It’s 2019, and companies still use email marketing. Shocker, right? Wrong. All of us expect online marketing to be an effective tool. However, we tend to think more in terms of social media when we say “online”. 

As such, most of us are sleeping on the greatest marketing tool the internet has to offer: email. According to these guys, email is 40 times more effective in getting customers than both Facebook and Twitter combined. 

Now that we all agree that email is amazing, how do we use it? More importantly, how do we use it well as part of our marketing strategy? 

In short, we need to make the maximum number of our emails reach our audience. More engagement = better promotion = more sales.

There are two things you need to do if you want the maximum number of emails to reach your audience:

• 1) Create emails that your audience will want to see.
• 2) Curate an audience that will want to see the emails you create.  

It sounds hard, but it’s not. In the coming paragraphs, you will learn exactly how to do this.

Creating the email

Hookline

You only get one first impression. Make it count. The subject line of your email needs to be strategic. This is so that people want to open the email and read the content. Here’s what you do. 

1. Make it personal. Don’t make the recipient feel like one of many. Use their name and personalize the email. Remember, you want to build a relationship with your clients so that they continue to read your emails. For that, you need to make them feel special. Stay away from spiels.
2. Make it catchy. Don’t be forgettable. You’re not the only person marketing to this person.
3. Make it urgent. Don’t let them put off opening the email for the distant future. Make the audience feel like they must open the email and read it. 
4. Make it straightforward. Don’t forget that your purpose is to make people read your email, not just receive it. Tell them exactly what to expect. Grab their attention with the subject line so that you can follow through in the body of the email.

You also want to avoid your email being sent to spam folders, so avoid using spam trigger words like “free” or “promotion” in your subject line. Be subtle. The true essence of marketing lies in selling the product without making the customer feel like they are being sold to. 

Content

The most important part of any email marketing: the content you are marketing. It’s easy to get caught up in the technicalities of it. But in the end, if you don’t have anything worthwhile to say, nobody will listen. Your content should be precise, limited, and informative. Make it easy to understand and conversational. 

An excellent business strategy says to sell something as if you have nothing to gain from selling it. Your online marketing should be based on a similar strategy.

• Personalize. Appeal to the customer’s emotions and judgment. 
• Inspire action by having limited-time deals. 
• Give your mailing list access to deals that normal viewers don’t. 
• Add a gif, picture, or video to keep people engaged. 
• Don’t just focus on selling something. Build a relationship with your client. This will help you sell better later. 
• Have a clear call to action. Let your readers know what you want them to do.

Curating the audience

Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe

You need a mailing list to have an email marketing campaign.  

Opt-ins are your best friend for creating this mailing list out of website viewers.

People that visit your website are already interested. Anyone interested is part of your target audience.

Your job is to keep these people interested even after they’ve left your website.

This is where subscription and opt-ins come in.

Opt-in forms are pop-ups that prompt website surfers and other viewers to join your mailing list.

Welcome gates, light-box popups, and exit-intent popups are different types of opt-ins.

Welcome gates show the opt-in as soon as people open your website. Light-box pop-ups show up randomly while people are on the website. Finally, exit-intent pop-ups appear when people are about to leave the website.

Using these strategies can cultivate your mailing list so that you have people who are likely to view your emails. 

Take it easy

No one likes to be badgered. Sending too many emails too quickly can end with your recipients unsubscribing or sending your email to the spam folder.

This is the nightmare of all email marketers.

Our advice?

Stick to what you promised. If you advertised weekly newsletters, only send weekly newsletters. Don’t start sending emails daily. If you said you would email every time there was a sale, try to email mostly when there is a sale. Stay relevant, and stay consistent.

Let your audience know what to expect with your schedule, and stick to it. This is how you will keep the audience that you have. 

Listen to your audience

Feedback is very powerful. You must keep a channel of communication open so that your audience can talk to you and tell you what it wants. They will tell you what is effective and what they respond to.

You need to listen to them. Make sure there is a way people can reach you or respond to your email. Ask for ratings or feedback. Then act upon the information you receive to make your content as effective as possible. 

Use what you have

There are a lot of tools available online to help you know your audience better. Use them. Google Analytics and Facebook Insights are excellent tools to figure out who your customers are, what they are interested in, and how to best receive responses from them.

Even your email insights are valuable in helping you understand what strategy is working. 

You should use these to become familiar with your audience. Only show them content they are likely to respond to.

Targeted approaches are far better than blindly trying everything.

Once you know what emails reach what audience, use them accordingly. No one size fits all, and you need to figure out what your size is.

In this way, you will have a solid email marketing campaign with the maximum number of emails reaching your audience.