Pretty ProgressiveBefore 2020, some could argue that email had been left behind; nowadays, people use social networks; new mass media are crucial, and so on. However, the statistics do not confirm this idea. Email is alive, and it remains one of the most effective cost-saving methods to reach out to your audience.
According to the Experian statistics, email marketing may bring you $44 ROI per $1, on average. That is huge, but profits are possible only if you use email marketing correctly. Here, we describe the processes and mention what is new in 2021, which should pique the interest of any conscious entrepreneur.
Main Email Marketing Usage
Generally, email marketing serves the same purposes as ever before. Namely:
- Building connections and increasing customer loyalty. Emailing is hugely personal, and unlike social networks, it leaves you and your recipient eye to eye.
- Selling your products and services. Exact Target survey confirms: 77% of consumers prefer email to receive marketing communications.
- Highlighting important news and events. Emailing in those matters is only one of the spotlights, but neither one you may neglect.
- Educating target audiences. This is where you may build a long-term and robust reputation among your target audience.
- Gathering leads and converting them into customers. You may nurture the best long-term customers out of relatively cold contacts (depending on your marketing campaigns’ starting point) using email marketing techniques.
- Building an audience. Earnest Agency statistics say that 72% of the buyers share useful content via email.
- Warming up an old client base. For those means, emailing is good, at least due to the low price.
Email Marketing Practices in 2021
So, in 2021 email marketing is still a tool to raise you on the crest of the wave. Following these six practices, you can fine-tune your campaigns and make them part of your post-Covid recovery.
1. Strategy Becomes Even More Critical
The main difference between old-school and new-wave email marketing is: there are no more universal solutions. You need to segment your target audience and test different approaches if you want to receive a significant outcome.
To hold the line among numerous experiments you may perform, create the road map. Specify your main goals and KPIs of success and align with them at every new step you complete.
2. Use Email Personalization to the Fullest
That is what the segmented newsletters do: create a feeling of personalized care in a suddenly hostile world — and bring higher conversion rates to a business. To benefit from email marketing in this way, use a possibility to send finely-segmented emails based to meet your readers’ requests, expectations, and buyer journey stage.
Some optimistic analysts report that personalized messages have an ROI of 122%, whereas the National client email report states that targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue. Of course, these numbers cannot be relevant for all campaigns, sellers, and brands. That underlines: thorough segmentation may look time-consuming and expensive, it is crucial for success in email marketing.
You may cut the costs by letting the customer do all the work. Add a few options to the registration process, such as the product they are interested in, the country they live in, etc. — but at the same time, don’t make your form too long to avoid decreasing the registration conversion rate. At the following steps, you may improve your segmentation based on the user behavior: whether they purchased your product, what exactly did they buy, how often do they interact with it, etc.
3. Personalize and Polish the Sign-up Process
Recheck your marketing funnel and make sure every step of the subscription process goes smoothly and addresses your subscriber. Find the optimal design for each step: the total number of steps, the fields, check-in boxes instead of text fields, and, of course, flawless process — that is what you should have.
Coordinate your welcome email notifications with the customer type and send an appropriate onboarding series. This is a very underperformed stage that may influence your profit dramatically, especially if there’s a gap between a free registration and a payment in your products or services.
Additionally, be sure to enhance everything for mobile users. Everything is going mobile these days. You can even apply a little mobile learning to your marketing efforts or other business practices… all while you’re on the go.
4. Keep an Eye Out for Marketable Moments
Every day, the market creates favorable moments for your product. It may be a calendar event, your business or customer’s anniversary, or a social info occasion out there. This is right up there with monitoring your SEO performance.
Keep your eyes open for them.
You never know which event can create a wave on the market. President’s new statement, another political move, essential corporate news, even the latest music video, or a new game may push the sales wave. Monitor your market niche for vital news, and remind your customers about yourself at the right moment.
Today, especially after a year of the pandemic, people are missing positive moments in their lives. Paint attention to these moments, you can increase the loyalty to your brand.
5. Use Automation to Improve Efficiency
Automate every stage of email marketing where it’s possible.
Saving time is the main reason. Once set up, an automated campaign works for your profit. You don’t need to send each message (or even segment) manually. You may check statuses and statistics in just a few clicks. Even complex personalization — e.g., sending different email sequences based on user behavior in the app — may be automated and save hours of your time. Be sure to probably understand (and use) email drip campaigns.
Another essential reason is profitability. Using automation tools, you may run experiments, compare results, analyze statistics, choose the best solution, and improve your email marketing results better than manually. Better yet, also look into email templates to help speed up your process even more.
6. Follow the CAN-SPAM Act
The CAN-SPAM Act is a law taken in 2003 which directly governs email newsletters. If your email violates the act, the sender may get sanctions. Filters on popular email services (Gmail, Yahoo, and others) may mark their emails as SPAM, and users will hardly receive them. In the worst case, the website’s domain may also be banned.
It’s important to highlight that each year, email services become more skilled in detecting and consequently punishing spam senders, so playing this game is often not worth the payback.
In 2021, “white” email marketing is in favor which includes subscribing through landing pages or reaching out to customers who agree to communicate, sending educational and entertaining content, and selling wisely.
Conclusion
Today, when we aim to emerge from COVID-19 and enter the recovery phase, profitable online marketing approaches become valuable as never before. Email marketing is one of the leading players, and if using it properly, it may help your company increase its loyal customer base and raise profits.
