Six Reasons Email Marketing Still Rocks (And Will Keep on Rocking!)

What do email marketing and rock n’ roll have in common? Probably more than you imagine.

Let’s start with some history. Email has been around since Ray Tomlinson sent the first person-to-person message back in 1971. Seven years later, a visionary named Gary Thuerk sent the first mass-marketing email to several hundred Arpanet users– which, amazingly, resulted in $13 million in orders for his employer, the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).

Rock n’ roll is synonymous with the guitar, which can be traced back 4,000 years. But the first electric guitar wasn’t perfected until 1931, by Adolph Rickenbacker and George Beauchamp. It was used initially by Hawaiian and jazz musicians – and two decades later it got into the hands of rock ‘n roll’s pioneers. Rickenbacker and Beauchamp probably didn’t expect to change the world, but they did. Ditto Tomlinson and Thuerk. But today – 40 years after that first commercial email message – email is a dominant power player, with some 300 billion emails being sent every day.

Like rock ‘n roll, which lives on to this day, email marketing keeps on making a big, exciting noise. And here are six reasons why that’s likely to be the case for a long time to come.

1. Email marketing is affordable

“It’s relatively inexpensive to start and maintain email marketing campaigns,” writes Keran Smith on the Lyfe Marketing blog. “Tactics like segmentation and triggered campaigns help you get the most for your money, allowing you to grow your business without pouring all of your revenue back into digital marketing.” His bottom line: “Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective digital marketing strategies that you can use to reach and engage your target audience.”

2. Email marketing has an extraordinary ROI

“Email marketing is the king of the marketing kingdom with a 4400% ROI and $44 for every $1 spent,” reports Campaign Monitor. There’s simply no other marketing investment that can beat that return. And eMarketer, reporting on a study undertaken last year, indicates that the ROI trendline is heading in the right direction. According to the study, “73% of in-house marketers worldwide said that email marketing provided a strong ROI in 2017, making it the marketing tactic that received the highest percentage of responses in the survey, even slightly in front of SEO. Back in 2008, SEO ranked higher than email.”

3. Email is bigger than social media (in terms of users)

Joe Kindness, writing on the Agency Analytics blog, cites a study showing there were anticipated to be more than 3.7 billion email users by the end of last year. And social media? “Facebook, which is far and away the most popular social media platform, sees ‘only’ 1.9 billion unique visitors every month,” he reports. “Two of the other most popular networks, Instagram and Twitter, have 600 million and 317 million visitors every month, respectively.”

4. …and email is better than social media (in terms of reach)

Kindness explains that even if a marketer has an equal number email and social media subscribers, odds are very good that only the marketer’s email messages will be seen. “Why is this? It has to do with social media algorithms,” he writes. “Users don’t see every single post, tweet, and pin from the people and businesses they follow, because there are simply too many updates to fit on an average news feed. On Facebook, for instance, you can only count on about 6% of your fan base seeing anything you post, according to Social Ogilvy.”

5. Email marketing does personalization incredibly well

“Brands are using creative and diversified email personalization methods to increase brand engagement, foster customer loyalty, and, ultimately, work to please that 75 % of consumers that are more likely to buy from a brand that personalizes messages,” reports Campaign Monitor.

While personalization used to mean seeing your name in the subject line, it’s now much more than that. “Personalization includes an array of awesome, data-driven techniques that bring in substantial ROI. These techniques include making recommendations based on past purchases, using dynamic content to fit consumer preferences, showing an understanding of purchasing history, and taking advantage of data to promote compelling offers.”

6. Email marketing has unrivaled cross-generational appeal

“Across generations, there is a clear preference to receive communications from companies by email,” writes Kelsey Bernius at SendGrid, citing a survey that asked thousands of email users of different ages about how they use it and their perception of it as a communication channel. “Your emails are crucial for reaching and engaging with your audience – and this trend can be expected to continue,” Bernius writes. “Email should be the foundation of your marketing efforts.”


