E-mail has been one of the most productive communication channels for the business world for a long time. Even though new channels like social media invaded the engagement and lead generation scenes, still brands can’t give up e-mail marketing activities. Several global and local research studies show why marketers keep on investing in our dear old friend. E-mail marketing outpaces other channels in critical KPIs like ROI, customer acquisition, open/click through/engagement rates and customer lifetime value.
While e-mail marketing is an essential tool for engagement, many brands fail to use it properly to generate satisfying results. Serving a countless number of clients for over ten years, we gathered some practical tips for your use. Crafted from real business life experiences, we hope these hints will add productivity to your efforts as well.
1) Segment your audience, improve relevance
The reason is quite simple. You need to send the right content to the relevant part of your subscriber group. Segmentation helps you in running multiple campaigns for your audience as well. Just think of a situation where a brand consistently sends you messages that are irrelevant. You simply opt-out, right? Segmentation is one of the best ways to decrease unsubscribe rates.
2) Use “Subject” as a magnet, not a distractor
No matter how you deliver an amazing offer with a fantastic layout and content if you don’t have a catchy subject, the campaign will most likely go unnoticed. Avoid long and spammy sentences when creating subject lines. Also stay away from using all caps sentences, because you don’t want to shout at your audience. Considering that mobile users will also check your e-mails, 45-50 characters long subject lines will work well for your aims.
3) Avoid long texts, give importance to design
The digital life shortened our attention span, and modern consumers lose their patience so quickly. E-mails with long text parts are not engaging. Just clearly outline the message or benefit you want to share with your audience. For details direct them to your website or other content resources. Use eye-catching visuals with a nice design to grab their attention. Your e-mail designs are also parts of your brand identity. Use them to unify your image.
4) Don’t forget to add CTAs in your e-mails
CTA (Click to Action) is a great way for triggering marketing activities. Via these clickable visuals or links, you can direct your members to your marketing goals. You can lead your audience to visit your website or blog pages, make them participate in your campaigns, sign in your events, download your marketing documents, follow you on social media. CTAs are very useful for increasing engagement. Also, keep in mind that overload of CTAs can be messy for your users. To avoid distraction, keep CTAs up to two per mail.
5) Include your social media links
Social media is another great engagement medium for brands. Including the social media links in e-mails helps driving new followers to your accounts and expands your reach.
6) Check mobile friendliness
As mobile users surpass the rest, it is very critical to test your e-mails before taking action. Check if they are properly displayed in different mobile gears. Don’t risk missing the consumers on the go.
7) Blend e-mail marketing with other channels
To increase the impact of your campaigns, you can use e-mail marketing with other channels like SMS, push notifications, beacon, location-based services. Furthermore, you may consider starting marketing automation to optimize your channel efforts.
Market indications show that e-mail marketing will stay as an essential engagement tool for brands in the coming years. Now it’s time to keep the focus on this productive channel and chase opportunities it will bring. Remembering that it’s not a “Send and Forget” practice anymore, brands need to think of it as a channel of precise planning, execution, and consistency.
If you have questions to ask regarding e-mail marketing, we are here to help you.
Are you new to email marketing? Then, you are in the right place. In this post, we will go through the fundamentals of this critical digital marketing strategy.
Email is one of the world’s largest ways of sharing messages, nearly fifty years old. E-mail, which is used by 4 billion people today, has included e-mail marketing companies and their products in the sector as a new advertising branch.
The first bulk email samples for digital marketing purposes were sent to approximately four hundred people in 1987 by Gary Thuerk. Thuerk sent the first ‘Spam’ (unsolicited message sent from the internet) message in history, after the users to whom the message was sent complained to the internet provider companies. In his journey to promote his own computer system, he found a new way for companies to reach more people to market their products, promote their new products, and keep their customers interested in the products.
The first spam mails that made e-mail marketing popular were experienced in 1997 by Lawyers Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel, when they shared e-mail samples to help refugees who want to come to the United States with their green card applications in exchange for money. Neither of them had high hopes for these messages, but they earned around $100,000 from applications. Thus, e-mail marketing was born.
What is Email Marketing?
E-mail marketing is a digital marketing method that aims to see people using e-mail services as potential customers or to inform already existing customers about new products, to inform about campaigns and discounts, to ensure that their interest in the company is not lost.
Although it has been used since 1987, companies still use email marketing as one of the most effective ways to attract and retain new customers. Although many people in daily life say that they are uncomfortable with these messages, according to a study by HubSpot, 59% of e-mail users reaching four billion daily state that incoming e-mails have a positive effect on their decisions while buying a product.
How to Email Marketing?
E-mail marketing provides the easiest and most effective ways to reach people, regardless of the economic situation of the business, because it is cheap and allows you to direct your target audience to the product you want. With event news sent to potential buyers, special gifts and discounts for customers, you can make the customer feel privileged for choosing you, and you can increase the number of active users by allowing them to shop at a discount. In this way, you can maintain your visibility and ensure that your brand is permanent.
