Starting a business and not sure how to approach email marketing? Well, this guide is for you then! Email marketing is about building good relationships with prospective clients and sending them relevant information so that they convert and go deeper through the sales funnel.
People who want to learn about your products can join your mailing list through which you send them useful content. Over time, these readers become your loyal customers and keep returning for more, making them a significant part of revenue generation every month.
There’s a good reason email marketing has been around for quite some time. From higher ROI and low-cost of investments to organic brand growth and ease of use, successful email marketing campaigns get the basics right!
Here are some tips and strategies to help you out with your email marketing workflow and design.
1. Learn About Your Audience
When you’re first starting out, it’s important to get your brand’s tone right. Study your audience base and learn about what they’re looking for as well.
Good businesses sell to clients what they want. Most email marketing platforms have an audience segmentation feature that lets you target specific groups and send personalized emails accordingly. Look for this, and it will help you generate greater ROI.
2. Offer Value & Write Good Headlines
Nobody is going to read your emails if they’re not of substance. Before sending out emails and asking people to subscribe, write a copy explaining what your email series will be for. Be thoughtful, polite, and get into the details. Remember, email is personal, so you can’t treat it like other social media mediums.
As for the content, you can keep your readers interested by providing them with interesting content – be it every week or a few times a month. Examples of good content to include in your emails are:
- Free downloads and coupon codes
- Whitepapers and case studies
- Tips and tricks and a sneak peek into your business
- Product demos, news about upcoming releases and events, product buying guides, etc.
3. Keep It Short & Crisp
Don’t write lengthy emails but make them short and sweet. Chances are, your email subscribers can’t spend more than a few minutes to read. And they won’t read every email you send them.
Keep that in mind and consider the mailing frequency. If you find that you’re getting better engagement by just sending emails once a week, stick to that. Don’t go overboard and keep it simple. Work with a copywriter to help you write engaging headlines for your emails.
4. Try HubSpot Video Marketing For Email Communications
Hubspot offers great email marketing software for entrepreneurs that’s simple and easy to use. They have fantastic templates, various personalization options, a drag-and-drop editor, and different scheduling features. The HubSpot video integration just makes it easier to record and edit your videos directly on your CRM platform. If you haven’t tried it out already, you should.
Videos add a new dimension to your emails since you get face-to-face and personal with your readers. And it takes only a few minutes to record and send. If you want to redirect your readers onto your website or make your video content exclusive, you can just put a thumbnail with the play button and link it to your landing pages.
5. Use Autoresponders
There will be a time when your email campaigns start rolling in new leads, and you just don’t get enough time to respond. How do successful businesses keep up with this?
By using autoresponders.
Autoresponders are scheduled emails you write in advance that are sent automatically to your readers when they ask a question. When you are about to announce a new product or release updates, the customers who have signed up on your mailing list will get an immediate response.
6. Understand Email Analytics
Your open-rates indicate how much of your audience is actually opening up your emails. Click-through rates refer to how many readers click on the links you include in them. And your unsubscribe rate, that tells if your content is engaging enough or not.
Learn how to analyze these metrics and figure out if what you’re sharing is working. Email analytics will give a deeper insight into your audience and help you improve on your content. If you’re thinking of expanding into video email, don’t neglect your video analytics either. They go hand-in-hand.
7. Whitelisting, Domain Verification & Other Bonus Tips
Ask your subscribers to whitelist you and make sure your emails don’t get marked by the spam filter. Don’t use too much sales-y language and clean up your email template code.
This might be an underrated tip but make sure your emails are being sent from a verified domain so that they don’t land in the spam folder. Use a reliable IP address to send your emails from, especially one that hasn’t been used before when starting out. This will ensure your emails are genuine and not sent by bots.
If there are any inactive subscribers on your mailing list, remove them and refresh the list. This will ensure you stay on track and actually foster engagement. A good rule of thumb is to remove anyone who hasn’t engaged with your emails for over 6 months. Also, when it comes to formatting and design, make sure you optimize your emails for mobile viewing.
Conclusion
If you’ve been ignoring email marketing or haven’t really put any time into it, it’s time you start looking. Email marketing is giving businesses huge returns when done right, and it’s not that complicated. Make sure you ask for permission before letting your readers sign up for your mailing list because remember, you’re a guest in their inbox.
As long as your emails are helpful, not too intrusive, and deliver solid value, you will do great. Finally, if you’re running multiple marketing campaigns, it’s a good idea to segment your emails and send them separately.
There’s no one-size-fits-all formula to this, which means you have to take an adaptive approach and improvise along the way. That’s literally all you need to know for now.
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