4 essential keys to successful email marketing
Technology is evolving and changing fast. Email is no exception. As marketers, we are expected to break down barriers that reduce potential influence on customers. Email marketing is no exception. There are a number of ways to optimize the success of email marketing campaigns.
A recent J&C Marketing Trends study reports that 91% of marketers will increase or maintain their email usage for the upcoming year. Marketers are becoming more familiar with developing email marketing campaigns, but the upkeep of those programs is essential in order to avoid diminishing performance and lost revenue.
Customers have conformed to checking email daily. It has become a routine activity for most, similar to drinking coffee or watching the news. We have found that 60% of email is opened within the first 24 hours of deployment and 33% of those emails are opened in the first hour. It is remarkable how receptive customers are to hear from a company they know and trust. If a company has a relationship with a customer, then the customer is more likely to engage in email.
There are four essential keys to successful email marketing. Tap into each of these best practices and email efforts will indeed advance customer influence. These tactics not only improve ROI, but also customer reach and satisfaction.
1. Increase deliverability to maximize customer reach. Email providers can restrict senders during delivery authentication. Proper management of lists and sender reputation can increase deliverability. A campaign is bound to fail without access to the customer inbox. Tracking deliverability and maintaining positive relationships with email providers will improve overall campaign reach and engagement.
2. Apply personalization and segmentation to improve customer relevancy. Data is an excellent tool to drive results. A recent J&C communication preference survey found that two out of three customers prefer personalized communications. It is no surprise that customers like to feel understood. Using their actions and behaviors to tailor communications may drive influence, engagement and conversion. Personalization does not have to be overbearing with descriptive information or difficult to implement. Simply adding the company brand name to the subject line is one way to apply personalization that leverages recall from the existing customer relationship.
3. Execute mobile optimization techniques to satisfy customer experience. Smartphone usage is going to keep growing. If a smartphone user is going to engage with an email, it will need to be functionally easy. Using large buttons and fonts, and multiple call-to-action text links and images are mobile email best practices. If users do not have ease of navigation from an email, they will move on and likely discount their perception toward the brand. Adopting mobile responsive design is essential in order to maintain customers’ attention via mobile. The current rate of frustrated smartphone users accessing a site that is not mobile-friendly is nearly 50%.* Jumping the hurdle and programming mobile responsive emails will salvage conversions.
4. Incorporate a test-and-learn environment to optimize email effectiveness. There is no real way of knowing what customers want unless you test. Constant testing will optimize clicks and conversions. Developing a catalog of insights from testing will further enhance future campaigns by initially applying proven techniques. There are endless approaches to testing emails. A few that provide measurable improvement to ROI are testing subject lines, personalization, messaging and offers.
Although each of these methods can be applied individually, best results occur if they are put into action concurrently. It is important to realize that once an email campaign is off the ground and running, it must be monitored, enhanced and tested to maintain its success. To learn more about methods for successful email marketing, download the ebook. Over 75 pages we cover each of the four keys in greater detail and explore examples and tips of essential email optimization tactics.
At Jacobs & Clevenger, we send almost 10 million emails each year for our clients. That’s why we’re such strong advocates of testing and applying proven methods. To learn more about our email capabilities, visit our web page on email marketing.
If you want to discuss more proven ways to build and maintain a successful email marketing program, please contact J&C.
*Google Think Insights