The complete guide to email marketing

 Many people assume that email marketing is outdated… but is that true? As social media continues to rise, should companies still be using email to market their brand?

Well, the Vocal team are here to set the record straight! Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about email marketing.

What is email marketing? Let’s go back in time…

First things first, what exactly is email marketing?

Basically, email marketing is the process of communicating with your customers and potential customers through email. Since the first ever email was sent 50 years ago, email has evolved into a cost-effective, accessible form of marketing. Business after business have relied on this marketing strategy to reach existing customers and source new leads.

So why, after 50 years of success, is email marketing on the decline? Well, we’re going to find out…

Is email marketing dead?

Have you ever heard people say that email marketing is dead? If you’re involved in the world of digital marketing, we’re willing to bet you have. But is it true – is email marketing really dead?

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Here at Vocal, we don’t think email marketing is dead. That’s just a common misconception. However, there are some outdated practices threatening to send email marketing to an early grave:

• Impersonal subject lines
• Ignoring GDPR standards (in Europe)
• Forgetting about mobile-friendly formats
• Unattractive email design
• Using the strategy to take a hard sell approach
• Sending irrelevant content without segmenting data
• Failing to track metrics or ignoring the facts.

But poor email practices aside, why are people so quick to say that email marketing is dead?

Sent straight to trash…

One reason for this misconception is that, in the modern world, people are inundated with emails. With people receiving so many emails nowadays, how will your business stand out from the crowd? And more than that – people are more likely to unsubscribe from your mailing list if they’re overwhelmed with emails.

Many businesses are reluctant to commit to email marketing because they think audiences send their email straight to trash. And what’s the point in sending email marketing campaigns if your customers don’t bother to read them?

Delivered as spam…

Another reason that businesses are turning off email marketing is that their carefully crafted campaigns are often sent as spam.

When you send emails to your customers, there are several stages before the email actually reaches their inbox. One of those stages is battling their inbox provider’s spam filter.

It might sound complicated but, basically, spam filters act like a shield. They analyse upcoming emails and decide which ones are worthy of the inbox – and which ones are delivered as spam.

As you can imagine, spam filters are email marketers’ worst nightmare. Imagine spending your brand’s time and resources on an email marketing campaign that no one actually gets to see. That’s the last thing you want, right? And that’s one of the reasons why people are quick to say email marketing is dead.

Email vs social media – who will come out on top?

At the end of the day, it all comes down to the rise of social media. As social media platforms continue to gain popularity, people assume that email marketing has been cast aside. But is this true?

Not according to HubSpot, it isn’t. According to HubSpot, 99% of people check their email every day. And there are a whopping 3.9 billion daily email users out there! How can email marketing be dead if that many people are engaging with their emails on a daily basis?

Benefit from awesome email marketing… what can it do for your business?

The Vocal team are here to tell you that email marketing is alive and well! You just need some insider know-how to get your email marketing campaigns to pay off. That’s where we come in!

But before we delve into our top email marketing tips, let’s take a step back. What will email marketing actually do for your business? After all, you need to know that it’s worth your time before learning how to be an email copywriting expert.

So, without further ado, here are 6 benefits of email marketing:

1. Get personal with your customers

Building a connection with your customers is vital for growing your business. Just think about it: if you don’t care about your customers, why should they care about your brand?

A great thing about email marketing is that you can customise your campaigns. So, each and every one of your customers will receive a personal email. Whether it’s something simple, like their name, or something more complex, like segmenting your audience depending on their needs. No matter which way you do it, email marketing allows you build a real connection with your audience. Just imagine what that will do for your sales!

2. Boost your sales

We know you’ll be interested in this next benefit of email marketing! When done properly, email campaigns will actually boost your sales.

You can send information about your products and services straight to your customers’ inboxes. And you can incorporate persuasive messaging, attention-grabbing subject lines, and compelling CTAs to encourage them to make a purchase.

3. Bring traffic to your website

Want to know another benefit of email marketing? It’s really great for bringing more traffic to your website.

Whether you’ve produced a super engaging blog and want your audience to know about it. Or are using email marketing to promote your newest product line. You can use emails to achieve your marketing goals.

And it’s great for keeping your audience engaged with your brand. Even if they follow your blog, they might forget to visit from time to time. Sending an email reminder for your latest posts can bring them back to your website, time and time again.

4. Easily communicate with your customers

When you’re marketing your brand, nothing is as important as clear communication with your customers. It can build trust and loyalty between them and your brand. That will go a long way in growing your business!

