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( votes)Every day, billions of emails are traveling from inbox to inbox. This traditional tool is vital for all marketers who want to increase their revenue in 2021 and build a strong customer base.
Like every marketing strategy, email marketing is a dynamic landscape that changes a lot. There are new trends and data that brands should consider before importing this tactic in their marketing plans.
This article will explore how to enhance your email marketing game in 2021 and get an edge on your competition. In the market, many email marketing services can help you achieve your marketing goals.
Remember that email marketing is the kind of tool that needs testing, so follow the tips below but don’t forget to adjust your strategy if something doesn’t work for your objectives.
So, let’s go over how to nail your email marketing today:
Personalize your emails
When you hear personalization, I’m sure that you think of an email with a first name and a greeting, or something along those lines.
The truth is that this technique used to work, but we have 2021 approaching and you need to ensure that you follow the latest trends.
So no more, “Dear [whatever name].”
Many consumers find these emails spammy, especially now with cybersecurity threats all over the web. Identity theft or credit card frauds (to name a few) make it difficult for users to accept this kind of email and are more suspicious.
Email marketing has a lot to do with building relationships. If a recipient trusts you or knows who you are, you have more chances of communicating your message. When you force familiarity too soon, your campaigns may end up having fewer conversions.
So what is the answer to our problem?
Personalization is a crucial element that can help you get ahead of the game during 2021. Avoid being fake and use all the data collected from your landing pages to ensure that your personalization is on point.
Some information you can use is the demographics or past purchase behavior. Have a greeting regarding the user’s location or have products similar to what your subscribers searched for on your website.
With product personalization, you can trigger positive responses from up to 98 percent of customers. Do you know why?
Because they understand that you care to find what they want.
The takeaway here is that you must use personalization as an email strategy in every marketing campaign you send but do it in a meaningful way.
If you put in the time to set up the custom fields to acquire all the necessary information from your subscribers, personalization can skyrocket your revenue. It shows far greater care to send emails specific to a recipient’s needs and history.
Write the right long and short subject lines
Subject lines are those tricky sentences that are capable of skyrocketing or ruining a whole campaign.
The subject line is the first element your subscribers will see in their inboxes. From that sentence, they will decide if they will open to continue reading.
Crafting that perfect subject line is not easy. Marketers usually refer to that infamous “dead zone” of subject length, which is the number of characters you should avoid.
After research, results showed that there was no increase in open rates nor click-throughs.
Some of the more interesting findings were that subject lines with 70 characters, and more had more click through rates while subject lines with 49 characters and below had better open rates.
I prefer to use smaller subject lines from my personal experience as they tend to have better results. I send hundreds of emails each week, and when I finally got to analyze the efficiency of my campaigns, I found out that when I had small subject lines, I had an open rate of around 58%.
Subject lines are not an easy task, and I can tell that because fewer characters work for me doesn’t mean that they will work for you. Have some A/B testing with different subject lines and choose which one your list of subscribers prefer.
Segment your subscribers.
According to email marketers, segmentation is one of the essential parts of every marketing campaign.
Do you know why it is so valuable?
It’s because you can create more targeted campaigns for your audience when you segment your database.
We will understand better how segmentation works with the following example:
We want to organize an event for small business owners with companies located within a 10-mile radius.
The best way to have the optimal return on investment for our event is through segmentation.
We have to create a segment of people who consider themselves small business owners and live within 10 miles of our event and send them an invitation by email.
This group of people will be way more targeted than our entire database with subscribers worldwide. It is very annoying to receive an email that invites you to an event on the other side of the world.
Now that we understand how segmentation works let’s see how valuable it is.
If you segment your lists, you have better:
- open rates (14.31%)
- click through rates (74.53%)
- revenue
- lead generation
- transactions
Want to hear the best part?
9 out of 10 marketers do not use segmentation.
Here are a few examples that can help with segmentation and give you a competitive advantage:
- Segment by industry
- Segment by company size
- Segment by sales cycle
The segmentation can be simple, and CRM software like Nimble can help you along the way.
But what does CRM stand for?
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the explanation of this acronym. It involves building a relationship with your contacts while maintaining client history and all the necessary contact information.
During the pandemic, the user experience has become the number one priority for brands. CRM software can help you manage your business’ relationships with customers through the sales and after-sales process.
For all small businesses trying to do your CRM through spreadsheets can be confusing and be far from great results.
CRM solutions are more straightforward, and they do more than contain contact information. They can also create calendar events and set reminders.
Having software that can do so much for your segmentation process is extremely practical in a fast-paced world. Keep in mind that user experience is the goal here, and if a CRM tool can help your brand build better relationships, it should be in your toolbox for 2021.
The best content is free content
Consumers love free stuff. Knowing that, why don’t you try to add some more free content to your email marketing campaigns?
A study from Bluewire Media tested various content types to see how they affect open and click through rates. The freebies that email readers want are templates and tools.
Ebooks, interviews with experts, and even photo albums come after when it comes to resources. As we mentioned earlier, you have to do your own test with your lists, but this is a good starting point.
Another tip would be to create a course and offer some parts for free to attract more customers and give some value first. Here is an example of a recent email I received some days ago.
Remember that templates and tools are the most useful resources that convert according to the research, but every list is different and if you can’t create this kind of content, focus on what works for you.
Make your emails mobile-friendly.
Mobile is responsible for 47% of all email opens, and this number will only go higher.
When you create an email campaign, ensuring that you have a responsive design will solve many problems in the long run.
Here are some mobile design tips to get you started:
- Prefer a one-column template.
- Increase the font size to improve readability on smartphones.
- Make the call-to-action easy to tap and obvious.
- Create your buttons at least 44 pixels wide by 44 pixels tall.
- Keep essential tappable elements in the middle of the screen because many users prefer to scroll with their thumb.
The takeaway
All of these tips can help you upgrade your email marketing strategy and have a better return on investment. Pay attention to the small details and implement every information separately to see which works for your brand.
Test and pivot towards the strategies that work best for you. If you have any further questions or any other tips to share, let me know in the comments section. Until the next one…
