Five Email Strategies that Will Give You the Edge Over the Competition

Businesses looking for a cost-effective marketing advantage in an economy roiled by the COVID-19 pandemic can still find the best bang for their buck with an effective email campaign.

Before coronavirus became ubiquitous, email was a wise investment as Litmus reported in “The State of Email in 2019” that average ROI of an email campaign was $38 for every $1 spent.

That ROI has likely only improved in the past year, as not only are more emails being sent during the COVID-19 crisis, but open rates and click through rates are also up. In a world of remote work, email helps keep us connected and can drive engagement and sales for your business.

Executing an email campaign, however, is easier said than done, and doing it poorly can cost your company time and money. How can you cut through the inbox clutter of some 250 billion emails sent a year?

Here are five email strategies that will give you the edge over the competition.

1.   Personalize Emails Based on Audience Segment

Customers are like snowflakes, no two are ever the same, but that does not mean you cannot identify customers and assign them to specific audience segments based on their preferences, needs, and likes.

Otherwise, you are left with an untargeted one-size-fits-all email campaign that runs the risk of “spamming” inboxes with a message aimed at the wrong audience.

Start with your potential customer base and break them down into smaller groups that have similar interests so you can target them with specific promotions, offers and other messages.

To help segment your audience you can look at things such as:

1. Age

2. Income

3. Purchase history

4. Search query history

5. Abandoned carts

6. Stated preferences for types of products or experiences

Once you ID a group, you can segment in your email marketing tool with a label and use that to personalize your campaigns.

2.   Get Clicks with Catchy Email Subject Lines

You could have the greatest email written in history – the “To Kill a Mockingbird” of marketing! – but it will not matter unless you can get people to click on the subject line.

Make the subject line catchy with a sense of urgency that naturally makes your audience want to click to see what is inside. Target the subject line to your audience segment we explored above.

3.   Make Your Message Clear and Concise

Okay, you have done a lot of the hard work, identifying your audience segment, and targeting an email to them. They even clicked on the email because you wrote such a catchy subject line.

Now is not the time to drop the ball – make sure your message is clear and concise or you are just wasting the email recipient’s time. If you can not get to the point within 200 words you might want to tighten your message before sending.

And always end with a specific call-to-action you want the audience to take.

4.   Use Analytics to Increase Engagement

But how do I know if your email message is working and focused enough? This is where analytics can help you increase engagement for your email campaigns.

Analytics, such as A/B Testing, are essential to see how different subject lines, email templates, and body messaging is perceived by your audience. Each time you test an element, you will have feedback to make future emails targeted better, so test often.

5.   Retarget Inactive Email Subscribers via Social Media

Of course, you can A/B Test all day and some email recipients will not bite on either version. It is important to cull your email list periodically so that you are not wasting your resources trying to reach an inactive prospect.

You can, however, still attempt to reach the prospect by shifting to a social media marketing campaign on a platform such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Some potential customers who never click on emails, will engage with brands on social media.

Contact AdWhite today for a free assessment of your marketing strategy, including email campaigns, to see how your business compares to others in your industry, and what steps you can take to increase efficiency and results.