Rock on, email!

Source: https://www.business2community.com/
Image Credit: business2community.com


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4 Tips to Spruce Up Your Email Marketing Efforts This Spring

It may not feel like spring just yet (especially if you’re based in the northeast U.S.), but it’s still a good time to do some email marketing spring cleaning.

Not only will you feel a sense of accomplishment but making even small changes can have a big impact on your results. And getting these tasks out of the way now will pay off later by ensuring you’ll have time to relax this summer.

With that in mind, here are four suggestions for this your on-the-job spring cleaning:

1. Scrub your mailing lists

If you haven’t paid attention to your lists over the long winter, start with this.

“Clean email lists produce fewer bounces, which improves your sender reputation because it signals to ISPs that you’re committed to respecting recipients’ inboxes instead of spamming them,” writes Jeff Cox at SendInBlue. “This translates to improved deliverability across your entire subscriber base.”

Laura Buxton, at Braze, writes that a list-cleaning effort begins by identifying customers from whom you haven’t heard for half a year. “Users that haven’t opened an email from you in the last six months should be removed from your email list,” she writes. “You can still target these users with re-engagement campaigns but be mindful that continuing to target them can indicate to ISPs that your emails don’t deserve to be in recipient inboxes. So, make sure you’ve got a really compelling pitch before you send them that last-chance email.”

2. Dust off some compelling new subject lines

Subject lines drive open rates, which means you can’t just recycle a few of your all-time favorites and expect to get the results you want. This is a great time of year to determine which of your subject lines performed best, learn from them and come up with new ones that will perform better.

“No matter what they say, people do judge emails by their subject lines,” writes Olivia Allen on the Hubspot blog. “In fact, 47% of email recipients decide whether or not to open an email based on subject line alone. That’s why it’s so important to craft subject lines that are compelling enough to get people to click through.”

Allen provides 17 tips for creating high-impact subject lines, a list that includes using action-orientated verbs and posing compelling questions and using numbers – and don’t forget to test!

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3. Polish your writing’s ‘urgency quotient’

Every word in every message needs to play a role in getting recipients to click on your CTA. Review some of your recent messages – does your body copy tell a compelling story? Does the wording of your CTAs themselves convey urgency? Are you doing everything you can with your writing to drive action?

If a sense of urgency is doing anything less than absolutely popping off the screen, now’s the perfect time to see what you can do to inject some FOMO into your writing.

“While web writing is generally passive, email content should be straightforward and drive action,” writes Joanna Milliken at Marketing Land. “Apply this approach when you’re trying to get someone to click on an offer or register for an event, and when you’re trying to deliver more value to a consumer over email. The call to action for a reader is particularly important. Removing articles, such as ‘the’ or ‘a,’ can drive your message home: ‘Read e-book’ or ‘Buy jeans’ sounds more pressing than “Read the e-book” or ‘Buy the jeans.’”

4. Sharpen your content’s mobile-readiness

“Without question, the emails your company sends will be read on mobile devices,” writes Gabriel Shaoolian at Forbes. “This is true even for B2B companies that target users in the workplace. One of the number-one activities people use their phones for is email, and we all know that today’s modern workers check email at all hours, even long after they’ve left the office. Users won’t be forgiving of lackluster mobile email performance — they’ll trash your message and move on.”

We certainly don’t want that! Fortunately, we can prevent it.

“It isn’t difficult to make sure your emails are optimized for mobile and, in fact, many email marketing services offer responsive templates that make the job easy,” Shaoolian writes. “Remember that what looks like a short paragraph on desktop will take up considerably more screen space on mobile. Use a stacked layout, which is far easier for mobile readers to follow than a column layout. Don’t forget that CTAs should be easy to click with a mouse and a thumb.”

Source: https://www.business2community.com

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11 Quick Email Marketing Tips That Will Increase Your Response Rates

Despite the rumors, email marketing is definitely not dead. In fact, among savvy marketers, it is actually rated one of the most effective marketing strategies. Take a look at this chart from Smart Insights and Get Response.

