5 Steps To Improve Your Email Marketing Strategy [2021]

Email marketing is the third most important source of both B2B and B2C marketing, it is an important digital marketing category. As we move through 2020, connecting effectively with customers is one of the biggest challenges marketers are facing. If you are a marketer then you understand the importance of building an audience. You can get repeat visitors by writing great content, but the best way to grow and keep an audience is by using email. While email is often regarded as the best channel to reach the customers, the real question is what to say.

It's not a secret that repeat business is critical for success. Still, many businesses obligate the majority of their marketing budgets to customer acquisition rather than customer retention.

Today, we’ll explore some approaches and mindsets to use when implementing email marketing to engage with customers.

1. Know your target audience

To get the most out of your email marketing strategy, it’s important to understand your target audience. This not only helps you improve your overall email marketing efforts but also makes a positive impact on the number of sales you generate. If you don’t know your ideal customer, email marketing only gets difficult and confusing.

2. Personalization

It is an integral part of an effective email marketing strategy. Without it, you simply won’t see the results you’re looking for. Now, personalization isn’t limited to using the first name of your subscriber in the email. It’s about knowing the prospects/customer’s need and then leveraging this information to deliver value. First, know your customer, understanding your customers, and serving them appropriately is a different ball game during a crisis. Consumer habits and priorities in job roles can change dramatically. To adapt your marketing message, you must first understand what your customers are experiencing during this time. Why? Because personalizing your email marketing will come across as disingenuous if it doesn’t acknowledge this.

Further are some tips on how to define your target customers and increase the ROI you get from your email marketing efforts:

• First and foremost, you should fully understand the kind of problems you’re solving for your potential customers. When you are clear about these problems, you’ll naturally have a better idea of who has them.
• Create a picture of your ideal customer and stick to it when marketing through email. You can do so by making a list of all types of customers that may need your solution. Try and define your customers in several relevant ways. Group them by location, interests, gender, etc.
• Focus on the right niche as it helps you segment your marketing and reach out to the right people. Your email marketing needs a direction and by finding a niche, you’ll know how to impress your audience.
• Analyze your competition to see who you are up against. Analyze the unique selling point that the others don’t have.

3. Segment your email list

Making email marketing work gets easy when you know how to send more relevant emails to your subscribers. When you divide your email list into various segments based on interests or needs, you’ll know exactly how your email communication should be. But, to get real-world results with email list segmentation, you need to keep your main business’s core email marketing strategy in mind and at the same time know more about your customer’s buying decisions.

(a) Behavioral list segmentation

Most brands use demographics to segment their customer list and get exemplary results in terms of open rates. Marketers who are looking to revamp their customer engagement also need to segment the list with behavioral triggers of the customers. Identify the behaviors that you need to target such as new leads, cart abandoners, or inactive subscribers. Secondly, understand how you want them to move forward in the customer journey.

Further are some suggestions to make you understand better:

• When someone who has visited your website but did not make any purchase can be sent emails educating them about the different products and services you offer.
• When someone who has bounced back from the order or services page, can be sent emails featuring testimonials to build trust.
• If someone who has ordered in their first visit can be sent the feature introduction emails directly.

(b) Segment by location

If you run an e-commerce business or a business that is location-intensive, then it makes real sense to segment your email list by geography. By targeting your subscribers based on their location, you may see a much better response.

Further are a few suggestions as to when to segment your list by geography:

• When sending out special invitations to local events relevant to your customers.
• When your company or business operates in a certain geographic boundary.
• When establishing your presence or brand in a new location.

(c) Segment by industry

This applies to you especially when you are running a B2B company. When you are communicating via email with your potential customers, they will respond better if the emails are customized to them based on their mantle or the industry. Your email communication becomes more apt when you speak to your recipient in their language.

Above mentioned are just a few tips on how you can segment your email list.

4. Make your emails mobile-friendly

Today, mobile devices are dominating technology. This means your email marketing has to regale to mobile users to obtain targeted results. Every business needs to approach the whole email creation process differently.

Further are a few ways to achieve results via mobile-friendly email marketing:

• Short subject lines- The number one rule of making your subject lines effective for mobile viewing is to shorten them while keeping them meaningful. Keep them to the point and don’t make your recipient do the guesswork. The fewer the words, the better it is.
• Use the right images- Images not only enhance the experience of your email recipient but are equally enticing on desktops and mobile devices. It’s a good idea to limit the size of your images, so that they won’t get cut off.
• Email's Call to Action- Each of your emails needs to end with a call to action. But since you don’t have much chattel on a mobile device, your call to action should be placed and be visible to your readers. They shouldn’t have to search around to look for it. Ask your recipients to whitelist your emails, trust between you and your customer is very critical for your business to grow.

5. Improve email deliverability

An undelivered email is a lost opportunity. When your subscribers whitelist your email address, their ISP flags your emails as credible and this improves your sender reputation. Becoming a trusted sender should be the first and the most important step you take towards improving your chances of getting your emails delivered. A lot of companies tend to lose money by not realizing that their emails are not reaching the intended recipients.

Wrapping Up

Ultimately, email marketing is all about trying new things and capturing as well as creating new opportunities. If you need any help in planning and executing your email marketing strategy. Our digital marketing agency can help you achieve your goal within a budget. Contact us to find out how we can help you in connecting with your target audience and converting them into your new customers as well as retaining the old ones.

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