When talking about email marketing, I am frustrated, and you will understand why. When I hear pseudo-experts predicting that it’s dead every year, I cannot stop crying with laughter. Is email marketing dead? Let’s look at the statistics more closely…
In 2013, 3.9 billion emails had sent around the world, and we would even talk about 4.9 billion in 2018;
- 95% of online consumers use their email;
- 91% of consumers check their email once a day;
- The average return for every $ 1 spent on email marketing is $ 44.25;
- Email is 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined.
So how did they see that email marketing would have bowed out? I challenge you: whoever does not open at least three times a week his email writes me directly in the comments section, I will give him a free audit of his content marketing … The truth is that you have to start to Consider email marketing as a safe bet and give it more space in your marketing arsenal.
“The money is in the list”, I bet you have already read this maxim on the web. And my faith, this assertion is TRUE.
With the unfaithfulness of readers and the hyper-solicitation they are subjected to on a daily basis, email becomes a strategic tool in the hands of web entrepreneurs. What can it serve? Well, here are some advantages:
- Retain your client
- Offer services
- Introduce prospects into a sales tunnel;
- Convert an opportunity into a customer;
- Engage a one-to-one discussion;
- Promote its content or services/products.
Email helps to do more, and you will learn today to make the most of it. What will you get from reading this article? Proven tips to help you succeed in your use of email marketing in your business. These tips will help you save time and money.
1. Use A Captivating, Short and Sometimes Provocative Title
Nobody will click on your email if your title is flat and dull. The emails that have the best opening rates have a short title (between 6 and 11 words), and that goes straight to the point. It must also focus on the reader and respond to his needs by highlighting the results that can achieve.
For example:
1. Do you want to increase your Facebook fans?
2. Are you part of this group?
The use of titles with numbers is recommended.
2. Write as If It Were to A Friend: Speak to them Directly, Use the You, Then You or Their First Name If Possible
Do you know why some emails are not read until the end? It’s simple: the reader feels nothing by reading them. He has the impression of being in front of a company that is too cold. How is it possible? First, by the absence of his name or surname. It sounds more like an anonymous email while readers want to enter a one-to-one communication scheme. And email marketing makes it possible to do just that.
Then, these emails use too much of us whereas it is the you which must be dominant, I will say even arch-dominant. Readers like to know we’re talking about them, not other people. That is human psychology, AND you have to take it into account.
3. Define Your Resources
This allows to arbitrate the potential of your (future) ecosystem content: what do you want to create and how often, what are the internal and / or external resources available, what budget do you want to devote to the promotion of your content and under what form (email marketing, AdWords, social ads, or just earned media).
4. Define Your Positioning
What is your differentiating value, what message (s) do you want to convey, which product (s) to value. You can also see the efforts required to be (more) present by performing a benchmark on your use of content marketing, versus your competitors.
5. Define A Content Marketing Plan
What are the specific options available for using X or Y format depending on the spaces, for which purpose (s), and for which campaign (s): content size, tone, types of links, recurrence of publications and timing, visual kind and size, etc.
6. Activate And Assimilate A Continuous Follow-Up
This will help you value a brand communication that aligns with the needs of your customers or prospects. Follow up in two ways:
Custom: Make sure your content links to the uses of your product or service by your audience
Timeline: Make sure your content is relevant to the news, continually measure reach and ROI for comparisons over time.
This follow-up will allow you, as part of your plan, to adapt your activities according to the results.
7. Do Not Spam
By reading hundreds of emails a month, readers have developed their ability to detect spam. Whenever you use terms like incredible – grand – promotion – free, they will see you as an old drug dealer. Avoid using these terms. So, What Is Strategy for avoiding spamming? Just be Good, targeted, and don’t send too many emails or newsletters.
Also, so that we do not put your email address in spam, you must avoid sending several emails per week or day. There are rare cases where you can afford it. It is the case of RahulDigital.org which sends its newsletter every day but leaves the possibility to subscribers to choose their frequency (daily or weekly). Thus, everyone is free to choose the option that suits him best.