So take a look at your email marketing tactics and evaluate how you can improve. These tips will help.

1. Use your name in the “from address” of your email marketing campaigns. Using your business name results in fewer opens because it isn’t as friendly and personal.

2. Make it worth it for your audience to open and read your emails. Always include a surprise in every three or four emails so they get used to the idea that you may give something away in your emails that no one else is going to get. This can be something as simple as a free audio download.

3. It’s all about stand-out headlines. Focus on crafting headlines that let your readers know what’s inside and why they should open without being dishonest. Your text should deliver everything your headline promises.

4. Segmentation is imperative for good email marketing because that’s the only way you can freely mention the right product, the right service, and the right topic to them at the right time. If you’re new to this tactic, read 50 Smart Ways to Segment Your Email List Like a Pro from Optin Monster. Then enlist the help of your virtual assistant to implement it.

5. Check out your competition’s email marketing list. Sign up for their freebies and watch how they do things. Don’t copy them, but do figure out how they do it, identify the gaps, and note the topics.

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6. Work on building a real relationship with your email list members. Let them reply directly to the emails you send, and then answer them. They like knowing a real person is behind the emails rather than nothing at all. Check your email marketing software, many of them default to a generic reply to address. You can change this for each email.

7. Evaluate your writing style. Email writing should be a little more laid back than most people think. Email should be personal, brief, and exciting to read. Show your enthusiasm with your word choice. Try talking your emails using voice to text to get the rhythm right. Be sure to edit if you do this! The spoken word doesn’t always translate well directly to written language.

8. Get personal in your email. Share your experiences and give details that you normally would not give on your site. Trusting your readers with a little-known fact will make them feel special and that your friendship is mutual.

9. In your high school English class, you were probably taught to write in the third person, rather than using you and I. However, you should talk directly to each individual, using the word “you” to allude to your more personal relationship, which helps persuade your readers to take the action based on your relationship and their trust.

10. Tell stories to your audience that leads them to make the conclusion to buy what you’re recommending to them. Stories can be case studies, your own story, or client stories. When they see real-life examples, they’ll be much more connected to the content.

11. Include your CTA link in more than one spot in your email. If you mention the product or solution, link to it, don’t wait until the end. That way the moment your reader is ready to click through, they can do so. Make sure they land directly on a landing page specific to the CTA.

Source: https://www.business2community.com

Image Credit: Smart Insights | Get Response




ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

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How Email Marketing Can Help Build Your Brand

While writing a letter never grows old, emails have taken over the concept of sending both personal and professional messages to make communication quick and immediate. The average number of emails sent and received on a daily basis has reached 269 billion. This statistic is enough to tell you the potential of an email.


With the right choice of marketing channels, brands can not only chance upon the right set of target audience but also improve their chances of converting prospects into customers. Email marketing is the choicest channel to build awareness, grab attention and convert prospects. It helps you segment your marketing content, reach out individually and personalize your communication based on your relationship with the recipient.


In this blog post, we will uncover how email marketing helps to:

1. Improve brand recognition
2. Increase customer retention
3. Establish authority
4. Boost relationships

1. Improve brand recognition

Brand recognition is "the extent to which the general public (or an organization's target market) is able to identify a brand by its attributes." So when you send out emails to your subscribers, make sure to include your brand's logo and other visual signifiers in the email. The brand colors and graphics should be consistent in every email sent out, in order to help the audience instantly recognize an email sent out by your company. The brand attributes lead to increased awareness, which in turn attracts customers towards your brand's products and services. If they need to pick between two brands for the same product -- one they recognize, the other they've never heard of -- you can count on them picking the one they know.

The emails that can improve brand recognition include newsletters. A newsletter updates your customer on the current happenings and upcoming events and helps the brand stay top of mind with the customers.

