Tag Archives: email marketing for lead generation

Why You Should Use Responsive Email Marketing Strategies

Why You Should Use Responsive Email Marketing Strategies

You already know just how effective email marketing can be. Not only are you looking at an ROI in the region of $38 for every $1 you spend, but email also guarantees more traffic. Additionally, email improves customer loyalty and has other benefits that directly impact your bottom line. Now, you can extract even more juice from your emails by implementing a responsive email marketing campaign.

What is Responsive Email Marketing?

Similar to responsive web design, responsive email marketing means optimizing your emails for mobile devices.

According to multiple studies, the majority of emails are now opened on mobile. A recent Invesp report, for instance, shows that two out of three emails are opened on smartphones and tablets. To be specific, of all opened emails;

  • 49.53% are opened on smartphones
  • 16.81% are opened on tablets
  • 33.66% are opened on desktop

These people who open emails on their phones and tablets expect the messages to render seamlessly on their device screens. They don’t want to see broken images or sentences that run beyond the screen area.

Indeed, 70% of consumers immediately delete emails that don’t render correctly on their mobile screen. Worse still, 43% of consumers have previously marked an email as spam because the message didn’t display or work well on their mobile screen.

Responsive email marketing involves optimizing your emails for smartphones and tablets to achieve the best user experience.

Benefits of Responsive Email Marketing

As we’ve seen already, responsive email design significantly boosts user experience. With your improved user experience, your business stands to benefit in the following ways;

Higher email open rates

Smart Insights researched open rates in responsive vs. nonresponsive email campaigns. The results show that for nonresponsive emails, the average open rate on mobile is 51.7%. But, as soon as you optimize your emails for mobile, the average open rate jumps to 57.2%.

That’s an increase of about 10.63% or one more person opening your emails on mobile for every ten responsive emails sent.

Higher click-through rates

More enjoyable user experience can also significantly boost click-through rates. The above-mentioned Smart Insights study shows that marketers with responsive design get 58% of their clicks from mobile devices, whereas for those with nonresponsive design, only 46% of clicks come from mobile. It means that optimizing your emails for mobile can increase your click-through rate by up to 24%.

The first link in a responsive email, for instance, gets 30% more clicks compared to one in a nonresponsive email.

More sales/conversions

Obviously, an increase in your open and click-through rates will likely translate into more sales/conversions. But there’s more. A fully responsive email campaign also involves optimizing your landing pages for mobile. When you optimize the entire email marketing process, including landing pages, expect a sharp increase in conversions.

There are two reasons why. First, most people now make their purchases on mobile. Secondly, once you optimize for mobile, you remove most of the impediments that might prevent the consumer from following through to conversion.

Reduced unsubscribe rates and spam complaints

Finally, optimizing your email campaign for mobile devices also reduces the likelihood that recipients will unsubscribe from your list. It also gives them a reason not to report your campaign as spam.

Up to 51% of email users, for instance, have unsubscribed from a brand’s promotional email campaign because of issues such as poor rendering and broken images. Others also quickly mark such emails as spam. Responsive design can help prevent these issues.

Start Optimizing Now

If you’re serious about generating more leads and sales from your email marketing campaign, the time to begin responsive design is now.

Black Friday Email Strategies

Black Friday Email Strategies Black Friday has presented small business owners with an opportunity to ramp up sales. Last year, for example, 165 million Americans shopped over the Thanksgiving weekend which runs from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. On Black Friday specifically, over $6.5 million worth of items were sold, a 23.6% increase from 2017. Let’s look at Black Friday email strategies.

The value of the average Black Friday order has also been increasing. Last year, the average order was valued at $147, up 8.5% from 2017.

The following email marketing tips should give you a head start in the scramble for this year’s sales, which are expected to surpass $7 billion.

Black Friday Email Strategies

Start early, way before Black Friday

A 2016 report by Adobe Marketing Cloud shows that businesses that gain the most from Black Friday kick off their campaigns long before the Thanksgiving weekend. Most of the successful marketers begin sending relevant marketing messages as early as November 1st.

