Successful Strategies for Email Marketing

According to a Forrester Research report, 42% of US online adults delete most email advertising without reading it, down from 44% in 2012 and 59% in 2010. The percentage of consumers agreeing that they receive too many email offers and promotions fell by 1% from 2012 and down 10% from 2010.  What does this mean?  We are doing a better job at email marketing but we can do much better.

Email marketing is huge and will continue to be for many years to come so it needs to become smarter. Businesses need to become extremely clever about what types of email content they provide and how they promote it.  Businesses are realizing that the key is sending BETTER emails (not more emails) that create value.

Grow email list 

Your email list is one of your most valuable marketing resources.  If you want your list to have an even bigger impact, make it easy for people to sign up and give people a compelling reason to sign up.  Most major email service providers will have an app that allows you to collect emails right from within your Facebook page. As always, it’s a good idea to offer something of value here rather than just asking your fans to sign up for your list. 

With it getting harder and harder to reach fans on Facebook without using paid advertising, many are finding great success distributing free offers using Twitter.  There are tons of tweet schedulers out there like Hootsuite and SocialOomph which allows you to set the times, frequency and campaign duration as well as recycles the tweets for later use. 

 

Increase email open rates

Your open rate is one of the best metrics for measuring the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.  The more people you get to open your emails, the more opportunities you’ll have to drive business results.  Focus on sending emails that your audience will thank you for.  Create the best email subject line that catches your reader’s attention and lets them know why they should click to open.

Average open rates vary from industry to industry. If you’re not sure how your open rate compares to other businesses, check out the Comparison by Industry Chart.

Enhance engagement

One of the best ways to measure engagement is to look at your click-through rates.  Click-through rates show you how many subscribers are engaging with your content and taking a desired action by clicking on links within your email.  Keep your message as focused as possible, with one clear call to action that you want them to take.

 

Compel the customer to act

Take some time to look through your reports to see which links are getting the most attention. This is a great way to see what your readers are most interested in. Create separate email lists for people who click on a particular link and follow up with a more targeted email.

Determine goals and boost results

The goal will be a direct response — to drive sales, generate reservations, or bring more people into your store or office. In other cases, the goal will be focused on the long-term — to generate awareness, improve loyalty, or increase referrals.

Measure results

Pay attention to how many of the people who redeemed the offer are existing customers, and which are new to your business.