The first thing to consider when marketing with e-mail is to make a list of customers who subscribe to see your content and indicate that they want to receive e-mails. You should prepare good content, taking into account the needs and wants of this audience. One of the easiest ways to do this is to ask the user to fill in information such as age, gender, region of residence, education level when registering on your website. A second method, if you prefer platforms that allow advertising such as Facebook, you can use the data of users who interacted with your page using Facebook App.
The shared message must be thoroughly checked before advertising the content. Links that will activate the customer (such as visit the application or start shopping) should be placed and the functionality of these links should be checked. It is important that the message content is as short as possible. The message to be conveyed should be conveyed to the user in a plain language as much as possible.
You can learn more about the benefits of email marketing here.
What are the Advantages of Email Marketing?
The biggest advantage of e-mail marketing is that it is cheap. Since the advertisement you will give will be completely virtual, your expenses such as printing cost and advertising fee will be over. Since the people you will share the message with will be people who have already interacted with your site or who have declared their interest in your products by becoming a member of your site, you are more likely to receive the return of the advertisement. In other words, you increase your sales and your prestige increases. Another advantage is that companies can choose the audience they want to address. For example, since an advertisement for World Environmental Day is designed according to environmentalists, people who search for certain words on the internet are more likely to see your advertisement.
With the wide design options offered by various internet programs, you can create your designs in a way that belongs to your brand. Thus, you have a certain image in the eyes of the user and certain designs evoke your brand. For example, various food brands only use products that they produce, and users can distinguish the brand from others even by the brand’s logo and the taste of the product.
Why E-Mail Marketing Is Important?
It is known that at least 80% of users check their e-mail address at least once a day. For this reason, e-mail is considered the most widely used digital communication tool. It is more advantageous compared to other types of advertising in terms of reading, clicking, viewing the sent message and increasing the sales made from the link. Email Service Providers can confirm this with their measurements. With this data, you can strengthen your brand by analyzing first-hand what kind of advertisements users like or which types of users are interested in which types of products.
Unlike other advertising platforms, you can customize your ad according to your own brand and add links suitable for your target audience. You can increase the reputation of the brand in the eyes of the customer, as it will allow you to prepare content for specific groups. Since you can detect when the customer sees the message, you can make special internet discounts for customers or on a specific day (Republic Day, the date of the person’s membership to the site, etc.). You will see the benefit of these e-mails, which make your users feel special, in a short time in terms of sales traffic. You can also read our article where we offer suggestions to increase e-mail subscribers to make a significant contribution to your business.
What Are the Types of Email Marketing?
The first of the marketing options most commonly applied by companies is the ‘Welcome’ message sent after the user becomes a member of your website. With this method, you make the user feel very special and you can encourage them to start shopping with the links you provide. It is very important that the messages sent after the first message are catchy and appealing to the eye. These messages, which are sent at regular intervals, create a constant expectation in the user and keep their interest constantly active. With this method, you both maintain the interest in your product and do not lose members.
Since mailings often show content you’ve already produced, most large companies promote their bestsellers. Thus, they maintain the interest in these products and attract new users to their sites. The large number of popular products creates a sense of trust in new users. This way you sell more.
Another E-mail marketing method is E-mails promoting various campaigns, discounts on new products, upcoming webinars and upcoming events. These mails encourage your company’s activity and user visits to the site at various intervals.
Tips for Successful Email Marketing
First of all, the first thing you should pay attention to is to prepare a list of users to whom you will send e-mail. Preparing messages that are tailored to the person or that will attract the attention of a certain group of people both increase the display of the message and enable you to maintain the interest of the user.
Secondly, if your company is internationally visible, it is very important to pay attention to the user rights of the country you are sending the message to. For example, if you are sending messages to your subscribers or users in America, you should pay attention to the “Can-Spam Act” law. Thanks to this law, American users have the right to complain about you, if the same messages are sent repeatedly, if the information in the message is false and deceptive, or if you do not give your company the right to withdraw their subscription at any time. In addition, if the title and the content are not similar, the e-mail may be sent to the spam box and the message you send may never reach the user. If you receive more than one penalty, it can go as far as restricting the company’s presence on the internet, and you can be provided with penalties that will tarnish your company’s name.
Third, be careful that the messages you send meet the user on certain days and pay attention to the style of the message. One of the best ways to show your customers that you respect them and prove that you are trying to publish exclusive content is style. It has been observed by various surveys that sending messages on certain days increases the expectation of the user, as well as having positive effects for marketing.
Finally, make sure that messages are integrated into mobile devices. The recent increase in the use of mobile phones has caused messages and e-mails to be viewed on the phone. Producing content suitable for mobile and tablets in order to appeal to the eye and convey the advertisement properly, and if possible, giving the user the option to view the advertisement with whatever technological device he uses, will make the customer feel more special.
