Of course, everyone wants to do effective email marketing, but we don’t always manage to do that.
But by following just a few steps it is possible to improve our process and achieve better results. Let’s get to the point.
Best practices
Collection and acquisition: Remember that you can’t only collect emails on your website. If you have a physical store, you can set up a permanent campaign to request emails. If you can offer a discount in the store to help, do so! And if you can differentiate online collection from offline collection, do so and then measure the results. This is where some kind of segmentation begins.
List maintenance: Remember that it’s not enough to just grow your list. Keeping your list active and engaged is just as important. And knowing that a list can age and lose up to 25% of its emails per year, it’s a good idea to take care of it.
Take care of your emails
They are a huge asset. If you sell a lot from your email marketing campaigns, this is even more important. Remember that it is not enough to just sell; adding to your procedures always asking if there have been any changes and if the data is correct helps. Also, when suggesting that users register their emails, remember to ask for personal emails; corporate emails should be avoided for the most part.
If your customer base is very small, pick up the phone: Yes, that’s right. If you only have a few customers and you have their information, why not call them? This can give them another idea of how much you care and create a new perception for customers when they actually start receiving your emails, they may even tell their friends about it!
Plan before sending
It may seem obvious or basic, but plan your actions, at least for the entire month. Make a calendar not only of the sending dates but also of the material, content email data and type of offer that will be sent. Let the company know (and inform your employees in advance) that you will send an email with a specific subject. Send it to them too, ask for their help; they may come up with good ideas for your next emails.
The email piece itself.
Decent code
If you don’t know how to do it, if you don’t have anyone to do it in your company, and if your email marketing provider doesn’t provide anything that matches your company’s personality once customized, use a template sold inbound marketing examples by specialized companies.
Responsive: There’s no arguing with that, more than 50% of first-time views are on mobile devices. Get it right the first time, you may not get it right the second time. So your email has to be responsive and look nice and attractive!
Use professional material
Yes, not only the HTML template, but also the photos. You can produce your own photos. If you can’t, use image banks with things that look book your list more professional. It’s not very expensive (if you use a paid image bank) and the result is frighteningly better.
Use professionals: There are companies that specialize in creating email marketing pieces, if you have to do it this way, do it!
Use call to action
Yes, it makes the email look good without any clear and apparent links, what will the result be? Clearly have at least one call to action that refers to the conversion point, usually your website or landing page. And here is the point, include the link that will allow you to later measure the result of the sending. If all the links refer to the main page of your website, how will you know later what is what? What will the result of the sending be compared to normal access to your website? If you send, you have to measure it!
Delight the recipient
Improve the offer: Whenever you can offer a different discount to those who receive your emails, do so! The advantage of receiving your emails must be easily perceived. This will maintain engagement and interest over time.
Increase the bonus: If someone signed up to receive your emails, doesn’t it make sense for them to receive the same discount or benefit as someone who didn’t? So keep this in mind when offering discounts, do it differently online and offline. Over time, this will translate into a good reputation for you. If you can’t offer different discounts, at least offer a free gift to those who buy from your email marketing.
Make him feel exclusive
Make him receive an email that feels exclusive. If not personalized at least make the email give him an advantage over people who don’t receive it.
Make it personal Always strive for the personal side, and if you have data and can offer offers based on purchase history, that’s even better! But always remind the user how important they are, and what your brand did to get to this point, they’ll appreciate it and the results will be more interesting for you.
Take care of deliverability
I don’t need to remind you that email databases should not be bought, rented, borrowed or “found”. They should only be built through proper collection on your online and offline channels and through control mechanisms such as double opt-in.
Spamtraps and honeypots
This is the worst-case scenario. It can only be avoided by double opt-in and constant database cleaning (through your mailings and a good mailing tool). Two emails of this type in your database can literally ruin your email sending efforts.
Excessive number of reports: It is important to remember that a base that leads to a number above 3% of reports for each sending will lead to severe blocking by the providers. So keep this in mind, send only what you said you would send to the base that originally signed up to receive your emails!
Large number of bounces: Also important, if they exceed 10% in a single send, something is wrong. Investigate and argue with your shipping provider if this has happened suddenly. From time to time, remove inactive ones (mark them as not to receive them), at least every 6 months.
Engagement
Providers like Gmail and Hotmail analyze a lot of data to measure the engagement of your emails and ensure that they reach the inbox. Always respect and strive to engage your base.
Use negative actions to your advantage
Find out something in the opt-out: This is the time to ask questions, if you’ve never done this before, this is perhaps the time to get the most honest feedback of all. Ask questions and be ready to hear the truth.
When re-engaging, do some research: Who knows, you might discover hidden interests of your base? Who knows, in addition to products, they might want use cases and tips on how to use them?
Say goodbye, be polite: Yes, at this moment when you receive the unsubscribe, thank them for the time they spent receiving it, and how important it was, how it works, how it is appropriate, and how it can generate a new registration in the future.
Don’t abandon the user after the welcome email: It may seem incredible, but it happens. I myself, who maintain several blogs, sometimes commit this sin. I don’t have a proper sending schedule for all my blogs. Don’t do this. Maintain regularity, which is essential for the best delivery of your emails.
The shipments
Keep it regular
As I said before, it is important to keep your emails to a certain frequency. Sometimes companies take so long to send them that the user forgets that they have signed up, and not only does this remove the email from your list, but it also reports you for sending SPAM. This happens all the time.
Don’t be annoying, segment: If I’m a man, I shouldn’t receive offers for pads with wings, right? I may have exaggerated the example, but that’s about it. You need to segment, if you don’t have this data at the time of sending, start collecting it. Your sending tool can help.
If anyone receives the same offer in a physical store, what’s the advantage? I’ve already mentioned that you should give them an advantage so they can receive your emails. This has to be clear!
Use A/B testing
The least you can do here is to put two different subjects together (if you can’t do two versions of your piece) and see the results. Not only is it addictive, but you won’t be able to live without it once you start using it. Check with your sending tool how to do it.
And the sender: This is a fundamental part of your shipping strategy. Always monitor your results from above and demand that the company that handles your shipping – if you do everything according to the rules – improve delivery results whenever you think something is wrong.
Send at the best time: I say this to remind you that each niche has its own particularities. You should keep in mind your best sending times (if you don’t, you can analyze reports from the sending tool and learn a little about the habits of your base). Remember that depending on the tool used, the sending may be much later than you scheduled, so be careful.