This is when you should start your campaign. At worst, begin sending Black Friday-themed emails three weeks out. If you delay even for a few days, it could be too late. By the time you send your first message, competing brands will have already turned your customers’ heads.

Send a SALE announcement email

A sale announcement is a well-executed email stating publicly that you’ll have a sale on Black Friday. These emails help build anticipation and excitement among consumers.

There are a few points to observe, however. First, make sure that the email is direct and to the point. You want to have a standout subject line, such as “Black Friday Sale – 30% Off” and a single, overarching CTA. Secondly, use a high-quality product image in the announcement. For maximum impact, the product and images must be chosen wisely. Experts recommend using images of your best-selling or most interesting products.

Consider the FOMO strategy

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is a strategy widely used by marketers to create urgency among consumers. As Black Friday approaches, you can turn to the time-tested tactic to boost your store traffic.

Feel free to use either the limited stock or limited time approach. Or, you could use both. Nicelaundry.com does an exciting “released only once a year” limited stock email campaign for their 3D socks every Black Friday. Essentially, there are a specific number of items such that the offer can run out anytime. Limited-time offers, meanwhile, run out after a given period. Remember to send reminder emails.

Send last-minute extended sale emails

Strategic “extended” deals also work like a charm. You put an irresistible offer on the table. But, the product or discount is only available for a limited time. When that window is about to shut, you extend the offer period by, say an hour, to give more people time to claim the deal.

Don’t forget to send email reminders about these extensions. Again, start with a catchy subject line such as “Extended Sale. Our 35% Off Deals Now End at 1.00 am.” Such subject lines stick out in the email inbox. Be sure to include a high-quality image of the product.

Supplement email with other channels

Finally, depending exclusively on email to run a Black Friday campaign would be wasteful. Not all customers will be checking their inboxes on Black Friday. And, even those who do might not check their inboxes 24/7. Using email alongside other channels such as text messaging, messaging apps (e.g. Messenger), and live chat will help you reach more people and convert even more sales.

Now You’re Ready to Get Started

Don’t forget to balance persistence with courtesy. In email marketing, too much is just as costly as too little. If you follow the above tips, you will be on your way to having a successful Black Friday weekend for your business.

Email Subscribers Need to Automatically Receive Your Blog Posts

Email Subscribers Need to Automatically Receive Your Blog Posts Every business craves a higher return on their online investment; more email subscribers, more readers, more conversions, and ultimately more revenue. Email marketing can be an asset towards accomplishing this goal. We’ll find out how, shortly. But first, three powerful stats;

    1. Email marketing has a Return on Investment (ROI) of $32 for every $1. PPC, in comparison, returns a paltry $2 for every $1 spent.
    2. Up to 81% of SMBs depend on email for customer acquisition. Another 80% consider email their primary retention tool.
    3. Up to 81% of SMBs depend on email for customer acquisition. Another 80% consider email their primary retention tool.

These stats tell us one thing – any serious digital marketer cannot overlook email marketing. Not only does it promise a huge market but that ROI is simply incredible.

Email Marketing Promises Even Greater Value to Bloggers

It’s not just the market and average ROI. Particularly for bloggers, email marketing promises a lot more.

You own the email subscribers

Not many digital marketing platforms give you control over your contacts. Social media networks, for instance, go as far as to control what posts you can share and the fraction of your followers you can reach. On Facebook, for example, you can only reach about 12% of your followers and your posts can be deleted if deemed “inappropriate.” Email marketing gives you complete control.

Email marketing generates plenty of traffic

According to a 2018 report by Constant Contest Knowledge Base, the average email open rate (fraction of recipients that open the emails they receive) is an impressive 41.96% on mobile and 58.04% on desktop. The average CTR, meanwhile, is 7.06%. That’s 7 in every 100 contacts clicking through to view your blog! Even paid ads struggle to deliver this CTR.

Email personalization drives even more traffic

Bloggers often turn to buyer personas to meet personalization needs. Unfortunately, even the best buyer persona can’t fully meet personalization needs. The good news is – email personalization can! You can craft your emails in a way that specifically addresses the needs of that individual recipient. And guess what, such deep personalization boosts CTR by up to 50%!

