Several months ago, I visited a website for a local service company. I wanted to compare their services, prices and products with other companies in the area. I scanned the many pages of information and eventually found myself at the website's opt-in box. I signed up for the newsletter that promised I would receive information, coupons and special promotions, quarterly. To date, I haven't received anything. This makes me wonder why a company would create the opportunity to engage its audience and then poop out. What happened? It seems like such a waste of time and money.
Email marketing is a valuable, cost effective tool for any marketing strategy. Every $1 spent yields on average an ROI of $44.25. Spending $500 on an email marketing campaign, on average, will net $22,125. Too good to be true? If you're not witnessing similar results, here are 5 things you can do to make your e-mail marketing actually work:
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5 Tips to Make Your E-Mail Marketing Actually Work[/caption]Make Your Emails Mobile Ready
From now on, start thinking about your target audience opening your emails from their phones; not sitting behind their laptop at home or work. People check their mobile phones up to 150x a day with 58 percent of adults checking email first thing in the morning. You're missing the boat if you haven't included a strategy for mobile e-mail. But you wouldn't be alone, 39% of all marketers don't have one either. With 20% of site sales and over 43% of site traffic coming from mobile devices in 2014, it's important that your marketing emails are optimized for mobile devices. They need to be as easy to open and read on a mobile device as they are on a computer. Otherwise, messages may take too long to open or look weird when they finally load. Who wants to hang around and wait for that?
Adjust Your Subject Line
I know SPAM when I see it. Your target audience does too. If you want more people to open your e-mails you need to tweak your subject lines. According to Adestra's July 2012 Report, "Subject lines fewer than 10 characters long had an open rate of 58%". Keeping it simple can make the difference. For example, B2B companies whose subject lines contain "money," "revenue," and "profit" performed the best in a 2012 study.
Segment Your List
If you're still operating your e-mail campaign off of your one and only master list, you are most certainly alienating at least some of your target audience. If you're a pajama retailer and you're sending sale information on nightgowns to Jane Doe AND John Smith, you could be missing your mark. Take a little time to organize your master list into several smaller ones. Segmenting by gender, profession, previous buyers, etc. can help you deliver the right messages to the appropriate audience.
Use Social Sharing Buttons on Your E-mails
Emails that include social sharing buttons have a 158% higher click-through rate. Offering your audience an opportunity to learn more about you or your business through social media can improve your credibility, grow your brand and increase your following. People like to do business with those they know, like and trust. Social sharing buttons give your readers the opportunity to see if you or your company is a good fit for them.
Remember Why People Opt-In
Rarely will anyone arbitrarily sign up for your newsletter. They'll do it because they're offered a reward: information, special promotions, coupons, insider tips, etc. When a person offers up their e-mail address, they expect something of real value in return. Don't assume that your audience dismisses no news as good news. If you're messages come sporadically or not at all, your credibility diminishes. If you tell your readers that you'll give them coupons or insider tips, do it consistently. If you only offer a quarterly newsletter, make sure it contains enough value for your readers to be interested when you publish again, 3 months later.
Regardless of how often you communicate with your audience through e-mail, always provide a call to action. 7 in 10 people say they made use of a coupon or discount from a marketing email in the prior week.Give your audience something valuable as a take away and they will likely return to see what you offer next.
E-mail marketing offers a great return on investment if the strategy is configured correctly. Begin implementing these 5 steps and you might find that your e-mail marketing actually works!
Guest Post By Brandy Thome
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