to read will quickly repel the majority of these readers.
Writing in plain language as part of your content design strategy is also helpful for your clients. Avoid using technical jargon that might put them off, especially if your target audience is not familiar with certain industry terms. Keep in mind that your recipients might not use English as a first language, so avoid long sentences and local slang at all times.
5. Automate email marketing
Managing your email marketing manually can be time-consuming and ineffective, especially when you're juggling multiple audiences. An email automation strategy is key to send important messages when onboarding new subscribers or to provide important updates about your products or services.
Don't be fooled by the word "automation." While it can verify leads for you, it can also gather important details about the recipient. The result is a custom email that looks like it came from a human.
Wrk’s Personalized Email Marketing Wrkflow can automatically classify your leads based on parameters you place and collect some interesting facts and key data about your recipients to help you speak more effectively to them. This includes adding personalized notes and even recommending specific products/services. Based on the email templates that you create, our Wrkflow can then send your email to your leads and follow up with appropriate email nurturing sequences that you set. While the term automation may imply depersonalization, with automated email workflows, you can get a real human connection at scale.
6. Have a clear call to action
You've created an effective message using all of the best email marketing techniques. So now what? Your potential customer might read it and be intrigued, but without a clear call to action (CTA), they won't know what to do next.
Your CTAs should use active language. For example, "see our latest product" linking to your newest offering, where the customer can easily purchase it. Or, "buy today and get 10% off" as a way to create some incentive and urgency. Let people know if there's a limited number of items or spots available.
A CTA should not be lost in the body of the email. Make sure it stands out, even using a larger font or different text colour if necessary. You've already outlined the potential use cases for your product or service—so don't bog down your CTA with lengthy statements. Keep it short and simple.
7. Always track everything
How do you know if your email marketing techniques are working? The simple answer is by tracking the results. That includes recording when an email was sent, as well as the email marketing open rate. It also pays to know how many people followed the call to action.
By tracking these important metrics as part of your email automation strategy, you can decide which email marketing subject lines and messages perform the best using A/B testing. This valuable information can help your marketing team take the right direction in the future.
We have many Wrk Actions that can help you level up your email marketing strategy. Learn more about them today!