8. Encourage Your Audience
Your matrix in place, in tune with your marketing goals to acquire, convert and retain customers, you will ensure that your content generates interactions, which it relayed and shared. It is the goal of virality. It can pass to this effect by the search for brand ambassadors or relays of influence.
9. Just Ask for One Thing
The human being is extraordinary. It is said to be intelligent, governing the animal kingdom. However, you will be surprised to learn this: studies have shown that by asking a person several things, the person is confused, which sometimes causes them to make a wrong choice.
If you want your readers to respond to your emails, ask them to do a single action to make it easier. It implies that the structure of your email must converge towards a single goal. It can be to leave a message, visit your blog, share the content of your email, etc. Anyway, you have to ask him to do one thing.
10. Do Not Write Long Email
We are overwhelmed with information: on TV, radio, web, newsprint … So, we do not need too much information. If you want to be lucky, do not make large or long emails so as not to discourage the reader from continuing to read you.
11. Segment
In your email marketing strategy, you recruit your subscribers in several ways. It can be by:
Your landing page with a bonus to download.
- A registration forms.
- A pop-up windows.
- Or a link on another blog or Facebook.
And you probably had to design each captured source with different content, purpose, and message. You will understand that to gain efficiency, and you must treat each case differently. By doing so, you communicate individually with each segment, and you will not have to mix pears with apricots or celery. So, segment, segment.
12. Vary the Type of Content
Even in email marketing, you have to define a content strategy, at least concerning the type of content. By delivering one category, you will quickly annoy your audience. The best is to diversify your offer.
How to proceed? On the one hand, you can send the link to your new article, for example, today. Another day, you post a selection of the best web content on a specific subject. The next day, you post fun and educational video, a little inspiring discovery, and so on. You see a little what I want to talk about: mix, but still useful and fun.
13. Choose A Good Timing
I sometimes hear managers complaining that readers do not open their email. Indeed, they send their email at the busiest hours of readers, or during sick days. Generally, Monday is not a very good day, which means that if you have something exciting to share, it is better to send it on Tuesday. In fact, Monday is the first day of the week. With the preparation of the schedule for the whole week, difficult to open all his emails, except those that are expected.
Concerning time, there are two ideal periods: in the morning and at the end of the day. In the morning, because everyone makes an effort to read his emails once standing (yes …) or earlier in the office. And at the end of the day, when it’s almost time to go home. Some even sometimes read their email just before going to bed.
14. Produce Relevant And Recyclable Content
The engaging content, which will remain relevant in the months to come, will keep its interest and generate traffic. Because creating your content is also a significant investment, recycling and adapting them makes it possible to optimise the ROI of your messages.
15. Optimize Your Content To Different Devices
Given the weight of content consumption from smartphones, it must be ensured that the media can read your content from computer, tablet, or mobile. If your site is not responsive, it is better to focus for example on the creation of a blog dedicated to this purpose, reserved for communication to your communities.
What To Avoid
If there are rules to respect for triumphant marketing success, there are also things not to do. Some of the following points may seem obvious. However, it is good to keep them in mind if you want to get into content marketing.
Once your strategy is in place, and when you’re ready to start producing new content remember to avoid:
- Poor quality content (mistakes, inappropriate vocabulary, visuals in the wrong format or poor quality)
- Content that is not original (plagiarised)
- Uninteresting, commercial or unreliable content, which is not searched, and little or no relevance to branding
- Non-optimized content for search engines
- Not to include images, videos, customer testimonials etc.
- Neglecting content creation with new ideas
To confuse or equate content marketing and brand content: If the two are complementary, the brand content is clearly brand oriented and often on operations or one-shot campaigns, like the marketing content that is part of a long-term strategy to build an audience (user centric). The latter also has a real editorial approach long-term where brand content encompasses more widely different forms of brand content.
In the end, there are many criteria to respect to succeed its email marketing strategy including the principles mentioned in this article. If they are well respected, you will win LARGE. So, a tip now takes a card and start listing what you did not do before to catch up.
But before we separate, what are the tips that you use daily to manage your email marketing. I look forward to hearing from you!