It’s easy to track and measure

Measurement is the key to sustained business growth and there isn’t an easier marketing channel to measure than email. You can track pretty much every metric; from delivery rates to open rates and CTR to conversions.

How to Use Email Marketing to Grow Your Blog

Every blogging campaign is different. But, there are a few basic rules to email marketing success;

  1. Find the right email platform: There are several email marketing platforms to choose from. Three that stand out are AWeber, Get Response, and MailChimp. Picking any of these three would be a great start.
  2. Develop your drip campaign: Customers go through an entire journey before making a purchase. It’s important to map out this journey beforehand and send emails in accordance with the journey.
  3. Optimize your emails: Work on your subject lines, email length, sending times, personalization, and CTAs to get the most from your emails. Also, don’t forget to A/B test your campaign.
  4. Optimize your opt-in forms: Also known as lead capture forms, your opt-in forms must be great both aesthetically and functionally. Use a catchy headline, include a compelling CTA, and design to impress.

Now, You Know What To Do

If you’ve not been using email to grow your blogging campaign, now is the time to begin. If you’re already on the bandwagon, use the four tips above to extract more value from your campaign.

Why You Need an Email List for Your Business

Why You Need an Email List for Your Business

Successful small businesses use email as part of their digital marketing strategy, that’s a fact. It’s low cost, has a limitless reach and a high return on investment.

A small business can’t really run a digital marketing campaign without an email list. It’s similar to going to battle without your artillery. Save for a miracle, you’re never winning that fight.

Here are just a few reasons why an email list is crucial for any successful business.

Besides Your Website, it’s the Only Marketing Tool you Own

Think about it for a minute. A digital marketer depends on several tools to run a successful sales campaign. These include search engines and social media networks.

Have you ever thought that you don’t own these tools? If Facebook feels like it, they could suspend your account or close it altogether? Google has done it many times, same with Twitter.

The only two items you really own are your website and the email list. They are the only two things no one can take from you. Do everything in your power to guard them.

A Properly-Maintained Email List Makes Marketing Easy and Cost-Effective

The average SMB spends $75,000 on digital marketing, or just over $214,000 on marketing yearly, representing up to 12% of revenue. A solid email list can significantly reduce these costs as well as simplify the marketing process.

Here’s why. Email is the king of business communication. According to Exact Target, 46% of consumers prefer emails, 36% prefer text, and only 13% prefer social media. And sending email is extremely affordable even if you hire a specialist. And email providers charge peanuts for their services. AWeber, for instance, charges $30/month.

Above all, with an email list, you have a sales-ready market. You’re not making cold calls. Put these factors together and you’ll see the high ROI potential of a great email list.

Email has the Potential to Become a Large Part of Your Income

You might not believe it, but there are people out there who make quite a bit of money on their email lists.

Michael Hyatt is the perfect example. An award-winning author of a best-selling book, Michael openly says that his email list is his biggest asset. “It is my number one business priority and asset,” he says.  “This multi-million dollar business wouldn’t have come to be without my email list. The list accounts for 90% of my income.”

A strong email list can become a key source of revenue for you too.

So, Grow Your List to Grow Your Business

When your email list expands, your business grows. Why? Because you’re adding more sales-ready leads to the funnel!

How to Make Money With Your Email List

How to Make Money With Your Email List Email marketing is not dead– not even remotely close to dead. In fact, data shows that the impact of email marketing may actually be increasing every year. A record number of new email accounts are still being created every year. The average email user is receiving more emails today than at any other time in the past.

Rather than being used as a form of interpersonal communication, as it was at its onset, it’s now used as a central component of eCommerce transactions. Because your local utility company and your cell phone provider will send you email notifications when a bill is due, and a corresponding receipt once you’ve paid, brands know you’ll eventually check your email. It’s only natural that it’d be used as part of any serious online sales effort.

Obviously, there are two basic steps to any email marketing effort:

  1. Collect email addresses.
  2. Send out a newsletter, or market to your list.

Strategies, best practices, and variations on how to go about accomplishing these two steps will differ from one industry to the next.

