Nine quick win email marketing tips

Nine email marketing tactics the top 3% are using to get ‘excellent’ results.

Email marketing is becoming more profitable — a result of increased readership on mobile devices and better use of technology.

We all know that there has been an increase in emails being opened on mobile devices — 47% according to Email Monday. Some marketers, however, are struggling to keep up. While nearly nine out of ten have access to marketing automation, only 4% describe their automated email marketing programs as ‘very successful’. So to help you harness the latest email marketing technology, here are nine tactics for joining the elite generating big profits from the power of email marketing automation.

Nine email marketing tactics the top 3% are using to get ‘excellent’ results:

1. Smart segmentation

Nearly a quarter of people unsubscribe from emails because they’re irrelevant. Improving the quality of the content and making it more relevant is an obvious way of reducing unsubscribes. This is achieved through smart segmentation of your database. You can then ensure that messages sent are more closely matched to your recipients’ demographics, purchase history, location and other key bits of data. A third of companies who use advanced segmentation say that their email campaigns have an ‘excellent’ ROI, compared to just 13% of those that aren’t segmenting. Which group would you rather be in?

2. Give frequency options

Sending too many messages is another chief reason people click on the unsubscribe link. Giving them the option to opt out of the weekly blog update while still getting the monthly newsletter is an easy win way to keep readers locked into your campaigns.

3. Set up behavior triggers

Being able to send emails automatically based on particular page visits or actions is a holy grail of email marketing. It fulfills the timeless ethos of sending the right message to the right person at the right time. Setting up behavior triggers for specific pages on your website takes your email marketing to a level that is directly based on your customer’s behaviour.

4. Auto-populate emails with dynamic content

Nearly half of marketers say that lack of time is the biggest barrier to implementing automation technology in their email campaigns. But smart email marketers know they can actually save time. With automation tools, they can add blog posts, tweets and product recommendations on autopilot, sending relevance and conversions soaring.

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5. Balance automation with original content

Nearly half of marketers think that all email marketing will be automated in five years. While convenient, we think it’s wise to make sure your campaigns still have a human voice. After all, automation allows you to appeal to different buyer personas. The most successful campaigns will always be those that resonate. For this reason, smart marketers create buyer personas and then craft campaigns which appeal to their different customer types.

6. Testing how emails read on mobile

Readership on mobiles is rocketing. Some 64% of decision makers read email on their mobile, according to Salesforce. It’s no wonder 22% more companies are now optimizing for mobile compared to last year, with more than three quarters now having a basic mobile optimization strategy. The two main ways they are doing this is creating a mobile responsive template (39%) or adapting a simpler one that renders properly on a miniature screen (52%).

22% more companies are now optimizing for mobile compared to last year

7. Strategize and plan

While 63% of marketers spend a minimum of two hours on design and content, only 35% spend two hours or more on strategy and planning. Failing to plan is planning to fail. It might be less fun, but strategy and planning should receive as much attention as the creative part. Otherwise you could be publishing content nobody is interested in and draining customers from your lifecycle pipeline every time you hit send.

8. Test, improve then test again

After spending all that time on headlines, body copy and a smart CTA, the temptation is to hit publish and hope for the best. But if you don’t measure and test, you have no way of knowing what parts of your campaign are generating profit and which are shredding subscribers. Testing every element, from the subject line to the body copy, images and call to action, is a key reason why 4% of marketers rate their automated email campaign’s performance as ‘very successful’ and others struggle to make a sale.

9. Regular database cleansing

Of those surveyed, 60% said that managing the quality of their database was the barrier holding them back from taking advantage of automation. This is understandable. Up-to-date accurate data is the foundation on which smart segmentation, personalization and higher conversions rests. This is why the email marketing elite use improved data capture tools and integrate their internal databases to vastly improve the quality of their information.

The relevance and success of their campaigns naturally improves as a result. According to B2B Marketing’s Email Marketing Benchmarking Report, 78% refresh their database at least two or three times a year.

As Econsultancy’s and endless other reports prove, email marketing is alive, healthy and profitable. In fact, 69% of marketers believe that email will continue to be one of the most profitable channels five years from now and into the future.

The use of new technology, analytics tools and automation is generating ‘excellent’ results for the 3% elite and ‘good’ results for another 39% not far behind. Whatever stage of success your campaign is currently at, it’s time to start taking advantage so you can maximize your campaign’s ROI and prosper from the undiminished power of email.

Quick Action Tips

• Segment your database and create campaigns targeted at a buying persona.
• Stop copying and pasting from your website. Use automation to create email newsletters on autopilot.
• Personalize your emails with products matching each recipient’s buying history.
• Plan campaigns in advance and think about who you’re writing to.
• Track the results of every email you send. If results aren’t as you’d hoped, make improvements then test again.
• Go beyond tracking open rates and unsubscribes. Use A/B and multivariate testing and heat maps. This is the best data you can get for improving responses and conversions.