Many people insist that nobody reads emails that come from blogs or businesses anymore. They think that email marketing doesn’t work in this age of information overload.
Well, that thinking is proven wrong just about every year.
Email marketing is just as effective as it has always been. With one caveat.
The old way of email marketing is definitely over. To be successful at email marketing takes a change in the mindset of those who use it. The old school guys using old techniques are seeing diminishing returns and think it doesn’t work. It’s just the old methods that don’t.
Just as the types of online content have changed, so has email. In this article, we will go over some of those changes so you can use email marketing more effectively.
Get personal
Generic, boilerplate emails are not going to work. These days people like to feel that they are being spoken to, and more importantly, heard by the people trying to market to them.
Most people actually don’t mind being marketed to when it comes in a package that seems tailor made for them.
That doesn’t mean that you have to write out each email individually to be successful. That would be impossible. Instead, use email marketing tools that will give some small identifying markers to make it look like that email was not sent out to hundreds or thousands of other people.
Segment your audience
Different people react to different things. And everybody is using your site differently. If you treat each visitor the same and send them the same email then you’re going to be fighting an uphill battle.
You need to have a different campaign for different types of people using your site. Have a different lead magnet with a totally different drip campaign for each of your target audience.
Let’s use an example to clarify. Let’s suppose you have a website about dogs. You have lots of posts about the best dog food, so have a particular lead magnet that will resonate with the people that were there for nutrition for dogs and then craft an email accordingly.
Another section of your website is about dog training, so have a special download for those people as that is what they will mostly be interested in.
And the list goes on. If you send those different users all the same email, then they will unsubscribe quickly assuming they gave you their email to begin with.
Don’t market right away
Though people like to be marketed to with products and services that are useful to them, they don’t want to be hit over the head with offers all day.
They signed up for your email list to get relevant and helpful information that helps them solve their problem. Send out at least four or five different emails with actual information. Going back to the dog website idea, if they signed up for training topics, then send out some emails about helpful tips to about things like how to keep your dog from fighting other dogs in a dog park, for instance.
Then after a while, send an offer. Whether it is a product you are promoting or a service you offer, have it come after people understand that you are there to help them so they understand that this offer is going to solve their problem. You’ve already built trust with them over the preceding email sequence.
Make it mobile friendly
Most people are online on their phones over time on their PC. Usually people are on their PC when they are at work, so that is not the best way to reach them. People can’t really browse their personal emails at work or interact with them.
So, understanding this, craft your emails in a way that they will work on mobile. Keep the emails lightweight without too much going on so they load fast on a mobile browser.
Also keep the emails short and to the point with good visuals to break up text as people love to scroll.
Have a clear call to action
At the end of every email there should be a clearl call to action for what to do next.
If you are sending out a sequence of emails that are all related, then you simply let people know that they should be ready for the next email on a specific day. Though you aren’t asking them to act, you are asking them to keep your email in their mind.
If there is a product you are promoting, then make sure to spell out exactly why they should click, espeically if there is a limited time deal.