Despite the rise of social media and search engine advertising, email marketing remains one of the most powerful promotion strategies.
A good email marketing campaign has the potential to turn customers into a tribe of marketeers for your brand. But to get the best results, companies need a comprehensive email marketing strategy.
In this post, we’ll explore how to make the most of your email marketing campaigns and look at 7 key components in an email marketing strategy.
Acquisition vs retention
When it comes to growing their business and increasing revenue, companies have a much greater focus on acquiring new customers than retaining existing ones. It’s only natural – they want to expand their business by getting more sales from new customers.
However, research suggests that customer acquisition costs five times more than retention. By retaining your existing customers, you can actually cultivate a loyal audience who make repeat purchases. This will increase revenue at a fraction of the cost and even encourage word of mouth marketing from your loyal following.
Undoubtedly one of the most effective ways to do this is through email marketing. Email marketing targets existing customers or subscribers who have submitted their email address in the sale or subscription process and agreed to receiving emails from your business.
Essentially, you have an audience of people who are already interested in your brand, ready and waiting to hear from you.
The benefits of email marketing
Email marketing is a great tool to continuously educate and connect with customers. In part, this is down to its cost-effectiveness. Unlike other forms of advertising, email marketing doesn’t have a cost-per-unit or cost-per-click. The cost of email marketing simply comes from the resources used to create and manage your campaign – whether that’s in-house or outsourced.
With that in mind, email marketing has an impressive return-on-investment. Nearly 1 in 5 companies report a return of over £70 for every £1 spent, with an average ROI of £38 across all companies.
Because there are less restrictions in terms of your budget, email marketing can be highly effective at driving sales and encouraging repeat purchases. On top of that, it’s a great way to reinforce your brand, increase brand loyalty and build trust with your customers.
Here are just some of the emails you can send out:
- Welcome – Making a connection with new customers
- Promotional – Highlighting special offers or sales
- Remarketing – Targeting customers who have visited your website, browsed certain products or even abandoned
- Seasonal – Wishing customers a Merry Christmas or Happy Easter is a great way to remind them about your brand and promote your latest offers
- Post-purchase – Following up on purchases with more information about your brand or similar products
- Newsletter – Again, a great way to keep your brand strong in customers’ minds.
Email marketing conversions
According to Mailchimp, emails have an average open rate of 20.81% with 2.43% of these opened emails getting at least one click through. However, not all emails have to be targeted at generating more sales. Each of the different email types can be tailored for specific conversions.
While some emails will encourage customers to click through to specific products, others will guide them towards social media accounts or just to click through to your site. A post-purchase email, for instance, fits in perfectly to encourage loyalty and ongoing repeat business. It provides the perfect opportunity to cross-sell with related products.
On the other hand, newsletters are simply a way to strengthen your following. While they may suggest that readers visit your site, their primary focus is to remind them of your brand and keep them interested. In this instance, the email is simply reinforcing your brand as part of a broader email marketing
Improving email conversion rates
Regardless of the conversion type, there are a number of tactics your business can employ to increase conversions:
1. Subject line
Around 4 in 5 emails aren’t opened. Almost half of users say they base their decision on the email’s subject line. Make sure your subject highlights the value to the reader, whether that’s a discount, special offers or just some exciting news.
2. Segmentation
While brands will have their typical or ideal customer, it’s rare that you get one specific demographic time and again. By auditing your database, you can segment your audience into different groups based on age, gender or purchase history, for instance, and target them differently.
3. Content and design
Like any form of marketing, content and design is key to the success of your email marketing campaign. Emails should match the tone of your brand to a tee, with a clear customer journey and call-to-action.
4. Responsiveness
On top of that, emails need to be responsive. Similar to web browsing, the majority of emails are now opened on a mobile device. If your emails are designed solely for desktop, mobile users will get the wrong font size, messy layout and a poor user experience.
5. Landing pages
Where are you sending people who click through on your emails? Much like an effective PPC campaign, emails will have better conversion rates if you send people to a tailored, purpose-built landing page.
Your email marketing strategy
A successful email marketing campaign is nothing without a well-designed email marketing strategy behind it. Essentially, this means planning and co-ordinating your email marketing campaigns for maximum impact, from audience research to analysis and improvements. Here’s the process we take at Hoopla:
1. Auditing your database
2. Creating content plans
3. Copywriting and e-shot design and build
4. A/B testing
5. Sending and management
6. Data management
7. Analytics and reporting
Talk to an email marketing expert
Looking to get more out of email marketing in 2019? Hoopla Marketing provides expert email marketing services to businesses across the UK. Whether you’re looking for assistance with automation or a full email marketing strategy designed and implemented for your business, our team can provide the perfect solution.
Call us on 0161 731 0048 or email info@hoopla-marketing.com today to speak to an email marketing specialist.