It is no secret that email marketing is the most profitable channel to drive sales and revenue.
For every $1 spent on email marketing, you have the potential to earn $40. That’s a whopping 4000% ROI.
However, that does not mean that just by sending emails you can expect good returns from this channel – unless you have a well-defined strategy.
So, you need to create an email marketing strategy that establishes your goals and lays out a solid game plan to achieve those goals.
That involves everything from segmenting the target audience to hitting the primary inbox, to picking the right time, to set clear goals for campaigns.
Read on to learn how to create an effective email marketing strategy. You might want to get some coffee now because we have a lot of ground to cover!
1. Focus on building your email list
Sending emails to promote your products and services sounds like a great idea – after all, every business uses this marketing channel, right? But the question remains: How do you encourage people to join your email list?
As you don’t want to put yourself at risk by sending unsolicited marketing emails, so how do you get people to subscribe?
Here’s how to build your email list quickly:
- Blow out the offers: If you want visitors to become your email subscribers, offer a deal or discount. Offering a discount to join your email list can be an excellent incentive for people to sign up
- Turn your app users into email subscribers: If you have a mobile app, you should induce your new app users to join your email list. Just ensure that you give them a reason to do so
- Convert your social followers into email subscribers by offering them a special “subscriber’s only” incentive
- Make it sound exclusive: If you want people to join your email list make them feel special – like they are getting something that’s not readily available to others
- Create a sense urgency: When trying to get people to join your email list, use enticing copy and appeal to their FOMO
2. Set a clear goal for every campaign
The second step in creating your email marketing strategy is to set clear goals for every campaign and to select the relevant metrics to track progress towards them.
Start by setting a specific goal for every campaign. These goals will help you know whether a particular campaign is successful or not.
Examples of campaign goals could include:
- Increasing engagement: How many subscribers engaged with your email? As you dive into the numbers, watch for KPIs of success such as open rates, click-through rates, and social shares
- Re-engaging inactive subscribers: If the goal of your campaign is to capture the attention of sleepy email subscribers the metric that will matter most is open rates
- Driving more revenue: If the purpose of a particular campaign is to boost sales, the metrics that will matter are conversion rates and campaign return on investment
Remember that not every campaign will boost your sales. The key is to select the right metrics that directly tie back to your campaign goals.
3. Create a strong segmentation strategy
The next step in developing your email marketing strategy is to create a robust segmentation strategy.
A good segmentation strategy can help you send targeted email campaigns to your subscribers which in turn will improve your email open and click-through rates.
If you haven’t figured out the best way to segment your email marketing list given below are 4 powerful segmentation methods to help you get started:
- Demographic Segmentation – based on gender, age, etc.
- Behavioural Segmentation – based on activity (open, clicks, and conversions) or inactivity
- Interest-driven Segmentation – based on behaviour and profile data
- Geographic Segmentation – based on geo-location data
Segmentation works but only when done well. If you are getting started don’t go granular – start with 2-3 segments, then expand gradually.
4. Develop a strong email deliverability strategy (one that keeps you out of Gmail’s Promotions Tab)
Another essential thing to factor into your email marketing strategy is landing in the primary tab!
Why is landing in the primary tab so essential?
Do you know more than 1.5 billion people use Gmail each month? With so many active Gmail users the chances are high that a significant chunk of your email subscribers are Gmail users.
It’s crucial to ensure that your emails get delivered to these subscribers’ primary inbox tab.
Here’re a few ways to ensure that your emails get delivered into Gmail’s primary tab:
- Ask subscribers to whitelist you in your Welcome Email: Do you know welcome emails have an open rate as high as 91.43%? So the chances are high that your subscribers will see your message and act on it
- Make engagement a priority: The more engaged your email subscribers are, the more your email will land in their primary tab
- Make it sound personal: The easiest way to make emails personal is by addressing the recipient by their first name in the subject line or pre-header, and the body of the email
- Go easy on the images: While creativity is important, ensure you use images only when absolutely essential
- Segment your email list
5. Create an email marketing calendar
Hand-in-hand with an email marketing strategy comes an email marketing calendar.
Now you know how to land in the primary inbox, the next step in your email marketing strategy is deciding when and how often should you land in it.
You don’t have to decide the exact message you will be emailing to your subscribers. But you should at least plan out the type of messages like promotional, non-promotional, time-based promotions, etc.
For example, if you are a shoe retailer, you may send a promotional mailer on one day, and you might send an email with tips on how to clean and care for your shoes on the next day. Having an email marketing calendar will help you be organised and consistent.
6. Ensure your emails get opened
You won’t be able to generate returns from email marketing if no one reads your emails. And, no one will ever read your email if they don’t open it in the first place!
Wondering how to entice subscribers to open your email messages?
Well, given below are 7 types of subject lines (along with real-life examples) that can do the trick:
- Subject lines that generate curiosity
- Personalised subject lines
- Subject lines that create a sense of urgency
- Subject lines that are data-driven
- Subject lines that offer value
- Subject lines that include emojis
- Subject lines that include numbers
7. Personalise your send time
Want more subscribers to open your email? You need to focus on optimising your send times accordingly.
Why’s that?
I’ve covered this in one of my earlier posts – here is an excerpt from it:
“Because two people in the same time-zone will not always like to open the email at the same time, for example, one person might prefer to check their email in the morning, during the commute to work. Another might choose to check it at night when winding down for the day. So, if you want the best opens rates, you should send emails at different times to different subscribers.”
Now you must be thinking about how to personalise the send time for everyone on your email list. Well, today’s marketing automation tools make these actions possible.
If you want to customise the send time for subscribers’ our platform includes a feature called Send Time Optimisation. This AI-powered feature predicts when to send a particular email to a subscriber based on their historical interactions with your emails.
Have you created an email marketing strategy for your business? We would love to know how useful it has been for you to drive better results through email marketing!
And, to learn just how you can further elevate your email marketing game, get in touch with us, today!
