How to conduct effective e-mail marketing? Advertising mailing from scratch

Did you know that 99% of Internet users have an e-mail box? E-mail accompanies us almost every day. This is obviously the reason why companies still run mailing campaigns. Therefore, you also should be interested in this form of advertising. Or maybe you are a practitioner of e-mail marketing, but you do not quite know what it involves? I have for you some tips, which will improve the effectiveness of your actions.

What is e-mail marketing?

E-mail marketing is one of the oldest forms of Internet marketing, which every company can afford. It involves communicating with existing and potential customers via e-mail. You may think that sending e-mails is ineffective, but in practice it looks different. E-mail marketing allows you to get a high return on investment (ROI), as well as build relationships with recipients. Of course, it must be conducted properly. Therefore, you should become familiar with the principles of mailboxes and good practices of creating e-mails.

Effective e-mail marketing – this is what you must remember

Build your own mailing list

Many entrepreneurs think that mailing does not bring results. Indeed, it’s likely that you won’t see results from an e-mail marketing campaign, especially when you’re targeting a purchased contact base. Therefore, build your own mailing list. For this purpose, you can place a newsletter sign-up form on your website or online store. A very good idea is to organize actions aimed at downloading a guide, e-book or signing up for a webinar or event in exchange for leaving your e-mail address. For this purpose, you can refer potential customers to a landing page where they can receive a specific benefit. You can also offer discounts on your products this way. 

Determine your marketing goals

If you want to conduct an effective mailing, you first need to set its goals. Of course, your primary goal should be to increase sales. However, remember that e-mail marketing should not only have an advertising and sales function. You can also promote your business by building brand awareness.

Personalize messages

Make sure that your messages are personalized. When you address the recipient by name, you simply grab their attention. Recipients prefer to receive personalized e-mails because they feel they are not just another address on your mailing list. This is a proven way to increase your open rate.

Use storytelling

You can create a series containing several e-mails and targeting people who have just subscribed to your mailing list. In such a series you can present your company already in the welcome e-mail. However, it’s not about dry facts. Tell your brand story. Storytelling will help you build trust and brand awareness among your stakeholders. Use benefit language when presenting your offer. You can also create an e-mail containing your customers’ feedback. Remember to educate potential customers and give them additional value so they know they will gain even more after taking advantage of your offer.

Include a Call To Action

Every e-mail should include a call to action (CTA). The most common way is to include a graphic button linked to a landing page where the user will perform a specific action, e.g. download a tutorial, sign up for a webinar or take advantage of a special offer. However, remember not to use too many CTAs, as it may create chaos and the recipient will resign from clicking on any link.

Choose the right time

A study conducted by GetResponse shows that e-mails sent in the evening achieve the highest open rates. Messages sent between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. also have the best results, while messages sent between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. also achieve high open rates. Moreover, the best results are recorded one hour after the message is sent. When it comes to the day of a week, e-mails sent on Sunday have the highest open rate, but Thursday is the day when users are most likely to open messages in their mailbox. However, it is important to remember that the effect will not be the same in every case. A lot depends on the group of recipients.

Analyse

Do not forget to measure the success of your mailing campaign, which involves analyzing several indicators. One of them is the rejection rate, i.e. the percentage of messages that have not been opened. Its inverse is the open rate. It’s also worth analyzing what percentage of recipients clicked on at least one link in the e-mail. Also monitor how many people unsubscribe from your mailing list.

What to do to prevent an e-mail from going to spam?

Understanding how e-mail inboxes work will positively impact the effectiveness of your e-mail campaign. How you as a sender are perceived by mailboxes determines whether your messages will reach subscribers or end up in spam. To increase the deliverability of your messages, include your name and your company’s name as the sender, as this suggests to recipients what to expect when they open the message and shows that there is a human being on the other end. Pay attention to the e-mail subject line, which should not exceed 60 characters. Instead, it should be engaging, enticing to open, and stand out from other messages. Remember that you only have a few seconds to gain attention. For this purpose you can add emoticons to the subject line. It is also a good idea to use a preheader, i.e. a sentence that is displayed below the subject line before the user opens the message. 

Remember also to require address confirmation when subscribing to your e-mail list, and to include unsubscribe information in every e-mail. This reduces the risk of messages being marked as spam. Do not send messages that are heavier than 60kB and contain a large number of images. Take care of the visual aspect of e-mails, they should be associated with your brand and refer to its colors. When it comes to graphics, use the ALT attribute to describe their content. Perform anti-spam tests. And of course, make sure you keep in touch with your subscribers regularly.

Is it worth investing in e-mail marketing?

Due to the fact that sending a lot of e-mails is not expensive, the return on investment can be very high. What’s more, you won’t find another communication channel on the Internet which is used by so many people at least once a day. Of course, there is also social media, which you can confidently use to build your mailing list. Still don’t believe in the power of e-mail marketing? How about this: in a study conducted by DMA in 2015, the average return on investment was 38:1. Which means that for every £1 spent, you gain £38. Isn’t that a satisfactory result? Hopefully, you’ve just convinced yourself about e-mailing and will do everything to make your marketing effective.