There was a time (and not even that long ago) that bulk emails were the way to go when you wanted to get the word out about your product or service. At first glance, it made sense: throw a bunch of stuff at the wall, and something is going to stick, right?
And it worked — sort of. But then consumers got smarter.
Today, people don’t want to be blindly marketed to. They want relevant content, optimized for their needs and conveyed in their language. And although this does make your job as a marketer a little bit harder, the potential for payoffs is a whole lot higher.
The average customer receives 121 emails every day. That’s a lot of noise to cut through if you want to make an impact. To increase your chances and build strong, sustainable relationships with your audience base, ditch the email blasts and employ these four email marketing strategies instead.
1. Segment your customer lists.
A large part of sending conversion-friendly emails is making sure that you reach out to the right people with the right content. To do it, segment your email lists by set designations that help you ensure you’re only contacting people with information that’s relevant to them.
There are a few ways to do this, and how you go about it really depends on the objectives of your business. For example, you could segment your customer list by geographic location, past purchase history, or marketing qualified leads vs. sales qualified leads.
Come up with groupings that make the most sense in light of your goals and the insights you have about your audience. Try to get as specific as you can — the more you can segment your customers, the better you can reach people with information they genuinely care about.
2. Personalize wherever possible.
You probably already know that you need to get a recipient’s name right on their emails, but there’s more to personalizing marketing emails than just saying hello to the correct person. And thanks to data-driven analytics, it’s easier than ever before to personalize individual aspects of your emails and offer content and promotions that pack a much bigger punch.
Personalization doesn’t have to mean individually writing every single email that you send out (though, if you’ve got the time and the inclination, it’s definitely something to consider). Instead, create email content specifically for each of your lists.
It may mean offering a special coupon that you only send out to repeat customers, or sending out a free downloadable whitepaper just to marketing qualified leads. Tools like Datanyze, Builtwith and others can even help you drill down to which technologies potential customers are (or aren’t) using.
Personalize based on needs and desires, and you’ll appeal more strongly to what your recipients want.
3. Test your timing.
Sometimes even the smallest tweaks can have a significant effect on how well your email marketing efforts perform. For instance: the days and times that you send your emails. Research shows that the best time to send emails is between 10 am and 11 am. If you’re looking to boost transactions, send your email on a Monday or a Sunday. For higher open rates and clickthrough rates, send on a Tuesday.
Research is one thing, though — your actual success rates are another. Start to play around with the timing of your emails. Within the same segmented lists, send half of the recipients their email on a weekday and half on a weekend, then compare metric outcomes. Vary with other days and times too, continually looking at where and when you have the most success.
With enough of your own testing, you should be able to come up with optimal times and days of the week for landing in your customers’ inboxes.
4. Bring on the power of marketing automation.
If all this sounds like a lot of work, consider bringing in some assistance by means of AI-powered marketing automation. An automation platform can help you set up email campaigns that are designed to convert, with streamlined data analytics and the ability to quickly and easily segment audiences.
There’s another reason to embrace marketing automation: everyone else is already doing it.
Sixty-three percent of marketers plan to increase marketing automation spending, particularly as a way to better qualify leads, retain more customers, and simplify the lead-nurturing process.
Of those companies that are already on board, 80% have seen an increase in leads and 77% an increase in conversions.
Find a platform that works for your needs and your budget, and get to work. Marketing automation is one of the best golden tickets we have in the industry right now for sending more effective emails, and it can take a lot off of your plate while adding a lot onto your bottom line.
So say goodbye to bulk emails, and hello to email marketing strategies that actually work. Need more tools, advice, and resources that can help you improve your email conversion rates? We’re happy to help.