How to Collect Email Data?
The most logical way to collect data via e-mail is to find a way to attract the attention of the user with as few advertisements as possible. If you send E-mail too often, you are more likely to end up with spam. Therefore, the advertisements you give do not receive the necessary interaction, and the advertisement you give squeezes the subscribers you have, leading to a decrease in their number. If you’re a start-up or mid-level business owner, your first goal is to attract more audience to your site than to sell. Remember that as the number of people visiting your site constantly increases, your sales will increase at the same rate.
The easiest way to get an Email address from people visiting your site is to have them fill out a ‘Personal Information Form’. If you make this form visible on your site as much as possible, you are more likely to get feedback from users who are already interested in your product.
Designing your site well allows users to navigate the site without getting bored and easily keep track of popular products as well as the latest products you have released. Creating a visible E-Newsletter will also help you increase permanent users.
mail marketing is a low cost and effective marketing strategy to reach the right audience with engaging messages. Shooting the target at the right time with the best content is the key to campaign success. On the other hand, when your customers mark your emails as spamming, the vital metrics, including the open rate eventually decrease, and this productive channel becomes an inefficient method. Evaluating campaign performance by carefully tracking the open rates will help you organize more effective tactics in your campaign strategies. We compiled useful tips to increase your success in reaching more customers and delivering more powerful messages.
Your Titles Should Be Short, Clear and Remarkable
At first, you need to grab your customers’ attention with an attractive title, a subject headline that will direct them to email. You can highlight your campaign with an attractive subject. The title should not exceed 40-50 characters.
Attention to the Buttons in Your Email Contents!
Your emails should contain CTA (Call to action) buttons to trigger your subscribers to take action. Announcing a discounted product or a service at the top of the page is an example of increasing read rates and engagement.
Content Uniqueness is Important
Contents should be relevant to your customers or visitors. Contents that will add value to their businesses lead them keeps them engaged. If your subscribers find your content valuable, most likely they will share it with others. This is a good way to increase your subscriber volume as well. Don’t forget to add share links to increase the reach. Along with the marketing content, you should always share useful and practical information. A balance between sales-oriented and informative content is the key to success.
Create Loyalty with Contests and Gift Vouchers
You can increase the engagement of your subscribers by organizing online contests. Human nature is triggered by competing and winning. You can make your subscribers happy with small fun contests. Also, gift vouchers, special discounts, on products and services will attract their attention. You can convey this announcement to your users with beautiful email designs.
Don’t Forget to Personalize Your Emails
You should personalize your emails to increase your open rates and gain loyalty. Statistics show that open rates of personalized emails are higher. Gathering information about users is very important to ensure continuity. At this point, information including name/surname, geographic location, birthday, gender, order history is beneficiary. To provide more personalization, you can prepare short surveys that will not bother them and share them via emails.
Also, in your personalized e-mails, you can remind them of the products they left in the basket or offer them campaigns containing products they frequently buy. In this way, you can keep your database active.
Be Careful About the Tone of Your Voice and Communication Style
The way you communicate with your subscribers determines the relationship you will have in the future. A warm and informal style can make them feel special. Consumers prefer to be treated as individuals, not like figures, so they fancy humane conversation. Your members should feel like the e-mail arrived from one of their friends. Tons of e-mails arrive in boxes of each member during the day. Some of them go unnoticed because they do not attract the members enough, and some of them fall into the spam folder. At this point, you should make a difference. Personalized emails make users feel special and increase their loyalty.
Don’t Let the Shoppers Forget You
For shoppers who did not buy anything from your store for a specific time, you can send email campaigns with special discounts to start engagement again. You can show how you missed them with unique offers. In these e-mails, using conversational language like ‘We would like to see you again’, ‘We missed you so much’, or ‘This special discount is for you’ may have more impact. Communicating with your subscribers on a meaningful frequency will make them remember you and shop from your shops and e-stores.
You Should Remove Uninterested Users from Your Database
You can send an e-mail to users who do not look at your e-mails in the long term, indicating that they will be unsubscribed if they do not sign up again. For inactive members, you can send an email asking their intent to stay on the list or not. Thus, you can increase the active subscriber volume on your lists. It paves the way for you to reach the customers who return to emails and want to receive more information.
Make Your Customers Benefit from Cross-Border Campaigns
If you want your customers to see similar products they favor more often, you can draw their attention by email. Since similar products create selective perception, they can lead them to open e-mails and enable you to sign a successful campaign by directing the user to the shopping basket. For example, if your subscriber has already received a mobile phone from you, you can send him an email about the phone case. However, these emails should be relevant to your users and should stay away from being ‘spammy!. Frequency and content are very important to reach campaign success.
You may check some beautiful email campaign examples here.
Feel free to contact us to get more hints on email marketing success.
