Email marketing can be a powerful tool for staying on a prospective clients’ radar and for strengthening relationships with existing clients. Consistently communicating with both of these audiences can help to enhance your company’s expert positioning, drive attendance for speaking engagements and other events, and increase the reach of your online marketing – think blog posts, whitepapers, ebooks and videos, to name a few. So, how can you improve your email marketing?
Focus on Your Headlines
It doesn’t matter how brilliant the content in your e-newsletters and eblasts is if the right people aren’t opening it. While some companies find success with witty headlines, others thrive with pop culture tie-ins, Q&A formats and the list goes on. Regardless of your approach, being timely and relevant, not to mention on brand, are key.
While looking at your open rates for various subject lines can help to inform your approach, if your email distribution service allows you to do A-B testing with your email marketing, this is undoubtedly the ideal approach.
Take a Multimedia Approach
The way people consume content is continuing to evolve. Forrester Research, estimates that one minute of video has as much impact as 1.8 million words. In 2014, Instagram alone increased its overall user figure by nine percentage points (26 percent of online adults), according to the Pew Research Center. While these various content formats have varying levels of popularity among various demographics, a multimedia mix can help to showcase the depth and breadth of your organization in unique and compelling ways.
Focus on Format
The number of individuals consuming email content via smartphone continues to rise. Litmus reports that 53 percent of emails are opened on mobile. It is imperative that your email marketing is formatted so that it can be easily consumed via a smartphone.
Integrate Third-Party Content
In many instances, being a good source and being a good resource are of near equal importance. Whether you find relevant content that adds value for your subscriber database via mainstream media, through your trade association, or via various social media marketing channels, find ways to weave this content into your company’s email marketing in creative and compelling ways.
Speaking of Creativity
One of the biggest values a company can provide to its audiences is helping to view and understand the same information in new and unique ways. Whether you distill a complex process into an infographic, develop a series of short Q&A videos with the C-Suite detailing the evolution of your industry or use imagery to better convey what words may struggle to express, think outside the box to obtain content consumption and audience engagement alike.
Be Consistent
It likely goes without saying, but consistency is a key component of email marketing success. Whether you find monthly or weekly to be the right fit for your business, use data – be it email analytics or the results of audience surveys to inform your strategy.
Think email marketing is a missing piece of your marketing strategy? Eager to increase your email marketing success? Here are some email marketing stats to keep in mind.
- In 2014, email marketing was cited as the most effective digital marketing channel for customer retention in the United States. (eMarketer).
- Your most recent subscribers are the most likely to click through. (HubSpot)
- “Click Here” gets the highest percentage of clicks over “Go” and “Submit.” (HubSpot)