Try these four powerful email marketing optimization strategies:

  • Provide value

    If you only send sales emails, be prepared to lose a lot of subscribers. Resulting in a rather dismal conversion rate. Send valuable content, intensely-targeted to your list, and you’ll earn the right to pitch your prospects. They’ll respect you, trust your authority in the space, and will have had enough chances to have considered doing business with you prior to your official ask.

  • Design your funnels

    Don’t be discouraged if you’ve been lumping your whole list into one category and emailing every subscriber on each campaign. Moving forward, you can begin to sculpt out defined list sub-sections. For example, a ‘previous customer’ segment is a no-brainer. Segmented lists for specific business objectives and for specific marketing campaigns not only allows greater granularity in targeting, but it also gives you a greater ability to experiment.

  • Blog optimization

    If your email marketing efforts are stagnant, you may want to look further up the chain. You might have done a great job converting new site visitors into email subscribers, but have you built any relationship with them prior to their opting-in.

    The answer to this can make the difference between a “who is this emailing me?”-response or an “Oh, these guys have a course?” type of response.

    Work on your blog content, keep it fresh, relevant and useful to your target audience. This practice will improve the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.Click To Tweet

  • The ‘tripwire’ trick

    This is as crafty and slick as it sounds. A tripwire is a very small ask you put directly after an email list subscription in each of your funnels. A tripwire might be $5 or $7 and it has a psychological reason for being used. Studies have shown that people are more likely to purchase from brands they’ve already done business with rather than ones they’ve never bought from.

    Therefore, it makes smart business sense to get a quick, low-cost sale from as great a percentage of your list as possible. As a result,  they experience what it’s like being your customer. Thus eventually make a follow-up purchase.

No matter what tips or email marketing strategies you try, just make sure you don’t write-off email marketing altogether. There is money in your list. All you need to do is grow it and get better at harvesting it’s potential.

Best Practices for Email Subscription Forms

Best Practices for Email Subscription Forms

There’s lots of noise in the digital advertising arena these days, but the best way to reach customers and keep them engaged is email. Social media may be the best way to drive customers to your website, but keeping them coming back is a job best left to email.

Currently, there are 2.5 billion email users worldwide, a number that is expected to grow to 2.9 billion by 2019. Dollars budgeted towards email marketing has been climbing since 2014 and is projected to continue to rise well into 2019.

Email Personalization

One of the secrets to effective email marketing isn’t much of a secret — it’s personalization. When email messages are personalized, the open rate jumps from 13.1 percent to 18.8 percent. An email signup form with more than a person’s email address is the best way to increase response.

Constructing an email signup form that feels more like 20 questions might be a good way to get to know your customers, but it can create a lot of “friction.” Friction is the psychological reaction customers have to forms, whether they be long or short.

Simply put, the more friction your signup form has, the less likely people are to complete it.

Straightforward Formatting

Another important strategy to keep in mind is to keep the email signup form simple. Don’t distract from what you are trying to do, which is open an avenue of communication with your customer. Lots of distractions on your email signup page just keeps people from finding the form.

It’s important to make your email subscription form easy to complete on mobile devices as well. Current data shows that 56% of emails are opened on a mobile platform, as opposed to a desktop computer.

Your email should be formatted for mobile viewing first, and your email signup form should also be completed easily via mobile. Making them responsive to screen size reduces a bit more of that psychological friction.

Details, Details

Personalization and adaptive formatting aside, there are also some small details that can increase people’s response to your subscription form.

  • No long drop-down lists. If you have a drop-down, keep it to just a few options.
  • Eschew the Captcha nonsense for double opt-ins. Captchas just end up being seen as another response field and can be a pain via mobile.
  • Use large buttons that are easy to find and recognize.

Among all the numbers, a clear narrative emerges. Businesses that do not harness email marketing will be left in the dust. It’s imperative that your business has a clear email marketing strategy that remains flexible in the face of the ever-changing digital landscape.

Segment your Email List for More Conversions

Segment your Email List for More Conversions Have you heard, the money is in the list? The email list, in this case.

Did you know you may be leaving money on the table if you mail the same message to your entire list? Send the most relevant messages to their inboxes, not just any message. This in an efficient and scalable solution with segmentation.

