Guess what? Email marketing is here to stay.
At TrafficforMe we know better than most the sheer power of the email. After all, we deal with about a metric ton of them every month. When you work with email marketing as much as we do, you’re bound to acquire a little respect for it – otherwise you’d probably go insane. We understand that email isn’t just a way to shout and advertise; it’s also a way to seduce.
Despite other potential solutions to marketing and brand awareness, like content marketing and social media, email has been around for more than two decades – and it’s showing no signs of going anywhere. Why do you think it’s a major part of our sales pitch? If we’re gonna sell you email traffic at T4Me, we better make sure it works first!
Feeling a bit uncertain? Look at these statistics:
- The average number of emails an office worker receives each day is around 121.
- That’s a lot of spam to wade through – and a lot of competition for you to deal with if you’re trying to get your voice heard among the masses.
- Despite those piles of emails, people only open around 22.07%.
- People consume around 68% of those emails on mobile devices, and 42% of those customers are reading while doing their daily “business.”
If you don’t want your content to be little more than bathroom fodder, you’re going to need to take some serious measures to make your emails more engaging, successful, and intriguing. If that wasn’t terrifying enough, you also need to think about the things that you’re currently doing to scare off potential prospects. Even if you’re convinced that your email marketing game is at a pro level, there’s always more you could be doing.
Joining the Email Game
Sorry to burst your bubble, but at least in the world of email, size does matter. If your email list isn’t growing, then your prospects will dry up and stagnate over time – leaving you searching for a way to find new customers in a world brimming with harsh competition. Hey, nobody wants a limp and shriveled email list!
Companies generally use email as a good way to promote their product, establish a relationship with customers and leads, and support productivity overall. Of course, simply adding new people to your list won’t help much if your campaign is currently scaring away all your old customers. It’s time to start making a difference in your campaign. No more excuses, no more substandard content. Grab your customers by the inbox and make them pay attention.
Let’s start by looking at some of the worst things you can do, shall we?
1. Sending a Plague of Emails
It’s tempting to assume that flooding your subscribers with constant content will increase the chances of their buying from you – but that’s not actually the case. More isn’t always merrier. In fact, according to many experts, around 43% of email subscribers would prefer businesses to get in touch less often.
The batch and blast solution to email is quick and easy – but it’s also a pain in the rear end for your customer. It shows that you’re more interested in selling than in giving them a great experience. Even if that’s true, let’s not tell your customers, okay?
Of course, you shouldn’t try so hard to avoid over-mailing that you end up under-mailing. The best way to decide the optimal number of interactions your business should get involved with is through A/B testing. Try out different strategies for ads and emails at the same time and see which one users prefer. Retire the duds and match the successes with new paired ads, then repeat the process until you’re seeing the kind of numbers you want. The information you gain by watching who engages with which ads can determine many valuable things about your customers. :
- Who is my target audience?
- What kind of person am I speaking to (Young, old, clever, “less than clever”)
- Where is my audience located – and how can I stalk them without being too overbearing?
Split testing, on the other hand, works by allowing you to send one email to one group of people, and another to a different group. You want to offer the same message to both segments, but the email itself should use different designs, copy, and styles. Once you’ve sent your experiment out, you should be able to determine why one email worked better, or worse, than the other.
At Traffic for Me, we work our collective rear ends off getting you awesome traffic – but it’s up to you not to scare them off. We can only send the dates to your door – if you open it looking like Mike Myers, or if you chase the ladies down the street with a bucket of pointless emails – then you’re pretty much done.
2. Creepy Clickbait
In the world of email marketing, your subject line plays a pretty essential role in determining your open rate. No matter how great your content is, if your subject lines are dull, then your open rates will suffer. This means that you’re going to need to be creative and catchy if you want to grab the customer’s attention.
Simple terms? Go dressed for the job you want.
Don’t hold yourself back from being creative during your email marketing campaigns because you think that’s what everyone else is doing. You don’t want to be everyone else – you want to be unique, funny, interesting. No matter what your email topic is, give your reader a chance to see your company for what it is. Let your uniqueness stand out!
