Do More With Your Email Marketing Content? Think email marketing is dead? Well, don't count it out yet as an effective marketing channel. Sure, it is hard to make your email marketing content stand out from all the other promotional and spam emails that find their way into people's inboxes these days. But that is not the end of the story.
Despite the massive amount of email that people receive on a daily basis, Marketing Sherpa's research shows that 91% of people want to receive promotional emails from companies they do business with. The reality is that there is no better way to build an ongoing and personal relationship with your target market than email marketing content. Another recent study suggested that email is 40 times more effective than social media at attracting new customers. Email marketing is very much alive!
The conventional wisdom about email marketing content strategy still applies. You want good subject lines that will get your readers to open the email. You also want to personalize your message and target your emails by segmenting your list. But there is a lot more that goes into developing an effective email marketing strategy. Here are four email marketing content tips that can help you do more with email.
Context Counts
It is not enough to drop an email with a catchy and compelling subject into your reader's inbox. The recipient must have a context that lets her know why she is receiving that email in the first place. Effective email marketing content should not just be a once and done message, but rather needs to be part of comprehensive marketing strategy. This is known lifecycle email marketing and it can be an effective way to reach out to your audience. Emails can be categorized by the stage of your relationship to give the appropriate context.
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Onboarding. These emails help the reader become acquainted with your business. These emails welcome the reader, encourage her to complete her profile, inform her when the free trial is over, nudge her to the next step of the relationship.
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Subscriptions. This involves newsletters, courses, blog post announcements.
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Promotions. These emails provide special offers, discounts, and invitations to the readers.
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Transactions. Emails related to sales can also add a marketing component and invite readers into a deeper relationship. These effective email marketing techniques include shipping notices, recipients, password updates and more.
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Response to Behavior. These emails are more personal because they are a response to the behavior of the reader. They include emails that deliver request items, abandoned shopping carts, browsing history responses, requests for feedback and much more.
The important thing is that the recipient has a context that clues her into why she is receiving these email campaigns. This context provides the reason for opening the email and acting on it. Paying attention to the lifecycle can enhance how effective email marketing content is.
Ask For It
Emails are great opportunities for conversion. Whether you are asking for a small next step like providing feedback or going for the sale, you have to let the reader know what action you would like him to take based on the email.
Set Expectations
Effective email marketing content sets expectations for the future. Simply mentioning that the reader should pay attention to offers and deals in upcoming emails sets the expectation to look forward to future communication.
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Be consistent. Readers want to know if they can expect emails daily, weekly or monthly.
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Deliver on promises. If you promise your readers something, they need to know that you are going to deliver.
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Keep readers on their toes. Once you establish a consistent pattern, then you can throw in an occasional special offer that keeps your audience paying attention.
Add Something Special
Ultimately, your email marketing content should provide your audience a great experience of your brand. You should add things that delight your readers and make them happy. This might be a hot tip, a great deal, an ebook or tool that adds value. The more you can delight your readers, the more they will look forward to reading your emails.
Email marketing content has been around for a long time compared to other digital marketing channels. But it has not outlived its usefulness. With some careful planning, effective email marketing is a great way to attract customers and grow your business. To learn more about nurturing your leads using email, check out our blog post, "5 Ways to Improve Your Lead Nurturing Efforts."
