R.I.P Email Marketing?

Is email marketing dead? Not at all! Email marketing is alive and doing well, it is here to stay for awhile. In Neil Patel’s Guide to Successful Email Marketing, Neil points out that 2018 data shows that email marketing is ranked as the most effective marketing channel, it beats social media, SEO, and other affiliated marketing strategies. This may have something to do with the fact that 85% of adult internet users are have an email address.

So what’s a good strategy for your email marketing? Here is a guide to abide by..

In the first phase, receiving permission from the users is key, this is a way to build an email list for your campaigns. Common ways to receive user’s emails would either be through an email series, free downloads, free papers or eBooks, or updated lists for new product releases or updates. You can do all of this through promotion.

The second phase in email marketing is to have great content. Having good content is having a strong call to action that is consistent. It also helps to have a simple, limited call to action, this way the user does not get distracted while reading the email. Secondly, MailChimp suggests setting up a schedule for sending campaigns by using an content calendar. A schedule is going to depend on the type of industry and type of content in the email. Sending too many emails may cause your users to unsubscribe, but not sending enough engaging content could have potential negative effects on your campaign.

Third phase is all about the email analytics. Neil Patel believes the three most important rates to measure are the open rate, the click-through rate, and how many users unsubscribe. The open rate is how often your users actually open your emails, it will analyze how well you have built a relationship with those users, essentially it measures the amount of engagement with your readers. The click-through rate is how often users click on a link in the email, while the unsubscribe rate is how many readers have unsubscribed on that given email. Analytics is helpful because it can support how to segment your email list into targeted groups.

The Constant Contact and Mail Chimp also give some useful, but different advice when deciding an email marketing strategy. The Mail Chimp suggests in email marketing to first create an email marketing plan by defining your audience (who you want on your subscriber list), creating sign up sources (how and where your subscribers are signing up), what groups to segment and target towards, this is especially important because you want to be sending relevant content to your subscribers to keep them engaged, and finally deciding what content to include in the email. Content could be upcoming events, headlines from previous events, news coverage of the brand, new product features, and many more creative ideas.

On the other hand, The Constant Contact writes helpful tips on how to produce an email marketing campaign, here are the top few…

• The ‘From’ name, use a name that is easy to identify from a subscriber standpoint. Most likely it will be the brand’s name or the name of product or service
• Similar to the ‘From’ name, the reply email should be personalized as well
• BEWARE of subject line errors, you do not want your email to go directly in the spam folder. Do not use ‘free’ as well as similar words that would trigger to the spam folder
• Be careful writing the preheader text (the text preview), this is the first thing the reader will see, make sure it is always relevant to the targeted audience
• Limit the amount of call to action, this will confuse the reader
• Always check links and the promo codes to ensure that they work correctly. There is nothing more frustrating to the customer when the promotional code is invalid.

A common misconception about email marketing is that it is the same thing as marketing automation, when in fact it is very different. Hubspot defines marketing automation as “the software that exists with the goal of automating marketing actions. Many marketing departments have to automate repetitive tasks such as emails, social media, and other website actions.” Email marketing is different in the way that is not always automated, it is a well thought out strategy. Lyfe Marketing points out that email marketing is using email to develop a relationship with potential customers, keep current customers informed with the brand’s new, offer promotions, and of course promote the brand. With automation, email marketing is made easier. Organizations should use automation in the email marketing to make it more efficient, it is a lot of work to send a 1000+ emails out. Also, it is a more affordable way to expand into the market, and allows for measurable metrics like return on investment.