Email marketing campaigns have been part of a marketeer’s methods for years, and despite the growth of newer ways of marketing, they’re far from outdated. Around 4.5 billion people worldwide use email, and 88% of users check their emails at least once daily thanks to their smartphones. This opens up consistent opportunities to drive sales, but simply sending generic emails out won’t be enough – you need a proper email marketing strategy.
But what is a good email marketing strategy? In this article, we outline exactly that, including how to build high-quality email lists, craft compelling email content, and take advantage of sophisticated emailing software.
What is the most vital component of an email marketing campaign?
An email marketing campaign consists of sending out emails of varying types to various recipients in a coordinated fashion, to promote products, share updates and encourage engagement. Around 55% of companies allocate up to 20% of their marketing budget to email marketing efforts, used in conjunction with other digital marketing channels, for a massive return on investment – and the average ROI for an email marketing campaign is approximately £36 for every £1 spent.
Years of email campaigns have revealed the blueprints for a great strategy – revolving mainly around segmentation. The following are examples of how effective email marketing campaigns segment their audience:
Demographic segmentation – People do not like genericism. They want to feel as though they are being spoken to directly, as though the company that’s reaching out to them knows what they need and value. By splitting your recipients into different segments, you can better tailor your emails to their specific demographic, such as:
Behavioural segmentation – Another trait to segment is behaviour. A good CRM (customer relationship management) system can help identify the behaviours the recipient engages in, allowing you to tailor an email that makes them feel seen. Behaviours often looked at are:
Customer lifecycle segmentation – Customers are not all the same. Some are new, some are old, some spend significant amounts of capital on your business and others are fairly inconsistent. Adapting your email content to reflect the level of customer they are helping not only to better personalise the email but also to bring them closer to where they’d ideally be. Lifecycles include:
Transactional segmentation – Transactional segmentation is the practice of segmenting email recipients based on purchase behaviour and interactions with the business, whether this consists of a welcome email or otherwise. They identify where the buyer is in their buying journey, such as:
- Subscription-based customers
- Refund or return customers
Email engagement segmentation – To group and engage subscribers based on how much they engage with you is key to a successful email marketing campaign. Changing how you approach subscribers on both ends of the engagement scale with specific offers:
Interest-based segmentation – This segmentation category sorts email subscribers based on the specifics of their interest in your company. For example, a customer of a tech company may purely focus on gaming products, meaning sending targeted campaigns that promote those very products encourages engagement and sales. Interests can be:
- Product or service preferences
- Website behaviour and browsing history
- Previous email engagement
- Downloads and content consumption
- Event and webinar attendance
- Survey responses and preferences
Device-based segmentation – Dividing your customers between both desktop and mobile devices is a matter of optimisation, improving the user experience to the point that they’re able to use the email and setting the groundwork for improved click-through rates, engagement and conversions. Devices are:
- Mobile devices – Smartphones, tablets etc.
- Desktop devices – Laptops, PCs
Purchase frequency and spending habits – A successful email campaign takes note, and advantage, of how the client uses their money. Spending habits include:
- High-spending customers (VIPs)
Knowing how best to segregate your customers is, by far, the most important and foundational facet of email marketing.
How do you build a good email list?
An email list is a collection of email addresses gathered from interested contacts who have opted in to receive marketing emails from a business. The list lays the groundwork for promotional emails, newsletters, updates and other correspondence that ultimately build relationships and enhance customer loyalty.
They are built with the aid of email service providers that automate the collection of information for you, such as Mailchimp or Klaviyo.
An email list only has high quality as the information it collects. The traits you should be going for consist of the following:
- Permission – Even the subscribers who have given their consent can be unengaged with the emails they receive, so not having their permission in the first place is a good way to turn them off entirely.
- Engaged – Building engagement to high should be amongst your priorities for your email marketing campaign. Having high open and click-through rates means that they’ll at least consider the offers you send them, which opens up opportunities to tailor the perfect promotion for them. The only way to increase engagement is to properly segregate your audience, and fine-tune your responses to speak to their needs.
- Segmented – Segmenting your audience, as we’ve explained before, is mainly about making the customer feel recognised and highly relevant to them, personally. Furthermore, it informs you on how to increase sales or customer loyalty.
- Updated – Your email list should be updated regularly, as something as simple as a decrease in engagement could radically change how you approach emailing the people in question.
How to collect email addresses
Businesses must use opt-in strategies at key customer touchpoints to collect the emails for their email marketing campaign. Examples include:
- Registration – When registering on an app or website, include the option to opt-in. To get them to accept is the tricky part. Consider putting up exclusive content in exchange for permission. For example, getting 10% off a first order.
- Landing pages – Landing pages are a staple in digital marketing and are designed to entice customers with clear USPs and other value propositions.
