Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing tools that you can maximise for your business. It’s a good way to let your customers know about your brand, introduce new products, and offer discounts. But like any other marketing campaign, it requires a well-thought-out and deliberate plan for it to take off.
To help you craft a compelling email marketing strategy, we’ve compiled 7 helpful tips that you can take on.
How to Make an Email Marketing Plan
Determine your short-term and long-term goals
Establishing short-term and long-term goals will determine if you are heading the right way toward business success. They give purpose to the actions that you are currently undertaking. An example of a short-term email marketing goal is crafting quick email promos that aim to increase cash flow after a huge loss. While for the long-term goal, you can say that you aim to have new subscribers every month for the next two years.
Other common email marketing goals include:
- Improving customer relationships
- Increasing website traffic
- Winning back customers
- Amplifying online visibility
Your goals should align and should reflect your current business situation as well as your business’ mission.
Grow your email list
One technique to prompt your customers to subscribe to your email content is by adding a Subscribe button on your home page or blog page. You can also tie in perks like a free product trial, discount, or access to exclusive content to motivate them to subscribe.
Another one is by attending conventions. Joining conventions can help you build rapport with other attendees and establish connections. Once you’ve established rapport, introduce your brand and ask if they would like to know more about it. If they show interest, you can then include them in your email list.
READ: 10 Expert Tips: How to Increase Your Email List
Divide your list into different groups
Different strokes for different folks. This adage applies when you segment your email list into different groups. This is because email content is not a one-size-fits-all. Instead, it’s a well-curated content that targets and caters to a particular group of people. Segmentation makes your email marketing more effective.
You can segment your email list according to:
- Demographics (age, gender, location, etc.)
- Product customers
- Job title
- The subscriber’s life cycle
- Buying frequency
Write engaging emails
The subject line, preheader, personality, and design are the key factors that prompt the recipients to finish reading your email instead of opening it alone.
Let’s delve into these four factors:
Subject Line
The subject line is the first text that recipients see when they open their email account. Pique their interest immediately by adding eye-catching text.
Here are questions to consider when you write your subject lines:
- What will readers get if they open my email?
- What value does this email have?
- What will they learn from the email?
Preheader
The preheader is your final attempt in motivating your recipients to open the email after hooking them with your subject line. You can tease recipients with a question, but remember to limit your preheader to two sentences only.
Example:
Subject line: Top 10 self-care practices during a lockdown
Preheader: Ready to stay healthy mentally despite the global madness?
Personality
Your personality should be seen and felt in the content because it helps recipients understand your brand and recognise it among your competitors. In short, it’s what makes you, you.
In fact, you can incorporate your playfulness into your content by personalising your emails. Brands that have a personalised email subject lines generate 50% higher open rates.
Design
Design is another aspect where your brand personality reflects. The colour combinations, spaces, and icons matter when you represent your brand. If you have a unique online mascot or symbol, add it to your emails to add a playful touch.
However, designs should be used sparingly to prevent reader confusion. Learn to strike a balance between the design and the white space.
Ensure mobile optimisation
Most emails are read through smartphones. So, make sure that your email marketing plan includes mobile optimisation. This ensures that your email can still be read when accessed via smartphones.
A/B testing
Marketers use A/B testing to determine which methods yield better results. With this, you can test different versions of your content, subject lines, preheader, and design template. In short, A/B testing lets you see your content through the eyes of your recipients.
Once you get insights from the emails that you’ve sent, take note of how recipients reacted to them and apply the most effective approach to your future emails.
Ask for feedback
Send out surveys to know what your recipients think of your email marketing tool. The answers will help you identify problems with your content, measure their overall satisfaction rate, and figure out areas for improvement.
READ: 8 Email Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid
Establish credibility in your email communication!
An effective email marketing strategy is only effective if there is an apparent increase in subscriptions and satisfaction rate. Users won’t subscribe to your email marketing campaign if they don’t see your brand as reliable and credible in a specific field of information. Therefore, in small details such as your email, it should carry your business name to establish your authority.
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