According to Salecycle, 50% of people buy from marketing emails at least once per month. Their report stresses how email remains one of the best-performing marketing channels and I am not surprised in the slightest as I have observed the same type of data during my professional experience.
I can also concur with the findings by HubSpot, which reflect that the most effective strategies for email marketing campaigns are subscriber segmentation (78%), message personalisation (72%), and email automation campaigns (71%) (HubSpot Research).
Also in that report, polls to B2B marketers highlight how new product and feature announcement marketing emails have the highest click-through rate. And B2C polls found that 8 out of 10 people will open a welcome email, generating 4x as many opens and 10x as many clicks as other email types.
So, if you want to know what makes a killer email marketing campaign, keep on reading because I show the top strategies in this article.
1. The Base: Continual Branding
Consistent branding is a critical component of effective email marketing. It contributes to the maintenance of a professional image, which increases your credibility in the eyes of your subscribers. It enhances brand awareness and generates trust with your consumers. When subscribers see recognisable branding in your emails on a continuous basis, they acquire a sense of connection and reliability, which leads to increased conversions. You build a unified and recognisable identity for your brand by using consistent branding elements such as logos, colours, and typefaces on the design of your email templates.
2. Slice and dice: Otherwise known as Segmentation
Subscriber segmentation is a core tactic of any effective email marketing strategy. It entails organising email recipients into smaller groups such as prospects and customers and their types of engagement. For example, a user abandoning your site´s cart can be a prospect – who may be converted into a customer – if they receive an email reminding them of the items they desired to purchase).
Segmentation is essential for basic personalisation and the bedrock of automation, which takes us to…
3. The Humanoid Approach: Ultra Personalisation and Automation (Hello, Sequencing)
“Email marketing ROI can be as high as 3800%, generating as much as $38 for every $1 spent. An email sequence adds even more value because of the time it can save. In addition, they’ve been found to generate 320% more revenue than non-automated emails.” (Matthew Scott from FEED.The Agency, contributing to Hubspot Blog)
When it comes to personalisation, as well as using first names we can tailor our emails to our recipients according to their:
Location (and local festivities – for example, Pride is a major celebration in Brighton and Hove)
Birthdays and Anniversaries
Interests
Transaction history
In terms of subject lines, it is proven that those that are precise and succinct work best to capture the recipient’s attention. Including an emoji or two can also help attract their engagement. Use pre-header text to provide further context to your email content.
Overall, the most effective email subject lines pique the recipient’s curiosity, feature promotional offers, and are tailored to the recipient’s specific interests.
Do not forget to select a personable sender name and a professional email address using your domain instead of a generic one (which breeds spam suspicion) and you are set.
Next step, Sequencing.
We would use sequencing to automate the process of nurturing, converting, retaining and reengaging our customers. An email sequence can be either trigger-based or time-based.
Trigger-based sequencing is tied to user actions such as visiting a particular page on your website, subscribing to your email list, purchasing a product, or, when it comes to events, attending one of your events, amongst other user behaviours.
Drip campaigns are a sequence of pre-scheduled emails that deliver targeted content to subscribers over time. By strategically designing these campaigns, you can provide valuable information, address pain points, and showcase the benefits of your products or services, all of which help to increase conversions.
4. Content is King of every realm
The aim is to craft content from which your recipients not only would not dare to unsubscribe but actually look forward to receive like a royal visit. These are the main aspects to consider in mastering successful commercial email crafting:
- Appearance
Using eye-catching images is a great approach to make your emails visually interesting and captivate your subscribers’ attention. Using attractive, high-quality images can help showcase your products or services most appealingly, allowing subscribers to connect with your offerings. Graphics, such as infographics or charts, can effectively convey information in an easily digestible format.
Videos are another powerful visual tool that can deliver your message in an engaging and interactive way. Whether it’s a product demonstration, a tutorial, or a behind-the-scenes look, videos can increase viewer engagement and leave a lasting impression. By leveraging eye-catching visuals, you not only enhance the aesthetics of your emails but also make them more engaging, memorable, and effective in conveying your message to your subscribers. - Length
It is critical to keep your emails succinct in order to capture and hold your receivers’ attention. Breaking material down into small parts, and using bullet points, subheadings and short paragraphs, allows readers to rapidly comprehend the important points without becoming overwhelmed. Also, concise emails respect your subscribers’ time while also increasing the likelihood that they will read the full message.
