Legendary entrepreneur and marketer, Gary Vaynerchuk, has often discussed his glorious successes with email marketing in the late 90s. Because there was very little competition back then, Vaynerchuk’s marketing emails to promote his digital wine business received a staggering 90% open rate. It’s no secret that such a high open rate would be practically impossible now – in 2016, an open rate of 25% would be considered great.
Particularly for the younger generation who have grown up on the internet and have been marketed to from day one, most people are very good at detecting when someone is overtly trying to sell to them. Because of this, it’s essential to design email marketing campaigns that cut through the clutter and generate real engagement. Because email marketing is oversaturated, this means you really have to go the extra mile to stand out. This is actually a good thing because for those who make the extra effort, the rewards are great.
Plan thoroughly
If you want to market effectively, you need to have thorough insights of who you’re marketing to. If you don’t take the time to understand your audience, how can you possibly hope to sell to them? Some market research may be required (this can be performed via surveys, either via email or embedded on your site) to determine the needs and desires of your audience. Multiple demographics may need to be separated into different email lists. Also, determine the objectives of your campaign. If you’re looking to boost brand awareness, this will entail a different campaign to one that is designed to promote a specific product or service.
Personalise intelligently
Kevan Lee, a blogger for Buffer.com, implores people to stop using the recipient’s name in the greeting of a marketing email when you have had no past contact or relationship with the recipient; it’s presumptuous. Indeed, if you see your name in a opening line of an email from an address you don’t recognise, and even worse, it’s in a different font to the body of the email, you’re sure to become aggravated and immediately mark it as junk mail – even if the products or services advertised would have actually been useful to you. Instead, it’s better to tailor your marketing emails intelligently, by segmenting your email list and sending specific demographics messages and offers that they are likely to resonate with (Amazon does this very effectively). It may take extra time, but it ultimately helps to build a relationship with your audience (and avoid looking like a ruthless spambot).
Subject lines matter
Any subject line containing spelling mistakes, poor grammar or jargon-filled drivel is sure to get rejected immediately. Some would advise that six to eight words is the ideal length for an email subject line, but in any case, succinct is always preferable to long-winded. Subject lines conveyed as questions tend to perform well, as do subject lines which contain numbers, exclamation points and discounts/offers. However, subject lines which resemble overt advertisements tend to perform badly. Capitalisation is good where appropriate, but avoid writing your entire subject line in capital letters – people interpret this as if you’re yelling at them!
Email content
Ensure your email content is easily scannable and succinctly worded. A call to action is a good idea but avoid writing your content in the tone of a sales pitch – people enjoy buying but they hate being sold to. Make your images and text clickable and always link back to your landing page where people can explore your products and services in depth. Also, aesthetics matter. Your email layout doesn’t have to be a renaissance masterpiece, but at least ensure your colour scheme is pleasing to the eye and only a minimal number of different fonts are used.
Don’t be afraid to imbue some creativity into your marketing emails. Even the most mundane products can be marketed effectively with some creative thinking. Tom Dickson is primarily known as the entrepreneur behind Blentec, a leading manufacturer of kitchen blenders. Although blenders aren’t the most exciting products, Dickson was able to draw in a huge audience by publishing a video series showcasing how powerful his products were by blending a range of outrageous objects, including: superglue, lighters, silly putty and even a skeleton. If blenders can be made interesting with the right angle (and compelling visual content), anything can.
Conclusion
Always treat your audience how you would want to be treated. Aim to provide value to your email list (this entails knowing your demographic thoroughly) first, and sell second, and you can’t go wrong. The old business proverb, “What gets measured gets managed“, certainly applies to email marketing, so always remember to track your campaigns and innovate based on the qualitative and quantitative feedback you receive!
Photo copyright: iStock/ by_nicholas
Tags: e-mail, engagement