- Smart pop-ups – Pop-ups are annoying, but when timed correctly, they can be forgiven and even welcome. For example, when a customer tries to click off a page, a pop-up asking them to stay with a discount code can be welcome. But try not to aggravate the customer by making it harder to leave.
- Run contests/giveaways – Run contests or giveaways using emails as an entry condition.
- Checkout/post-purchase – People expect transactional emails, meaning the checkout is a good place to collect emails.
- Leverage referrable and loyalty programs – Encourage existing customers to bring in new subscribers for you. This tends to be a very good way to promote businesses, as the referral rewards tend to be fairly high and upfront.
- Paid ads – Paid advertisements on Google, social media and other mediums allow you to drive targeted leads directly to sign-up pages.
Opt-in methodology
There are two types of opt-ins.
Single opt-ins refer to a single submission:
- Pros – Faster list growth and less friction.
- Cons – Lower quality leads.
Double opt-in refers to a submission, followed up by a confirmation:
- Pros – Highly personalised, higher quality and engaged subscribers.
- Cons – Slower list growth.
How do I craft compelling email content?
Now that we have direction, we need to talk about the actual content of the email. There’s no point knowing the exact elements of your email campaign if you don’t know how, precisely, to get them to click, read and take action. How good the copywriting (the value proposition) is will determine whether or not you have a successful email marketing campaign.
How to create effective email subject lines
The key to getting the customer to click only our email lies in the subject line.
- Concision is key – People’s attention spans are short, and they’re not willing to read fluff if they’re not already invested. Keep your subject lines ultra short – around 6 to 10 words, or 40 characters.
- Create urgency – FOMO means “fear of missing out”, and it’s a powerful psychological phenomenon to imbue into your subject lines. For example, “last chance to claim xyz”.
- Personal touch – Using the person’s name in the subject line helps stand out, as well as imply that whatever offer is being pushed is exclusively for them.
- Ask a question – Asking a question that is relevant to the pain points or interests of the client prompts the recipient to subconsciously answer the question, not to mention further personalising the touch.
- Avoid spam triggers – Some words, such as “free”, or symbols, such as exclamation points, could send your email straight to the spam folder. Alternatively, the user may just write it off completely.
- Use A/B testing – A/B testing refers to sending identical emails, save for a few elements (in this case, subject lines), to see which one works better. From there, you can break down what you’ve learned and store them for future campaigns.
How to write engaging copy
Once the recipient opens the email, the body copy must keep them engaged.
- Hook them early – As with all copies, keep it snappy. The first sentence should speak to their pain points or spark intrigue right away.
- Speak directly to the customer – Personal touch is always important, speak to the customer directly, referring to them as “you”, etc.
- Relevancy – Align the body copy with past purchases, browsing history, marked interests etc.
- Scannability – People are not reading emails to be immersed in the content. Break up the copy to be scannable, using paragraphs, bullet points etc.
- Friendly tone – Speak to your customers like they are your friends, which is salesmanship 101.
A strong call to action
Every successful email marketing campaign needs a call to action. Failure to provide one can result in cart abandonment, or no action being taken.
- Action language – Your language should include actions, such as “shop now”, “claim your discount”, “book your spot” etc.
- Visual distinction – Use buttons or bolded links to ensure your CTAs are visible.
- Create urgency – As always, ensure you utilise FOMO.
- Keep it specific – Make sure that your CTA is specific, and not generalised, to set the direction for the action.
Use visually appealing layouts
A visually appealing email enhances readability and engagement.
- High-quality images – High-quality images showcase products, promotions and branding.
- Mobile friendly – 70% of people check emails on mobile devices.
- Balance text and visuals – Avoid image-heavy emails that take too long to read.
- Brand consistency – Stick to brand colours, fonts and tone.
What are examples of successful email marketing campaigns?
A successful email marketing campaign example is from Fridja. This e-commerce company specialises in home appliances and was aiming to create a buzz and secure sales for its newest products before the official release. The primary goal was to attain a presale rate of 25% of their initial stock.
It was executed doing the following:
- Building Anticipation – Before the product launch, they teased the new product to their existing email subscribers, creating curiosity and excitement.
- Exclusive Pre-order Access – They offered their email subscribers the opportunity to preorder the product before it became available to the general public.
- Personalised Communication – Emails were tailored to highlight how the new product could meet the specific needs and interests of their subscribers.
- Incentives – Providing reasons to encourage preorders, they provided special discounts or bonuses for early purchasers.
The results were that they hit and exceeded 25% of their initial presales, and the momentum continued well past launch until they were sold out completely. This goes to show that email marketing campaigns are still well and alive.
Conclusion
Overall, the high ROIs that email marketing campaigns give more than justify their usage. However, they require consistent management and solid copy to ensure that they hit the mark and deliver a return.