Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach potential customers, no matter the industry you are in. For every $1 a company spends on email marketing, they seen an average return on investment of $44. This sizable return is due to what targeted customers spend; people who buy products marketed specifically through email pay 138 percent more than those who do not receive email offers. If you are not seeing these kinds of numbers, there is an issue with your email marketing efforts.
What are typical mistakes people make with email marketing?
- Subject lines that are not compelling. Even if you have put together a beautifully designed email with a good sales offer, it could be ignored based entirely on the subject line. In fact, you could increase your open rate by over 200 percent by improving your subject lines. If you find this kind of writing difficult, here are a few tips to keep in mind – keep them under seven words, use a familiar sender name and make it sound personal. Consistently A/B test your subject lines to update your strategy as necessary.
- Writing emails that are too long. Most people check their emails on small screens, so they do not want to see giant blocks of text, as those will go ignored. Subscribers want emails that are short and too the point. Longer emails have less engagement and click rates, so brevity is absolutely crucial. Not only should the emails have a lesser word count, they should be fun to read and engaging. Adding in some pictures and a strong call to action will do a lot more for your campaign than a lengthy email.
- Not defining clear campaign goals. While you certainly want to set a goal for your email marketing strategy, you want those benchmarks to be explicit. Including multiple calls to action in a single campaign is confusing to readers and often prevent them from clicking and converting. A single and focused call to action makes it much more likely that subscribers will convert and can actually increase clicks by nearly 400 percent. Email marketing needs to be crystal clear, not muddied with too many options.
An effective email marketing campaign can and should be seamlessly integrated into a larger web marketing strategy. You want your message to be communicated to prospective consumers on as many mediums as possible to drive up your sales. Without email marketing, your business could be leaving revenue on the table. Use the above pieces of information to reevaluate your email marketing campaign and find room for improvement.