And the better relationship you have with your customers, the easier it will be to market your products and services. When people receive emails from brands they really love, they’ll take the time to see what you have to say.

5. Reach your audience… anytime, anywhere

Want to know more benefits of email marketing? Here’s another one for you! You can reach your audience anytime, anywhere.

People always check their email. Whether they’re at home, at work or on the go. So, email marketing is the perfect way to reach your audience. You can guarantee that they’ll have access to your email – you just need to master email copywriting before hitting send!

6. Save money!

Traditional marketing campaigns can cost your business a lot of money. From designing the campaign, to hiring the talent, to distributing material to your customers – the costs will soon add up!

But with email marketing, you don’t have to worry about any of that. You can produce effective, persuasive campaigns at a fraction of the cost. And any leftover resources can be poured back into your business!

7. Own your contact list

Many businesses think social media is the best way to communicate with their audience. And they’re not necessarily wrong! Depending on your business, social media is perfect for reaching new and existing customers.

But when you use email marketing, you can control who is on your mailing list. You can make sure that you’re targeting the right people with your campaign. And you own your contact list! So, you’ll always have their information for future marketing campaigns. You don’t have that guarantee with social media!

It’s important to segment your data for different email campaigns. This means your content will be super specific to the recipient! That way, you’re only sending emails that are relevant to their company and services. They’re much more likely to open the email if the subject is specifically related to their business!

Follow these 12 tips for awesome email marketing…

Now you know how email marketing can benefit your business… are you ready to try it for yourself?

Here are our top 12 tips for awesome email marketing:

1. Make it personal

Remember how we said that email marketing allows you to get personal with your customers? Well, to do that, you need to actually personalise your email marketing campaigns. That’s why it’s our number one tip!

You can personalise your emails by addressing your subscribers by name. But if you really want your email marketing to pop, take the personalisation one step further.

Separate your audience into categories and send different, personalised emails to each category. After all, all of your customers will have different needs. Don’t assume they all want the same thing from your brand! For example, you probably have a different approach when it comes to returning customers versus one-time customers.

2. Establish relationships, not sales

You might be slightly confused by this next tip. Growing your business through sales is the ultimate goal, right?

But when you spend all your time chasing sales, you might lose sight of what really matters – your customers. If your customers aren’t happy, they won’t purchase anything from your brand. Let’s think about your own inbox. It’s annoying when brands do nothing push, isn’t it? If you push promotion after promotion on your audience, you’ll never grow your business.

So, it’s important to use email marketing to establish strong, long-lasting relationships with your customers. That’s the real key to growing your business!

3. A/B testing is key

To make your email marketing campaigns as awesome as possible, you should A/B test your campaigns. Now sure what we mean by this? Don’t worry, we’ll go through it!

Basically, A/B testing means you’re sending two different versions of your campaign to different subscribers. So, one group will receive email campaign A, while the other will receive email campaign B.

The goal of A/B testing is to see which email marketing campaign performs best. By sending two different versions of your campaign to different groups, you’ll see which version your audience preferred.

4. Don’t underestimate the subject line!

When a new email lands in your inbox, what’s the first thing you notice about it? We’re willing to bet it’s the subject line, right?

In a few short seconds, you can convince your audience that you’re worth their time. That’s why the subject line is the perfect way to grab your audience’s attention.

Here are our top tips for creating intriguing headlines:

• Make sure they are clear and easy to understand.
• They shouldn’t be more than 50 characters in length.
• Adapt your language to meet the wants of your target audience.
• Create a sense of urgency with action-focused language.
• Include the customer’s first name (if it’s applicable).

5. Only send emails when you have something to say

When you’re trying to grab your audience’s attention, it’s tempting to send regular emails. After all, the more emails you send, the more of their attention you’ll get, right?

But when you send email after email, you run the risk of annoying your audience. And annoying them won’t do much for your business! In fact, they might unsubscribe from your company’s emails altogether. Think about your own inbox. What do you do if brands overload you with marketing emails?

To make sure that doesn’t happen, you should only send emails when you have something important to say. If it doesn’t add value to your email marketing campaign, don’t send it!

6. Think about your audience… who are they?

It goes without saying – you want your emails to showcase who you are as a brand. But remember, nothing is as important as the individual receiving the email. So, if you want your email marketing campaigns to pop, you need to think about your audience first and foremost.

Who are they? What makes them tick? What language will they respond to? You need to answer these questions before producing your brand’s emails.

