We hear this one a lot… “We have a lot of emails on hand, but we’re not sure how to use them or if email marketing is worth our time? What is the result; will it actually increase my sales?”
Our reply is usually, “Well, what are your marketing goals?” If it’s branding impressions, you can achieve that through email. If it’s customer engagement, you can do that through email too! And if it’s driving web or foot traffic and sales, you can even achieve that through email! The important thing is to have clear goals and then generate content that is in line with those goals. Don’t just tell them about your business and expect them to read it. To be effective, your email content must be something your audience wants to see and interact with.
Here are some quick tips to help you garner better results with your next customer email:
BE RELEVANT
Telling your customers more about you isn’t enough. Consider what they want to know and what they’d find useful. If you’re a plumber, maybe share with them some initial steps they can take to remove a clog before calling their plumber. Then, add your on-call number and let them know it’s ok to reach you on the weekends.
If you’re a health clinic, share common symptoms of and treatments for the latest bug that’s going around. The more info you can give people that they find relevant and useful, they’ll realize that you understand them and they’ll have a more favorable impression of your brand. Plus, they may even print your email off and hand it to others -or- (gasp) hang it on the fridge!
BE ENGAGING
Again, don’t just give them things to read, give them things to do to interact with your brand. Include a blog post that clicks through to your website in case they want to “read more”. You could also include a coupon or a coupon code that they can redeem when they visit your online or brick and mortar store. The key is to give your audience the tools they need to interact with you further. Consider your email as a tool to get them where they want to go.
BE MOBILE-FRIENDLY
Almost half of emails are opened on a mobile device nowadays.* So, it’s imperative to make sure your emails can be easily consumed on mobile. Most marketing email providers like Constant Contact or MailChimp have mobile-friendly design as a standard. Even in that case, make sure you preview it on your mobile device and address any flaws before hitting send. It doesn’t help to have great content if it doesn’t display properly.
TEST AND RE-TEST
Email is not “set it and forget it”; it requires attention and nurturing in order to grow and become an effective marketing tool. The easiest thing you can do to get better results is actually to look at your results! It only takes a few minutes, but you might find out that your coupon doesn’t get clicked on -or- that every time you send a video, your open rates increase. Take these things into account when you compose your next email campaign and put your best foot forward.
BE CONSISTENT
Lastly, and we say this a lot, give it time! It doesn’t matter so much if you send out your emails once a week or once a month, just be consistent. Like all marketing channels, consistency in your content and delivery will provide a better user experience and will keep them opening your emails again and again. They might even be waiting for it to arrive!
(*Source: 47% of email is now opened on a mobile device – Litmus “The 2017 Email Client Market Share” (Jan 2018))