This newsletter by Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. offers analytical insights to the recipients. It keeps the recipients updated on the latest happenings in the industry. There is an option to update your preferences so that you receive content that you are interested in. It is an excellent way to improve brand recognition.

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2. Increase customer retention

Customer retention focuses on strategies that help companies retain as many customers as possible for as long as possible. You certainly don't want to be a one-time purchase for your customer. Ideally, you want them to be loyal customers. A good email marketing strategy can get you there. If you send out the right type of emails at the right time with the right frequency, your customers will keep coming back to you. It is also possible that they become your brand advocates, taking it upon themselves to market your business for you.

When you send out an email, you remind your audience of your existence. These emails can be alerts informing them about new products or telling them about an ongoing sale. These emails are gentle reminders; you should send them to your subscribers frequently. Even when your subscribers are not invested in you, they will be reminded that you exist. When the times come that they are ready to buy a certain product/service offered by you, your brand will be part of their consideration. These emails could convert a "chance meeting" into a sale.

Send out "Haven't seen you in a long time" emails or re-engagement emails to your customers to improve retention and get them back. If you are in a business that requires them to re-order products, you can send out re-order emails to retain the customer. This will show them you care.

Sending out an email similar to the one sent by DuoLingo can help you increase conversion and retention.

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3. Establish authority

As a brand, your email marketing should showcase what you have achieved, and how well you know your industry. Offering valuable tips, sizeable information and even content that your audience requires at the moment can help you establish authority, which in turn improves your brand's value. If your email adds value, chances are that it will be forwarded to more people thus spreading good things about your brand.

Send them product information or specifications about the product they are considering to buy. You can even send them industry news if you want to establish authority. The email by Haworth offers a detailed overview of the products offered by them.

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4. Boost relationships

When you trust someone, entering into a relationship with them becomes a lot easier. The same is true for those prospects who are evaluating your brand. For you to win their trust, you should ideally invest in communicating with them and connecting with them about the right things. Email marketing can help you do that with ease.

Whether it is a new subscriber or someone who is already on-board as a customer, the emails that you send will help them get to know you better and eventually trust you. Emails help nurture relationships.

Welcome emails, as well as lead nurturing emails, can help foster relationships. They help the prospect onboard your brand and learn everything they want to, before moving from awareness to consideration stage.

This email by Allrecipes welcomes the subscriber. The brand asks the subscribers to send in their preferences and, accordingly, curates the recipes for them. The CTA allows the customer to set their taste preferences.

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Build your brand with these best practices

Set your brand's tone and voice

Your existing brand guidelines should be applied to your email marketing strategy as well in order to attract the right people. Your email's tone and voice should be consistent with your marketing communication for the right effect. If you are a serious brand, for example, your email communication should convey it.

Plan your content

The content of the email is an important aspect and should be planned in advance. If you are strategizing your email marketing, make sure you have set forth a plan for the content.

The content should be aligned with the type of email that is being sent to the customer. For example, if you are nurturing a lead in the consideration stage, the email content would differ from the content that is included in the welcome email.

The content should be concise and crisp and such that the reader gets complete information at a glance.

The subject line should convey what the email contains. Keep it simple and attractive.

The content should offer value to the readers and should provide insights to the users.

Add a call-to-action

It is important to write an actionable email. If your prospect is learning about your brand, try taking them to the website. If your prospect is in the consideration stage, the content and the CTA should compel them to buy. Adding appropriate CTAs will help with conversions.

Seek permission

Never send an email without the prospect's consent. Your brand may suffer if you send out an email to a prospect/customer who does not wish to receive emails from you.

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Wrapping up

It is important to channel your marketing efforts in the right direction in order to build a consistent brand. Email marketing is a great way to welcome subscribers, nurture relationships with them, build trust and engage them. You should send out the right emails at the right time to attract attention and retain loyalty. It is also important to craft your email using standard practices to achieve your goals. So, next time you are planning to work on your branding, don't forget to optimize your email marketing strategy.

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com

Image Credit: Shuttershock




ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!