The debate over whether or not email marketing is still worth doing has been raging for probably the better part of a decade now. That’s especially so because of the rise of social media in marketing and so many new ways being created to directly market to your audience on digital platforms. If done correctly, email marketing can be one of your biggest assets for increasing your sales, growing your customer base and improving brand affinity.
The key to seeing a proper return on your investment with email marketing is to have a proper strategy. You need to ensure that you are providing your email database with information that they want to read and that you are sending it out at the right time. Here are some tips on how to get that right:
- Segment Your Database
Your database of email addresses and contacts is your most valuable asset for direct marketing. If you don’t maintain it properly, you will find that your email marketing is nowhere near as effective as it could be. It’s important to constantly check that you have the right email addresses and that contacts aren’t bouncing back after each send.
It’s also vital to organize your database into various segments. You should know who is a new lead, who is a returning customer, who signed up to your database because of a specific special offer, how long people have been on your database and what geographical location those people are in. This information will help you to send information that is specific to each targeted group, improving your chances of success with your email campaigns.
- Don’t Overdesign Your Emails
A big mistake that many people make is to add in too much to their newsletters or emails. If there are too many images, moving parts or too much code in the backend, you are going to confuse readers or turn them off your emails. The trick is to focus on your message first and then design something simple to enhance that message. Read more as it should be immediately clear what the email is about and why you are sending it.
It’s also essential to consider how your email will look on various platforms and devices. Remember, a lot of people are getting their email on their smartphones now and those screens are a lot smaller than computers.
- Analyze The Results
The beauty of email marketing is that you can see exactly how many people opened your email, who clicked on what inside the email, who followed instructions to visit this site, and even track if they went on to buy anything on your website. Just make sure that you are recording this information and pulling reports on it for future reference. You can only learn what works for your database if you look at their actions and analyze them.
You should be pulling reports after every campaign or after every newsletter send. You can also look for industry benchmarks online to see how your email stats compare to those of your competitors.
