Insider’s Guide to Email Marketing

Why Email is a Powerful Marketing Tool

Just because something has been around for many years doesn’t mean it no longer works. Email is a powerful marketing tool because it works. When someone signs up to receive emails from you they’ve given you permission to market to them. If you don’t, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. Let’s look at some reasons email is such a powerful marketing tool.

Helps Build Relationships

Once someone opts in to your list, you have an opportunity to build a relationship with them. You do this using the messages that you send them to educate, inform, and engage.

Easy to Personalize and Target

You can personalize and target your messages to subscribers based on their behavior. Segmenting technology triggers an action based on the subscriber’s behavior. This is available through most autoresponder services.

Keeps Your Brand at Top of Mind

People visit websites, social media pages, and more all the time. Unfortunately, they usually forget about it the minute they leave. Getting them to sign up for your email list will help you stay in touch with them which long after they are gone. You can bring them back to your website, to your social media platforms, and keep your name in their mind.

Super Inexpensive

Email is still one of the least expensive types of marketing that you can do. Buying an autoresponder service doesn’t cost much when first starting out. You can do it for under $50 a month if you choose something like Aweber.com, Mailerlite.com, or Convertkit.com. You’ll pay more as your list grows but if you send the right type of messages it will pay for itself. According to a study conducted by the direct marketing association, every dollar spent on email marketing returns an average of $38.

Spur Action

An email is a perfect place to put your calls to action. You can put more than one in an email if it’s relevant. Try to keep it to fewer than three per email, but try to find a way to monetize each email to make it pay for itself. When you include the right action words with your CTAs it’ll make a big difference.

You Can Track & Measure Results

All the popular autoresponder software offers the ability to track and measure results. Being able to look at data to find out what is working and what is not working will save you a lot of time, effort, and money. Use the analytics that the service offers to improve all your campaigns.

You Own It

Social media platforms come and go but one thing is clear. Having an email list is an asset that you cannot lose. You own the list. No matter what happens to various platforms you’re going to be able to move your list to a new one if you need to. Look at the most popular online marketing experts and businesses. You’ll see they’ve taken the time to build and nurture a targeted list of interested parties and customers.

Email is a powerful marketing tool. Because you own the list, it’s a way to stay in front of your subscribers. You can get closer to your audience by building relationships with them on an individual basis too.

Breaking Down an Attention-Getting and Engaging Email

If you want email marketing to work for you, there are a few tricks you’ll need to learn and perfect for your audience. To craft attention-grabbing and engaging emails, pay attention to the following information.

Subject Lines

The best subject line tells the viewer what’s inside and why they want to read it. Put the most important words first so your audience sees it’s important. Make them want to open it by using action words and emotional trigger words.

Personalize

Use your autoresponder system’s tools to personalize your messages. Studies show that the more personal the email message, the more likely people are to answer your CTAs. You can put personalization in the subject line plus within the message too.

Opener

From the moment your audience opens the email you want to get to the point. Create an opener that’s engaging and personalized. Give them a heads up on what the email is about and why it’s important to read it. If you can tie a personal story of your own or someone else into the message that’s even better.

Body

Keep emails short. The body of the email needs to be meaty and not long and drawn out. Tell them what you want to tell them. If you need to give them more information link them to the rest of the story on your website.

Keep it Clear

When you send an email message to your audience you want the message to be clear. You want the reader to have no illusions about your reason for sending the message. Clarity is more important than cleverness when it comes to creating attention-getting and engaging emails.

Using Links

Make your links stand out in an email. Identify them with a label, tell readers where the links are going. Keep relevant links toward the top and the bottom of each email. If you’re using contextual links, ensure you’re using a straight link too. This is important for people who are reading email only as text. Put links that aren’t relevant to the email at the bottom in the P.S. area. There should be at least one link in every email.

Signing Your Email

Always include a closing in each email. It’s important that to understand what type of relationship you have with the recipient and act accordingly within the sign-off your email. Use an appropriate salutation, your full name, a link to a landing page on your site such as your “about you” page or a special landing page, and keep the same type of voice in the closing as you use in the email.

P.S.

A great way to include more information and little reminders is to include one or more “P.S.” at the end of your email. This is a great place to include any upcoming events, reminders of promotions that are almost over or to ask them a question to encourage engagement. (Example: Come to my Facebook Group to Discuss)

Ensure that your email messages are relevant to the audience receiving them. No one likes to open an email message and feel tricked. Keep your subject line related to your message, the body of the message related to the subject line, and your call to action related to your message.

Other Tips to Ensure Your Email Messages Get Opened & Read

Let’s dive in further to ensure you understand how powerful email messages can be for your audience.

Be Personal

When you are personal in your emails, your audience feel as if you know them. It helps them build trust in you. Do not use a “no-reply” email address in the return field to help give it a more personal feel. Use your name. Be yourself. You are your brand.

Keep it Short

It’s been mentioned, but bears repeating. An email doesn’t need to be long to be effective. Most people read their emails on their mobile devices and don’t have time to read a drawn-out email. However, you can link to longer form information on your site if you have more to tell them.

CTAs

One or more calls to action should be in every single email you send. After all, you should have a reason to create the email in the first place, right? That reason should encompass the calls to action you want to include.

Let Your Personality Shine

It can be hard to know how far to go in being yourself. The best way to determine this is to think about how you want your audience to see your brand. The next thing to consider is that you can only be yourself. Don’t try to fake being someone you’re not. Just be you. Let your personality shine through in every email.

Speak Directly to Your Subscriber as Individuals

Each subscriber has their reasons for signing up for your email list. You probably have a clue about why, depending on how they got on your list. Ensure you create autoresponder messages based on when and where your audience opted in. That way they feel as if you’re talking directly to them.

Finally, be sure to send emails often enough. You don’t have to send one daily if you’re not comfortable with doing so. However, staying in touch with your audience several times a week tends to get a better response from subscribers than if you send messages less frequently. People forget about you if you don’t stay in touch.

This information, along with our email marketing templates, will help you get started email marketing.