How to Use Your Email to Boost Your ROI - Submitted

Email marketing campaigns are one of the fastest growing sales funnels, and the reason is two-fold.

Firstly, every grown-up with access to the internet uses the service on a daily basis — making the pool of potential clients nearly limitless, and the other — it is the cheapest way of advertising — by far.

With the rapid developments in the IT industry, some rules have changed, however. For one thing, email campaigns should be mobile-ready. Statistics show that 70 percent of emails accessed on mobile devices are re-read, with 65 percent of the re-read messages resulting in a click. Nearly all subscriptions happen on mobile devices.

The first thing to keep in mind is increasing deliverability. Not all emails reach customers’ inboxes and of those that do, not all are even opened or read. To increase deliverability of your messages, check out CAN-SPAM Act to learn which trigger words to avoid.

To boost your ROI with the help of email marketing, you should know exactly what the customers wish to see. Using insights, personalization and targeting is a great help in that regard. Personalized product recommendations and shopping cart reminders are the two types of email that shouldn’t be overlooked. Using demographics and purchase history will help with further insights.

Finally, tracking the effectiveness of the campaign is a certain way to boost your ROI in the long run. There are numerous platforms that can help in that regard, including, but not limited to Constant Contact, SendinBlue and Drip.

Types of Email Customers Look Forward to Receiving

The first rule of successful email marketing is that communication is the key. A successful business knows its clients and strives to keep them in the long run. By listening to feedback, a business can considerably improve its marketing performance. Some businesses choose to subscribe to competitors’ mailing lists to keep informed about their offers and strategies.

Further out, some rules also apply. I.e., mind the intervals when sending emails. Sending too many messages will only result in your address being blocked, so always send only relevant and concise offers customers look forward to receiving. 

Welcome messages, order status messages, announcements and newsletters showing forthcoming benefits are always welcome. Keep to the golden rule of keeping it short and clear. Newsletters that are too long are less likely to render desired results. State the benefits first and always include a call to action and an unsubscribe button (applies to all emails).

When it comes to online purchases, customers always welcome order, shipment and delivery confirmations, as well as receipts and tracking messages. The latest can make or break a business, so make certain to include the offer.

Statistics Speak

·        Email marketing campaigns generate ca. $44 per every dollar invested

·        Automated email campaigns have a 50 percent conversion rate 

·        Targeted email campaigns generate more than 75 percent of the total email revenue

·        Transactional emails get eight times more clicks than other email types

·        Transactional emails generate six times more revenue than other email types

·        77 percent of marketers use email to send personalized content

·        67 percent of marketers use big data to personalize email campaigns

·        64 percent of marketers use mobile-optimized designs for email campaigns

·        61 percent of consumers opt for brands contacting them via email

Boosting Email Campaigns

List segmentation is the first thing to pay attention to regarding campaigns. Figures show that segmentation may boost ROI by approximate 760 percent, which is not to be easily overlooked. To make the best out of segmentation, make use of demographics, behavioural data and customer purchase history.

Optimization comes next. As mentioned above, the majority of emails are accessed on mobile devices, with mobile phone usage has increased 394 percent and tablet usage at 1,721 percent. Keeping all this in mind, it is no wonder that there are numerous mobile-ready templates around. They can help with some things, but others must be performed manually. E.g., optimizing subject lines is a must. Subject lines are the first thing the recipient sees and if they don’t like them, they will also be the last thing they will see. Therefore, it is crucial to master the art of composing killer subject lines and pre-header text. They need to grab the reader’s attention and keep them interested to read on. Desktop clients display up to 80 characters and mobile phones up to 30. Subject lines should, therefore, be short, concise and tempting. The pre-header text should be 40 to 50 characters long and explain the subject line in more detail.

Last but not least, landing pages should be mobile-ready, too. Otherwise, what’s the point of attracting customers’ attention if they can’t complete the action from their mobile device? Each click through that results in a purchase or a subscription is one more potential long-term customer. And each of them may or may not recommend your services. The finest of email campaigns feature a large call to action button leading to the store.

Other tactics also come to mind, but these should be brainstormed first. Growing the list of customers will become considerably easier once you have learned how to keep the audience interested and which special offers they are looking forward to receiving. After all, email marketing follows the same rules traditional marketing does. The only difference is that it is cheaper and has a greater reach. Use these benefits to your gain. Optimize, observe and learn on the go!