Best Practices: Email Marketing Tips to Raise Your ROI Rapidly

Yes, email marketing is still going strong. If you’re not using it, you’re missing out. Here are the best ways to use it to promote your business.

Get Subscribers From Your Blog

Getting subscribers to sign up isn’t all that difficult. Sure, lots of marketers complain about how it’s getting harder. But, if you’re offering something of value, people will sign up to your email list for the information.

A good email marketing course can get you up to speed on the basics. From there, try to design a signup option for each blog post or even a dedicated page linked to from popular blog posts on your site.

The idea of the signup is that you will give the visitor something truly valuable in exchange for his or her email address. It sounds simple enough, and many marketers claim to be doing this already, but most don’t offer enough value.

If you’re doing original research in a blog post, for example, and then offering a copy of the research in exchange for the visitor’s email, it’s going to become very popular. People love original research summaries, checklists, and anything that helps them use the information you just gave them in your blog post.

Most bloggers don’t do this. Instead, they offer something generic, like “free ________ tips” or even worse – no clear value proposition at all. If someone stopped by your company’s website to read about something, odds are they’re interested in that topic. If they get to the end, guess what they want? They don’t want generic information delivered via email. They want specific information related to what they just read.

Which leads to the next important aspect of good email marketing.

Segment Your List

When people get on your mailing list, they did so because they were looking for something specific. While no two visitors are exactly alike, you can broadly categorize them based on user interest. If people signed up to your email after reading a blog post on your site, and you’ve done a good job matching that email signup to the content in the blog post, then you create a “segment” in your email list.

You can continue sending them information related to that topic.

You could eventually do “cross-sell” or “cross promotion” to get them interested in other topics on your site (blog posts), but the main idea is to segment people based on interests they’ve already told you they have.

Send Out Emails With A Purpose and Set Expectations

Always tell people what they’ll get when they sign up to your email list. Never trick them with promises of free stuff and then send them an endless stream of sales pitches. If visitors come to your site and expect free money-saving tips, or cake-baking tips, or fitness tips, give them exactly that.

If you set the expectation that they may (or will) receive email pitches for your company’s products and services now and then, then there won’t be a tidal wave of complaints when that first sales pitch gets blasted out to everyone.

Personalize Your Emails

Always personalize your emails. When someone signs up for your email list, they may not be expecting you to address them by name but, if you do, you’re sure to get a higher open rate. But, don’t overdo it. Think about the last time someone you knew emailed you. Did they use your name throughout the email? Probably not.

Now think about an acquaintance. Did they use your name in the email? Probably, but only at the beginning or maybe in the subject line. Prospects know that you’re not their best friend. But, if you treat them like you’re more of an acquaintance, it’s more personal and you don’t come off as being a total stranger.

Test Your Subject Headlines

Always test your email headlines. While most marketers talk a lot about testing, not as many do it as you’d think. Howling Mad, AKA “Parry,” is a UK-based marketing expert. His report on the state of split testing reveals something really interesting.

Of those surveyed, 49 percent said that they split-test subject headlines maybe a few times. A stunning 22 percent said they never split-test subject lines, and only 21 percent said they split-test most subject headlines. A dismal 7 percent test everything.

But, testing can yield huge dividends – anywhere from 5 to 10 percent boosts in conversion up to hundreds or even thousands of percent change.

Use Responsive Emails

More and more people are using email. If you’re not using responsive emails, you’re effectively telling prospects and customers that you don’t care about their experience on mobile. And, if you don’t care about their experience on mobile, you don’t care about them.

Not good. So, test your own emails. If they don’t look amazing on a mobile device, revamp them and watch your conversion rates skyrocket.

About the Author: Chandana is a Senior Content Writer for Simplilearn.com. She has a M.A. in English Literature from Gauhati University and is PRINCE2 Foundation certified. Her unique and refreshing writing style continues to educate and inspire readers from around the world.

image credit: pcmag.com