- Substance & Context
Offering unique material, promotions, or discounts to your recipients does certainly assist in enhancing their engagement. As a I mentioned earlier, sending birthday offers or anniversary emails can help you foster customer loyalty and create a strong connection.
Also, by analysing customer behaviour, purchase history, and preferences, you can deliver targeted and relevant product recommendations or tailored offers that demonstrate that you understand your customers’ needs and interests. All of this makes your emails exponentially more valuable and engaging which boosts conversion rates. - Motivation
Use scarcity: Including the concept of scarcity (limited time / availability or amount of stock) in your email content can help create a sense of urgency which functions as an incentive to increase engagement. - Accessibility
By following accessibility rules for email design and content, you ensure that people with disabilities can properly access and engage with your email content. Consider adding features like alt text for photos, which gives descriptive text for visually impaired users who use screen readers. Use legible typography – and appropriate colour contrasts – plus avoid relying only on visual cues.
Structure your emails with headers, subheadings, and proper HTML code to also make it easier for screen reader users to navigate. By making your emails accessible, you meet legal requirements and demonstrate your dedication to inclusion. This, in turn, will help you reach a larger audience. - Social proof & sharing
Including social proof such as customer reviews, ratings, and testimonials helps build trust and increase engagement.
Additionally, by integrating social media sharing buttons in your emails, you enable recipients to easily share your material with their own networks. This not only raises brand awareness but also has the ability to bring in new subscribers.
Furthermore, connecting social media helps you to cross-promote your social channels, encouraging email recipients to connect with your company across several platforms. This is what I call an all-round win.
5. CTA your way into their heart
But, for the love of all that is nice and true: Use a single CTA.
Using a single call-to-action (CTA) in your email will help increase engagement by reducing confusion and making it easier for the recipient to take action.
6. Legally subscribed
It is very important that you respect your recipients’ preferences and that they have explicitly agreed to receive your emails via an Opt-in. This contributes to the maintenance of a healthy and engaged subscriber base that is really interested in your material.
It is also critical to provide a clear and easy-to-find unsubscribe option. While it may appear counterproductive making it simple for users to unsubscribe is ultimately more advantageous. It enables people who are no longer interested in your emails to unsubscribe, ensuring that you keep a high-quality and engaged audience. At the same time, it serves to build trust and credibility while preventing potential complaints and spam reports by prioritising openness and allowing recipients choice over their subscriptions.
7. Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3…
Test your emails across many email clients and platforms to provide a consistent and ideal experience for all recipients. This involves inspecting image rendering, text formatting, responsive design, link functionality and CTA behaviour. Email clients like Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, and others may render emails differently, resulting in differences in formatting, layout, and overall presentation. You may uncover errors or inconsistencies that will alert you to make the required tweaks in order to reduce the chance of broken layouts or distorted content.
Additionally, it is always a good idea to carry out A/B Testing. Testing different subject lines, email content, and CTAs helps optimise campaigns for better open rates and engagement.
8. The good, the bad, the ugly and the efficacy you learnt
Monitoring email analytics is vital to understand the performance of your email marketing efforts. It will allow you to make data-driven decisions to increase their efficacy. Analysing key email metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates on a regular basis will provide you with a comprehensive perspective of how your audience interacts with your content and aid in the identification of trends, strengths, and places for improvement.
For example, if you detect a drop in open rates, you can experiment with different subject lines or adjust your sending schedules to enhance interaction. If your click-through rates are low, you can improve the relevance of your content or optimise your calls-to-action. You will only fully understand what resonates with your customers by regularly monitoring email stats.
9. Grow that raw list and prosper organically
Email list growth is a continuous effort in email marketing. Actively advertising your email newsletter on all channels helps to increase your subscriber base. Make it a focal point on your website, blog, and social media accounts to encourage visitors to sign up and stay engaged. To encourage subscriptions, provide subscribers with special information such as industry insights, how-to guides, or valuable tools.
Consider offering special discounts, promotions, or freebies to new subscribers as a welcome gesture. By providing these incentives, you not only attract potential subscribers’ interest but also demonstrate the value they will gain by joining your email list.
Remember to optimise your sign-up forms so that they are user-friendly and gather essential information so that future messages can be personalised.
10. Last golden Jedi trick
Introduce a CTA in your autoresponder email. According to GetResponse, the single message autoresponder email had an astonishing 98% open rate and a 37% click-through rate.
Who would have thought, right?
Well, now you know, Obi-Wan, so use it to bend the force of digital communication in your favour.
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