An email is a universal tool that has multiple purposes. People all over the world use it for personal and business communication. There are already more than 3,9 billion users globally, and this year, this number is expected to climb over 4 billion.
The numbers showcase that over half of the world’s population uses email, making it a powerful marketing channel.
How do businesses use this channel? What benefits does it provide? And, most importantly – how to create email campaigns that work? From this article, you will know everything you need to know!
The Pros of Email Marketing
Being such a popular and widely-used tool, email plays a significant role in the business landscape. It offers plenty of opportunities for companies in every field.
Businesses run their email campaigns to increase outreach, attract more potential clients, build up trust, and strengthen the bond with the existing customers.
What are the main benefits of marketing via this channel? Here are some of the key pros to keep in mind:
- It helps in building brand awareness;
- It improves customer relationships;
- It can generate more traffic;
- It is one of the easiest and cheapest marketing tools.
Who can get these benefits? It doesn’t matter if you are running an online store that wants to share its new offers, an academic writing service urging students to order papers on the most popular research topics, or a B2B business offering other services. Email marketing works for everyone. But only if done right.
How to Create Engaging Campaigns that Work for You?
Although this form of marketing offers a wide range of advantages, whether you can get all these pros or not depends solely on how well you shape your campaigns.
To help you get started, here is a step-by-step on how to create campaigns that people would want to respond to:
Know Your Audience
The first big step in crafting an effective marketing campaign is getting to know your audience. To make the most benefit of your efforts, it is vital to make sure that your messages reach the right people. These are the ones who can get interested in your product, services, or brand as a whole.
There are several ways for audience segmentation. Businesses can divide prospects into different groups based on personal info, preferences, and needs. Generally, there are four primary consumer groups to keep in mind:
- demographic;
- geographic;
- behavioral;
Once you know what groups of prospects you are trying to reach, it will get easier to create messages perfectly tailored to their needs.
Good Subject Line
Subject lines directly affect the outcomes of your campaign. Make it uninteresting, too complicated, or “spammy,” and no one would want an email.
To make a subject line work for you, you should make it:
- Short;
- Enticing;
- Clear;
- Eye-catchy;
- Not “spammy”;
- Relevant;
- Compliant to the contents of the message.
Pro tip: Create a sample subject line and pitch at least 50-100 emails to collect the stats. Assess the outcomes and open rates to see whether the line needs further improvement.
Write an Engaging Opening Line
The first line of your message also plays a vital role in the overall success of the campaign.
At this stage, it is recommended to avoid standard greetings like “Hello, my name is…”. Instead, it would be wise to write something more relevant and impactful to a particular recipient. Consider something like “I noticed you…” or “I saw your recent blog post…”, etc.
The Main Body
There are several critical rules for an authoritative text of an email. First of all, it has to be concise and clear. No one wants to read messages that are too long or that tune out of the topic.
Secondly, you have to ensure that the text brings actual value to your prospect and is relevant.
Finally, do not make generic offers; these don’t tend to impact the prospects. Instead, use the information you have about your target audience to shape propositions that relate to them. Offer solutions to their actual problems.
Add a Call to Action
Every marketing email should end with a clear call to action. Depending on the campaign’s purpose, you can ask recipients to visit your website, arrange a call or further discussion, etc.
Add a Signature
Professional email signatures can have a powerful effect. They can contribute to building a solid business image, create a more profound sense of trust, and even urge recipients to generate more traffic for you (if you add links).
Here are a few recommendations on how a sound signature should look like:
- Professional;
- Simple and short;
- Not distracting from the body of the message;
- It contains contact information and links.
The Right Timing
The better you schedule your messages, the higher the chances that they will be open. Therefore, it is vital to find perfect timing based on what you already know about your target audience.
Measure Success
Creating a campaign and sending out the first bulk of emails are essential steps. However, the work doesn’t stop there. Once your campaign is on and running, it is vital to keep an eye on its outcomes.
Measure open and click rates, engagement, and other essential metrics. Based on this data, you can see how well a campaign works and define what areas for improvement are still there.
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The Bottom Line: Don’t Forget to Follow Up
Follow-ups are integral elements of every email marketing campaign. Even if you manage to create persuasive messages, the thing is that sometimes, your prospects need an extra push to convert into real customers.
That’s why scheduling follow-ups is essential.
Create an Email Campaign Readers Would Want to Respond To
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