Your email campaigns suck. It’s a harsh truth – but let’s face it, if you were getting the results that you’ve been searching for with your email correspondence, then you probably wouldn’t be reading this article. Hey! Don’t go anywhere, though – T4Me is here to help.
Just like any other tactic for digital marketing, crafting a good campaign for email marketing requires serious time and effort. Allocating resources to your email marketing campaigns only to have them perform poorly can be both frustrating and disappointing – not to mention, a massive pain in the neck.
That said, email can hold some serious value for brands that do it right. Across various industries, email marketing offers some of the best value when it comes to attracting customers and keeping them engaged. After all, what better way to keep up with your audience then to pop up in their inbox?
Just think about it – with email marketing, you’re not just reaching customers when they visit your store or contact you for a chat – you’re there whenever they settle down to sleep at night, look for something to read on the toilet, or try to pass the time while waiting for the subway. 50% of Americans check their email in bed, so how can you make sure that your prospects are snuggling up with you at night instead of with your competitor?
Well first of all, you can get a leg up with traffic from us here at T4Me -that should give you plenty of bedmates to get started. Once that’s done, you need to focus on keeping them satisfied. Let’s start by looking at some of the things that can ruin the experience for everyone involved before we give you an idea of how to turn things around.
1. That All-Important First Impression
First impressions are important! If you meet your date wearing a clown costume, she’s probably not going to take you seriously for the rest of the night.
The subject line you give to your email recipient is literally your first (and possibly only) chance to capture their interest. A lack of compelling language and information won’t entice your users to open their email – instead, it’s likely to give your content a one-way-trip to the trash folder.
That doesn’t mean that you should mislead your prospects with outlandish subject lines, but it does mean that you need to think carefully about how you’re going to get their attention. A good place to start is to remember that 61-70 characters is the perfect length for a subject line. Neither too much, nor too little – it’s something that feels “just right.”
2. Premature Email Contact
Don’t fall victim to premature emailing. No matter which email platform you use, you should be able to examine your analytics and figure out why certain emails aren’t doing as well as others. Sometimes campaigns perform badly simply because they aren’t sent out at the right time.
Pay attention to the times of day, week, month, and year that have historically given you the best performance for your previous emails, and use that as a precedent for when you should be scheduling your content going forward. At Traffic for Me we make sure you’re getting quality traffic according to your needs – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do some research to inform you on how your own campaigns are performing.
3. “This Has Never Happened Before”
Mobile devices are more popular than ever as the primary device for people to check their email and browse the internet. Most users obsess over their smartphones and want to be able to read information on the go. If your emails aren’t rendering properly on different devices, then you’re going to lose your customers.
No customer is going to see a poorly rendered email on their phone then go to their computer so that they can try to read it there instead. It’s time to face the truth – you need to get responsive. The last thing you want is to waste time and effort crafting good campaigns that will still get ignored because they’re not properly formatted.
Don’t Be a Faceless Business
So there you have some insights into what you shouldn’t do during your email campaigns – but that’s not going to give you the boost in revenue you’ve been looking for, now is it? Fortunately, we don’t do half a job at Traffic for Me. We’re going to give you an insight into what you can do to improve your online efforts – and it all starts with personalization.
When you’re dying to meet a sales quota, chances are you’ll find yourself sending emails that are annoying, salesy, and even irrelevant just so that you feel as though you’re “doing something” to make a sale. Problem is – this doesn’t work!
Learn about your Audience
Batch and blast email crap just doesn’t work. If you wanna make a difference to your bottom line, you need to be willing to really get to know your target audience.
Learn as much as you can about each segment of your target audience, and find ways to customize the content you produce so that it matches their needs and interests exactly. Adding a first name can be enough to have some impact, but email personalization needs to go a lot further than that.
Most online shoppers will give you some information that you can use to personalize their content – from data about what they purchase, to where they’re located geographically. Even knowing a prospect’s gender can be useful, as your male customers are (presumably) more likely to buy a pair of running shoes than a training bra. Segmenting your audience by as many factors as possible, including interests, gender, and geolocation, will all help to ensure that the content you send is relevant.
Remember, even a small amount of personalization is worth the work. Customized email messages offer a 2.5x higher click-through rate, and achieve 6x more sales than those with no intimacy. If you have nothing more than a prospect’s first name – that could at least represent a good way to get started.
What’s more, the increase in open-rate with personal email subject lines is around 22.2%. Once you’ve gotten your prospects into the mood with some good personalization, it’ll be time for the main event.
Make a Difference with Testimonials
Bear with us – it might seem as though testimonials don’t have a role to play in this conversation, but before you make up your mind, answer this question:
What’s more likely to make you buy a product? A brand’s Twitter account telling you that its product is incredible, or another actual flesh and blood person raving about the fantastic service they received? Just as you’re more likely to go on a date with someone whom your friend has raved about for months on end, you’re more likely to engage in relationships with businesses who have a good reputation.
Customer testimonials represent one of the most powerful tools that email marketers have in their arsenal for conversations – because they’re incredibly effective. Testimonials behave like a social lubricant – a powerful motivational factor in consumer acting. The only problem with all of this is that you need to make sure you make the right impression with your testimonials.
If you get all your friends to tell some girl or guy that you’re the best person they’ll ever meet, not only are you building some seriously expectations, but you’re also reducing your chances that they’re going to take you seriously. A million half-hearted testimonials are nowhere near as beneficial as one thoughtful and genuine review.
So what kind of customer testimonial should you be inserting into your email marketing efforts? The ones that tell the story of your ideal customer, and your story at the same time. A good testimonial isn’t a gushing statement about how something has changed your life – it’s something that outlines the problem that has been overcome by a service. This means that the testimonials you use should be:
- Accessible – Simply written and easy to read.
- Specific – talking about specific solutions, problems, features, and outcomes.
- Informative – the testimonial should talk about what the customer experienced before, after, and during the purchase of your product.
Remember, while all testimonials can be useful, the ones that you want to draw attention to, are the ones that can sell your product.
In other words, don’t include messages about how “okay” or “nice” you are. Use that single review that raves about how you were the most amazing business that customer has ever done business with. Use a testimonial that shows how someone has overcome a problem thanks to your help, and convince your prospects that you can change their world.
Boosting your Email Campaigns
From making the right first impression, to using testimonials as a way of building your reputation before you ever meet a sales prospect in the first place – there’s a lot to think about in email campaigns. Fortunately, they’re also one of the most effective and lucrative things you can do for your business. You can always ignore the tips that we’ve outlined here and choose to do your own thing instead – but take our word for it – good emails really do generate good responses.
From more sales to a bigger, more loyal customer following, if your email campaigns suck then you’re missing out on a lot of great benefits. Fortunately, at Traffic for Me we can help – by offering you an easier way to build up your traffic and get an awesome following.
Take an active role in your email campaign. If you make it shine, your business shines too.
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