7. Send emails from a real person

If you want your email marketing efforts to pay off, send emails from real people – NOT a generic company address.

Your customers are more likely to open an email from a real person. When we see emails from real people, we’re more likely to trust the source. And be more interested in what they have to say!

8. Use attention-grabbing preview text

When it comes to email marketing, the most important thing is catching – and keeping – your customers’ attention. We’ve already discussed the importance of intriguing subject lines – see tip number 4! But have you considered the importance of your email’s preview text?

An email’s preview text is the perfect way to grab your audience’s attention. Before they actually open your email, the only thing they’ll see is a preview of the first line. Just think how important that first line is to your email marketing success! If the first line doesn’t interest them, why should the rest of the email?

Of course, you also have the option of setting your preview text to something particularly intriguing. You don’t have to rely on your first line to do all the work! Instead, why not give your audience a short synopsis of what you’re offering?

But remember, it should hit all your key points AND be 50 characters or less. You don’t want your exciting offers to be lost among unnecessary words!

9. Keep it short and sweet

The truth is, your customers don’t have time to read reems and reems of text in your emails. And more than that – they don’t want to read that much text. Remember, people only pay attention to around 20% of text on a page.

If they open your emails and find a wall of long-winded text, they’ll soon send your email to trash. And they’ll ignore emails from you in future! That won’t do your company any favours now, will it?

To make sure that your email marketing actually pays off, you should keep your emails short and sweet.

10. CTAs are a MUST!

You email marketing campaigns won’t go anywhere without this next tip. End each and every one of your emails with a solid call-to-action (CTA).

A CTA is vital if you want your customers to react to your email in some way. Whether you want them to buy your products, sign up to your newsletter or simply visit your website. No matter what your goal is, you need a CTA to help you achieve it.

If you don’t include a CTA, your email will feel unfinished. And your audience might not know what they’re supposed to do next. How can they buy your latest product? Where can they subscribe to your newsletter? You need to tell them in the CTA!

Here are some examples of persuasive CTAs that will encourage your customers to act in some way:

• Shop now
• Learn more
• Save today
• Order now
• Get 50% off now
• Start saving today
• Yes! I want one.

11. Give your audience something to click on

You already know that successful email marketing campaigns need a compelling CTA. But to really make sure that your audience act in some way, you need to take it one step further.

People tend to scan emails – especially emails full of promotional content. They want to know what you’re going to do for them. If your CTA is included in the body of your email, your audience might miss it. And if they have to work to find it, they’ll soon grow bored and click off your email.

That’s why our next tip is to give your audience something to click on. If they’re directed to a button or link, they’re more likely to follow through and visit your website.

Think about your own inbox – would you visit a website if you had to put the work in yourself? By making it easy for your audience to find you, you’re improving your chances of success.

12. Give your audience FOMO

Here’s an email marketing tip that you might not have thought about before. But it will work wonders for your brand! Use psychology in your email marketing campaign by giving your audience FOMO.

FOMO stands for ‘fear of missing out’. To give your audience FOMO, you should convince them that they’ll be missing out without your products.

It works so well in marketing because people hate to lose out on a great deal or exclusive offer. So, your customers will be quick to purchase your products to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Persuade your audience by creating a sense of urgency or exclusivity in your emails. It’s so simple to do – with only a few words, your audience will feel compelled to act! Say things like ‘don’t miss out’ or ‘for a limited time only’ and watch your sales soar!

Do you want to know more about email marketing? Get to know Vocal!

Here at Vocal, we’re a full creative service that knows a thing or two about content. We may be a small creative content agency, but we’re by no means shy! If you want help with an email marketing campaign, we’ve got you covered.

Our founder, Jill Hudson, has worked with hundreds of agencies in the creative sector, helping and supporting their business growth. Her experience allows the Vocal team to support businesses of all sizes. No matter who you are, we’ve got your back!

Check out our list of services to see what’s on offer.

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Step 1 – Tell us about yourselves! We want to hear about your company’s goals and ambitions. What do you want your marketing strategy to achieve?

Step 2 – Now it’s our time to shine. We’ll do some research and create a proposal of ideas – just for you! This includes recommendations drawn from our extensive experience. Are you ready to hear our ideas?

Step 3 – There’s no point investing in your content if you don’t know what it will do for your business. So, based on our knowledge and experience, we’ll make predictions about the likely outcomes of the content. That way, you can see how our services are going to benefit you.

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