Engaging with your customers depends upon every point of contact that you can make. Interacting with them while they are in your store is much easier than when they are away. That’s why having a proven email marketing strategy in place can bridge the gap and maintain your connection.
An Effective Tactic
Email marketing is one of the most effective tactics you can employ to reach out to current and potential customers. The return on investment is one of the main reasons why it’s so effective. If done properly, for every $1 you spend you should expect a return of $34. But, doing it properly is a challenge.
You have to take into consideration that the email you send to your customers is one of 280 billion circulated throughout the world. On an average day, people receive 121 emails while at work. This doesn’t include their personal accounts.
It can seem overwhelming and hopeless, only if you don’t use the following proven email marketing techniques to increase your open rates and achieve those returns on your investment.
1. Define Your Audience
Most small businesses fail to do this first step. And, when failing to do so, they end up lumping all of their customers into one group. That shouldn’t be the case because your customers are from different generations and have a wide range of interests. Knowing who your audience is will help you better connect with them.
2. Market Segmentation
Segmentation is taking what you learn about your customers—the audience—and dividing them up into groups. Instead of sending one generic email to everyone, you send target messages to the right audience. Also, the design of these emails need to align with the segment. For example, millennials like infographics and snippets of product benefits, whereas older customers tend to click on links.
3. Mobile Ready
For the retail industry, over 50% of marketing emails are opened on a mobile phone. A non-mobile-friendly email will go unread. And, the worst case scenario is when people unsubscribe because of it. Make sure your email can be seen clearly on a mobile device.
4. Make It Personable
Remember your audience and make sure that you address them by name. Generic emails get ignored. For some of the recipients on your list, a generic email could be insulting, because they feel that they should be recognized as a valuable customer. The same consideration should be put in the message. It has to be relatable or they won’t open it. For recipients that don’t have a name listed in your database, put your name in the subject line and make it more personable.
5. Interactivity
Each email should have a call to action. This is part of the interactivity that builds deeper connections with your customers. Make it easy for them to do it, such as one-click promotions and instant offers to be redeemed in store.
6. Automate It
Sending a brief “Welcome” or “Thank You!” email are the most common ones that can be automated. Plus, open rates for these emails are higher than traditional emails. Other automated emails are surveys that are sent immediately after a purchase. These are easy to set up and you just let them work their magic.
7. Gather Data
Your email marketing is driven on results. To understand the results you need good data. Look for industry averages on open and click-through rates, as well as unsubscribe. This also means paying attention to the message that you’re putting out there and understanding your audience’s reaction. Best of all, it only takes a few minutes to analyze. In order to reach more people and have more successful campaigns, you have to know what works and what doesn’t.
Email and Text Messaging
Email doesn’t replace text messaging, and text messaging is not a replacement for email. Both work really well, but in different ways, which means that you will capture more attention when you use them together.
Now that you have your email marketing techniques in place, you will be able to drive more business through personalized messaging. Rule of thumb is to stick to what’s working and occasionally test the waters with something new. If you follow where the data tells you to go, then you’ll achieve those returns on your investment.