What is Email Segmentation?

Email segmentation divides your email list based on custom factors. You can split up your list with some of the most common methods being by geographic location, age, income and job title.

The specific factors you choose depends on your type of business. Add a behavioral tag to categorize a user. Have they ordered from your store recently, did they buy something last year, or are they a new purchaser? Nurture each list segment with the offers and content that they need to increase your conversion rate and lifetime value of the customer.

If you provide services, look at where the subscriber is in your marketing funnel, any actions they’ve taken on your website and whether they’ve been in contact with your team.

The sky’s the limit on the segmentation you choose for your subscriber. So there’s no reason to take one-size fits all approach to your list.

How to Segment Your List

Most email marketing and marketing automation services allow you to sort readers into different groups based on the information they provide. You can automatically do this by sorting users on the subscription form.

For example, if you offer several products segment your list by the product purchased. Progressive profiling allows you to capture more information every time a person goes through one of your forms. You might ask for an email and name on the first interaction. Then expand to their company size, income and questions about their pain points in the next.

The second way to segment is by links clicked.  Start with a general list. Send out an email with 3 key, unique links to different areas of service your company offers. You can segment your audiences by those who clicked service link 1, the second list for service link 2 that was clicked, and the same for the service link 3.  Furthermore, you ow have three lists with people who were interested enough to click a specific area.  You can then send each follow-up emails specifically related to the area of service they clicked on in the first email! That’s segmentation.

Get the most out of your email list by providing a custom experience that’s valuable to your readers. You’ll see more leads, conversions, and revenue for your efforts.

How to Improve Your Email Open Rate

How to Improve Your Email Open Rate

According to eMarketer, almost 237 million Americans will use email in 2017. This represents a significant portion of the online population.  People read email! Getting your message out isn’t hard, it’s just a matter of presenting it professionally and hitting send. The tough piece is convincing your customers to open your latest message.

The bottom line is the subject line

It all starts with the subject line. Enticing readers to open your email is your first duty. Because of that, the subject line needs to be something more than what you can dash off at the last moment. I have had emails where I’ve spent more time crafting the perfect subject line than I spent writing the email.

If the subject doesn’t grab them, they won’t read it!  Personalize your email subject lines, most ESP (email service providers) allow you to do this easily.

If your email contains an offer, tell your audience about it, so your recipients know what’s inside the email waiting for them.  Keep it concise, active, and inviting.

The perfect send time

Timing your email send perfectly can lead to greater open rates. Email marketers agree that mid-week (Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday) emails are most successful for B2B businesses. If you’re B2C, your delivery window widens by Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

I like to send emails early in the morning, so they’re in the inbox when it’s first opened in the am. Or around lunch, people ease back into work by checking their emails. Because they’re full and satisfied, they’re more likely to be patient enough to read the mail rather than deleting it for lack of time to read it.

If your email is promoting an event with specific timing, send the email a couple of weeks before and again a couple of days before the event.

Valuable email content

Give your customers something of value in every email. Even if it’s just tips and tricks on how to do something. When you offer value, you’re less likely to end up in the spam folder.

It’s a good idea to segment your list right out of the gate. Group your readers by products they’ve purchased, where their IP address is located, or special interests. Your ESP will now their location from their IP address.

Add several email subscription forms to your list with free downloads and segment as to the download they choose or page they subscribe on.

Here are a few of the most common data sets you may want to segment by:

  • Time they have been on your mailing list
  • What they’ve purchased from you
  • Date of the last purchase from your company
  • Last interaction

Drilling down with that information can lead to more effective and directed email campaigns.

Where do your readers view their email?

Take your email recipients’ lifestyle into account as well. A full 64% of decision-makers read their emails via their smartphone. (Want to know what your readers are viewing on and you use MailChimp? Learn how here.) If your email isn’t formatted to be easily read on a mobile screen, you may receive fewer click-throughs and find your open rate decreasing over time.

If you make these changes and don’t see an immediate turnaround in a declining open rate, don’t get discouraged. There is an art to strategic email marketing. When you pay attention to what’s going on with your email recipients, you’ll become better tuned to what works best for your business.