Regardless of what many think, email marketing is just as effective as it ever was. In reality, when you use email marketing you can expect some of the best return on your investment possible. This includes all other marketing tactics. The only statistic that you need to know to realize this is that customer acquisition is 40% higher than when using social media.
Although we cannot tell you exactly what will happen in the future because different technologies impact marketing, like artificial intelligence, we can highlight some things to remember when it comes to open rates. Obviously, you need to also learn how to write an effective email marketing copy, but everything starts with getting the receiver to open your email.
Send The Email From A Person
What will you trust more? An email that is sent by Susan from a company or a customer service email sent by the same company?
If emails are sent from personal emails, there is a much higher possibility they will not end up in the junk folder. When you send from what is known as a list name in the industry, the email has a high possibility of not being delivered to the primary inbox of the receiver. Gmail will add it to Promotions and Outlook will put it directly in junk.
Many businesses do not use this strategy because they think there is no person to send the email from. This is incorrect because you do not necessarily need to use a real name from your company.
In the event that you will send emails from a person that exists, make sure you select one that is in a leadership position. This can be a very recognizable name to those that receive the mail.
Whenever an actual employee will not be a good fit for the role, just create a brand new email account. Make sure you use a name that is simple and very easy to remember.
As an extra related tip, you can say something like George from company X, because this takes advantage of the point we made and also highlights your brand.
Segment Emails
In email marketing, it is a very bad idea to send the same email message to absolutely everyone. You have to segment the email list so that what you send is actually relevant to the receiver.
You can segment your lists in many different ways. Some suggestions are by region, service needs, product needs, industry, and the position in the buyer’s journey of the prospect. All of these are viable.
As you create your emails based on segmentation rules, there is a much higher possibility that what you send will have value for the recipient.
Use Personalization
You simply cannot create a successful email marketing campaign if you do not use personalization. In fact, if you do not personalize the emails you send, you can expect an open rate that is lower by up to 26%.
Personalization needs to be present in the email’s subject line and the pre-header. This is exactly what people see when they think about whether or not to open an email.
Besides the common option of inserting the first name into a subject line, you can also personalize emails in other ways, like:
- Use a conversational tone.
- Understand the interests and needs of your buyers so you can use this in your copy.
- Be very specific about the last interaction the receiver had with the brand.
- Create a relevance based on season or time of year.
Send Emails At The Right Time
After sending email campaigns for some time, you have important data you need to analyze. It will help you to find the best times and days when open rates are high. Such data is incredibly useful but do not blindly use it for all the emails you send.
As a very simple example, when there are customers in different countries, you deal with various time zones. In this case, it is a very good idea to send your emails in batches. Segment your list based on the time zone they live in and open rates can increase.
While there are some email systems that will automate send time, this is not a highly effective strategy. It is simply a lot better to do this manually so that you can use the very best time to send your emails. Always collect as much data as you can and analyze it. This is what helps you to choose the best times to send.
