Carrying out email marketing campaigns can be very positive for your brand, since it is one of the most effective strategies to obtain a high return on investment.
Email marketing has been widely recognized as having one of the best returns on investment in small business marketing efforts.
However, with so many brands sending emails, it can be difficult to determine how to create a strategy that produces consistent results.
In this article we are going to take a detailed look at six of the best email marketing practices that brands should follow.
1. Segmentation of email marketing lists
Gone are the days when you could just create an email, send it to your subscribers, and that's it. Today we know that your target audience is not homogeneous and your email marketing strategy needs to reflect that.
You need to segment your audience based on demographic information, particular interests in your brand, and how people interact with your content.
The moment you receive subscription requests to your mailing list, analyze these subscribers and determine which group the people belong to.
In this way you can ensure that the right content reaches the right person and in the most optimal way.
Here are some ways you can segment your list:
- Job title
- Salary range
- Location
- Demographic
- Use of social networks
- purchase history
- brand loyalty
- new vs old customer
Of course, these are just some of the ways that brands can segment their lists. The truth is that there are multiple points that can lead to list segmentation for a more precise:
Segmentation requires a lot of analysis, which means you need enough data to understand what your customers need from you and how.
It would be a great idea to use an email automation tool that can give you these analytics, but you can also manually input them to get some of the data through forms on your website.
2. A/B testing
No strategy is perfect. Also, all marketers should know that the best way to improve is through testing different hypotheses.
In email marketing, A/B tests are mandatory. It's the best way to understand what works and what needs improvement.
A /B testing is essentially a controlled experiment. You send your email format to a part of your subscribers and on the other hand you send an alternate version (the one you would like to adopt) to a similar list to see which one has better results.
There are numerous ways you can A/B test your email marketing campaigns:
- Use different subject lines with the same email content.
- Try different calls to action.
- Make subtle variations in the text.
- Vary your newsletter templates .
- Use a different time for shipments.
When you send to different lists, you should closely examine the results.
Remember that there should be a slight increase in the open rate (10% – 20%) for you to determine what your next actions are to take.
3. Personalization
At a certain point we have mentioned the importance of creating segmented lists and one of the main reasons is the increase in personalized content.
You need to understand what your lists need from you so that you can customize the content of the email for them and thus increase the chances of repeat purchases from you.
The main reason this works is because more and more promotional emails are constantly being sent to people.
There are so many brands trying to reach the same people and you need to give them a reason to click on your email and not pass it by.
The best way to do this is by customizing the content for the target audience. Make it as if the content was made specifically for them and not for a homogeneous group. For example, a specialized infographic or perhaps a video or meme.
However, personalization goes beyond making greetings, it means creating content, including texts and visual elements that are attractive to each segment.
Of course, this requires more effort on the part of the marketing team, but at the same time you will achieve a much higher ROI than what you achieved with sending a generic email to your entire database.
4. Stay on brand
We already mentioned how people nowadays receive numerous emails every day.
Even if you manage to segment your lists and personalize your emails, how do you ensure that people will recognize your brand and not confuse it with another?
Your brand needs to be memorable but also not to the point of rubbing in people's faces. Include the brand logo and use the colors and fonts, but it's not the only thing you should focus on. There is a delicate balance between being subtle and obvious that you have to achieve.
Here are some ways you can highlight your brand in your email marketing strategy:
- Use welcome emails that can attract customers to your brand.
- Share stories about your employees and customers.
- Showcase your brand's charity and social work.
- Highlight employees and their work.
- Add testimonials from your clients.
A company's brand is not just about having visual elements that are easily recognizable, but also about the personality and ethics behind it.
5. Call to action
Your emails should include a call to action as without it you are not encouraging readers to connect with your brand.
To achieve this it is important to create a perfect call to action, something that is relevant and that encourages people to take more steps to connect with your brand.
Here are some calls to action that you can adopt:
- Buy now
- visitors
- get your discount
- Read more
- get your gift
- Claim your coupon
- download now
- Watch now
You can tailor each call to action to your content for your ultimate purpose. You can also try A/B tests to see what type of call to action works best for your email marketing.
6. Using the right metrics
Sending emails, even after doing lists and A/B tests, is not the end goal. You need to know if the email marketing strategy is working and how you can improve it.
The best way to achieve this is by looking at certain metrics. you need to know which metrics work best for yours. Those that are usually associated with email marketing are:
- Open rate
- click rate
- Opening time
- bounce rate
- discharged
- conversions
- purchase rate
- Profits
Keep in mind that not all metrics can be applied uniformly across all emails and brands.
Even if you send informative emails, you will want readers to visit a page. Other emails will have more persuasive purposes to make a purchase.
It is important that you select the metrics that you are going to use in each email so that you can analyze the effectiveness of the email marketing strategy.
Carrying out email marketing strategies requires patience and practice.
After following these six best practices, you will be able to run more effective campaigns with excellent returns on investment.