Remember that loyal customers become loyal because they like the personality behind the company – as well as the specific goods and solutions it offers. If you’re just another faceless entity in a sea of corporations, then you’re not going to make an impression and your emails will sit gathering virtual dust in a neglected folder. Take the chance, make yourself stand out. Get their attention.
However, that doesn’t mean you should sensationalize your subject lines or add clickbait nonsense that’s designed to tempt people to open your material. Nobody likes feeling deceived, and we all hate clickbait.
3. Pesky Promotions
How would you feel if someone from a local bakery turned up to your house every day and hammered on your door while shouting at you to buy a loaf of bread? He doesn’t care that you already have bread in the pantry, or that you’ve got a serious gluten intolerance – he’s just going to keep pestering you with loaves day in and day out. Annoying, right? No offense to bread, of course (it’s delicious).
Then why would the situation be any different for your customers when you’re plaguing them with promotions that they don’t want, need, or care about? Here’s the thing with email marketing: one size does not fit all.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that you need to find the time to send an elaborate personalized message to each one of your subscribers, but you do need to think about things like segmentation. Batch and blast might be an easy solution for earning cash, but it can also lead to serious problems with your marketing conversions. Too many generic emails will send your customers scattering.
Instead of sending the same old email out to everyone on your list, send emails based on preferences and subscriber behavior on your website. In the same vein, while email is a great way to build on your bottom line, it’s also a medium for engaging your customers and enhancing brand loyalty. While your goal may be to promote yourself and sell a product, you also want to keep your readers coming back for more by providing a memorable and beautiful experience.
Only 2.8% of retail emails get any kind of real conversion, so if you’re looking for great results then you’re going to need to have a think about what else you can achieve. If you focus entirely on promotion and selling in your emails, you aren’t going to engage anyone. However, by entertaining the people you speak to, you can enhance the chances of your subscribers opening every email you send – including the promotional ones.
The Other Side of the Coin – Seducing your Customers
Whenever you start drafting a new email, your first question should be: “What is my audience actually going to get out of this email?” If you can’t answer that question, close your computer down and come back when you’ve got a better idea of what you’re trying to accomplish. Let’s face it – missing out on this information means missing out on the whole point of your campaign. We’re good at Traffic for Me – we can get you the traffic you need – but we can’t do everything for you. Sorry guys! You’re going to need to shake a leg too.
For most people, the answer will be simply information about a new or upcoming product, service, or even an event taking place within your company. Your aim should be to make the value you’re offering as exclusive and exciting as possible. For instance, your customers love saving money (take my word for it), so why not offer a discount code or promotional sale?
To add a touch of something sweeter to the pot, you can always offer “exclusive content,” like sharing a secret about an upcoming sale that you don’t announce anywhere else, or providing links to limited-access discounts.
Don’t Know what to Do? Ask your Customers
If you literally have no idea what your subscribers want, then there’s only one thing you can do: ask them.
Asking your current subscribers what kind of content they’re interested in receiving from you can tell you more about what you should be trying to do in your current campaigns, and how you can improve your outreach strategies. Don’t be afraid to eliminate the guessing game of email and marketing strategies and just be straightforward about finding out what your audience likes or needs. To get feedback, you can try:
- Asking subscribers to respond directly to your email
- Sending out a Google Form
- Creating a survey
- Starting a poll on social media
Catch Their Eye
Finally, if what you’ve been saying isn’t doing enough to generate interest, then it might be time to take a more visual approach. Videos used in emails can lead to an up to 300% increase in click-through rate, so it’s worth thinking carefully about how you might be able to add relevant visual content into the mix.
At the same time, remember that the look and feel of your messages are just as important as the words you’re writing. If you ignore the design and visual elements of what you’re doing – then this can be a huge turn-off for your readers. Remember to embrace your branding and be consistent with color palettes, sizes, and formats.
With email marketing, as with any other marketing effort, it’s worth making sure that your audience is always associating each message with the underlying ethos of your brand. What are you waiting for? We can send you the traffic – and now you know exactly what you need to do to seduce them!
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