Tactics for Supercharging your Email Marketing

According to the national client email report by DMA, for every dollar you spend on email marketing, you can expect a return of 38 dollars. So why are so many businesses still struggling to get email marketing right? Every week, a new “industry guru” declares that email is dead when it comes to marketing. But the statistics don’t agree.

Here are 8 tactics to help you supercharge your email marketing

Tell a Story

No one wants to receive an email that seems to be written for the masses, especially not when they gave out personal information to be included on your email list. But when your email list is very large, and you’re using a service to help you get your emails out in a timely manner, personalizing each and every one can get tricky. Just using someone’s name isn’t exactly the same as nailing an intimate voice.

Make Sure to Spend Time In Your Subject Line.

When it comes to creating marketing emails, it can be easy to assume that the bulk of the effort should be put into the content. While every effort should be made to ensure that the content is relevant and engaging, just as much effort should also be spent on the title.

The title can be seen as the “hook”, and while you shouldn’t resort to a clickbait title (they don’t often resonate well with audiences), you should ensure that the headline is punchy and to the point. It can help to have a set process in place such as the following:

• First, think of 20 possible subject lines.
• From these, select the best five.
• Pitch these five to friends or colleagues to see which they prefer.

Of course, you don’t have to conform to this particular process, but you should have something that allows you to really invest time into your headline rather than opting for the first thing that pops into your head.

Create a knowledge gap to spark curiosity

Knowledge gaps are the cliffhanger endings of email marketing.They provide just enough information to pique the recipient’s interest without revealing too much. Leveraging knowledge gaps (also known as curiosity gaps, the basis for those aptly-named clickbait headlines) is a psychological trick that drives email recipients to seek more information.

This technique can work well for one-off subject lines as well as a multi-step campaign. Adding a knowledge gap to your subject line might involve asking a question or hinting at the value of your email content. Anything that makes your email too irresistible to leave unopened. In other words, leave a bit to the imagination to get people clicking.

Examples :

• You won’t guess what just happened
• Check this out, John
• This is what it’s like
• Here’s why we do this

Give Away Something for Free

It’s an age-old marketing tactic that stands the test of time no matter what industry you’re in. People love free stuff. When customers sign up for an email list, they typically do expect to find something exclusive that can save them money – it could be conditioning by other companies, but it’s a business model that works. Offering free eBooks, free educational webinars, or even simply discounts on product, are all methods that frequently earn high click-through rates.

Concentrate on the Timing of Your Email

Just as the context and content of your email are important, so too is the time it is sent. Of course, we aren’t able to find out what time each and every person checks their email, but there are some stats that show sent an email between 8.00 a.m. and 9.00 a.m. or at 3.00 p.m. often yields the best results.

As well as the time, there’s also the day of the week to consider. As you would imagine, people are often catching up on Monday and spend less time in their inbox Friday through Sunday, so sending an email on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday generally generates the best results. Of course, there will be some of us who have demographics spanning numerous time zones. You should look at the slew of online tools which ensure that you are able to send emails based on different locations.

Re-engage Inactive List Members

This means that more than half a list is never clicking, never opening, and never buying. In order to ensure that you don’t lose the majority of your sales opportunities. It’s a good idea to be constantly re-engaging those who have gone inactive. For example, sending out a special discount for list members who haven’t opened the last four to six emails. Or send out an update email regarding changes that have occurred. Since the last time, this member clicked through to your website.

Target the right day to increase visibility

There are conflicting studies on which day of the week is best for sending messages to busy people. Some find that mid-week emails tend to get better results, but it ultimately depends on your audience.

Many people work strictly Monday to Friday, which means Saturday email will get buried before the recipient even sees it. However, since some people do read and respond to email on the weekends. That might be a good opportunity to get into their inbox at a time of low traffic.

Experiment with List Segregation

One of the most crucial parts of having an email list is using that list to perform market research. The best way to do this is to segregate the list into groups and send each group different emails. This allows you to test what works and what doesn’t. You can send out more if you prefer, but be sure keep track of which emails are hitting their targets.