Have you ever scrolled through your inbox and had an emotional reaction while reading an email subject line? This happened to me the other day. The email subject said, "Want to know why your 6-month-old puppy stopped listening?"
Why did this simple question evoke an emotional reaction? Because just a few days earlier, our 6-month-old puppy had stopped listening to our training commands. I was so grateful for the timing of the information from our veterinarian. And the best part is the tips included actually worked!
This simple email marketing campaign is a perfect example of how sending helpful information to a segmented email list has the potential to increase trust with your target audience. Email marketing continues to be an incredibly effective way to gain and build trust with your ideal buyer throughout their buyer's journey.
Whether your goal is to increase customer loyalty or move a group deeper into its buyer's journey, sending emails is an excellent opportunity to add value to your overall digital marketing strategy.
It's important to realize that thoughtful email campaigns do take time to put together. However, your time is well worth the effort because people who sign up for your email list have previously indicated they want to hear from you! Additionally, once you build an email segment out, your email service provider will take over with automation, allowing you to serve your target audience while you focus on other aspects of your business.
According to a study from Custora E-Commerce Pulse in 2022,
This shows us that an excellent email marketing strategy has the potential to add just as much value to an overall content marketing strategy as other marketing channels.
Effective marketing emails allow companies to speak directly to customers and potential customers with information relevant to them based on their current needs. This may seem complex, but there are a few steps you can take to ensure your email newsletter adds value.
Step 1: Clearly Define Your Buyer Personas
Step 2: Outline the Stages of Each Persona's Buyer's Journey
Step 3: Develop Email Content for Each Stage
Step 4: Create Opportunities for People to Sign Up for Your Emails
Let's look more in-depth at each of these steps.
Your buyer persona is essentially a snapshot of the person best helped by your products and services. By writing directly to the people most likely to buy your products and services, you increase trust and remind your audience you are an industry expert! When your email list develops from people visiting your website, you're more likely to see interest when sending promotional emails.
The stages of a buyer's journey are:
Each series of emails should include unique content designed to move your target audience from learning more about you and your products and services (awareness) to the point where they forward your email to friends wanting to ensure those in their circles of influence know about how you add value to their lives (advocate).
The types of emails included in each series should include helpful and timely information for the recipient. In the initial example I noted, our veterinarian has developed content for each month of a puppy's first year. The only reason I open these emails is that each month, they offer insights into what we're experiencing or what we may soon encounter with our pup.
I have no idea how deep the segmentation our veterinarian set up goes. But as a dog owner, I can guarantee that an email about what to expect with a six-month-old kitten or horse would evoke a very different response.
The same is true when writing to an audience before a product purchase vs. after someone has converted to a customer.
Finally, create a call-to-action with a signup form that easily allows your target audience to opt-in to emails. This shouldn't require coding. In fact, most email marketing services have simple ways to set up and connect forms to your website.
Delegate what you can to remain focused on your business. Ask the experts to configure your forms if you delegate email marketing to a digital marketing agency.
Privy reports that the average sales from a captured email address is $33.
An Only Influencers Case Study revealed that customer emails averaged $625 in sales vs. $113 spent by customers who did not receive emails.
Drip reports that it's possible to have a $44 email return for every dollar you invest in an email campaign.
You can determine your company's email return on investment with this helpful calculator from emailmarketingroi.com.
To accurately measure your email ROI you'll need a clear idea of a few measurable analytics.
Click-Through-Rate: CTR is measured by tracking the number of people who receive an email divided by the number who click a link embedded in the email.
Subscribers: The number of people who sign up to receive your email campaign.
Unsubscribe Rate: An unsubscribe rate measures how many users have chosen to opt out of a mailing list after receiving an email campaign.
Email Conversion Rate: The email conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of people who took the desired action by the total emails sent, then multiplying the result by 100 to express it as a percentage.
Most email marketing platforms will measure these analytics for you, especially if you use a paid service.
Think about the content that will delight your audience and earn their trust. Your goal is to include helpful information that is personally relevant to the email recipient. If a blog post will answer a question included in the newsletter, go ahead and link the post. If you're having a sale, make sure to include a coupon code specific to email recipients.
When selecting an ESP for your business needs, there are several questions to consider. What is your budget? If it’s very limited, look for free email marketing tools that will grow with you. Consider what kind of emails you plan to send and how often. Knowing the answers to these questions will help narrow down your options and ensure you select the best ESP for your business needs.
The best template is the one your audience will quickly identify with your company. Choose a template with white space and customize it to match your company branding.
If you're looking to add or improve how your company uses email marketing, a digital marketing expert can help! The SMA Marketing team has years of experience developing personalized email marketing campaigns for clients. Contact us to learn more.
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