The pandemic forever changed the way companies do business. With an audience forced to stay at home, businesses had to rely on digital communication. One very specific change was the increase in email marketing.
As with anything, moderation is key. Sending emails to the same audience multiple times a month is too many. You don’t want your audience to see you as a nuisance. Once that happens, they’ll unsubscribe with sanctimonious glee. Use this comprehensive blog to improve your email marketing.
Email Marketing vs. Newsletters
Emails have become a core marketing format for businesses. According to HubSpot, 33% of marketers send weekly emails and 26% send emails many times per month. Emails offering promos seem to flood our inboxes now. How often are you thinking, “Did I even sign up for this one…?”
The trick with emails is to think of them more as a newsletter. Use it to position yourself as a resource, not a burden. Newsletters are an effective way to show you’re a trusted guide to your hero. They’re also great to send to your Golden Geese. Golden Geese are those folks in your network who consistently send you quality leads. They can forward your newsletter to their networks on your behalf. You’re helping them help you.
Anatomy of a Newsletter
Automate your email marketing using a platform, like Mailchimp. There are many options out there; find the one that makes the most sense to you and fits your budget. Platforms like Mailchimp provide email templates you can edit. They also provide the analytics you need to assess your ROI.
General recommendations for your newsletter include:
- Skimmability. Keep the content in your emails short and sweet. This helps to increase your audience’s intake and retention.
- Texts & Visuals. As with any digital form of communication, you need content and images. This includes your logo! Make sure that’s the first thing people see.
- Links & CTAs. If you’re using a newsletter to promote a new blog, don’t include the entire blog. Provide a few sentences that would encourage your reader to click a link and learn more. This drives traffic to your website and gets them one step closer to becoming a client. And don’t assume they’ll click the link. Tell them. Include a button that says, “Read More.”
- Typography. This one has more to do with the recipient’s email spam filters. Consistency is key. Use only 2 fonts at most.
Segment Your Audiences
If you’re not spending a little time to segment leads, why should they give you time? The worst thing to do is consistently send irrelevant information to your audience.
The best thing you can do is segment your audience into categories. Send the right information to the right people and engagement rate will improve.
How you segment your contact list depends on your specific goals. Here are a few categories to get you started:
- Demographics – Group contacts by age, gender, company position, or income.
- Geographic Area – Group contacts by location data.
- Pipelines – Group contacts based on where they are in your customer journey.
After you segment your lists, brainstorm individualized content. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Send special promos to VIP lists
- Celebrate client anniversaries
- Share survey data and customer success stories
- Promote blogs and upcoming events
How often should you send newsletters?
That depends on your data. To start, once a month is good. Remember to be flexible. Avoid sending your email on the same day at the same time each month. Some platforms will provide information on the best time of day to send emails.
People Keep Unsubscribing! Help!
This is actually a good thing. Unsubscribes can be beneficial as they curb your spam complaints. People will unsubscribe before reporting spam. A healthy unsub rate is ~1-2% per email. If you’re getting more than that, send better content. It’s also a good idea to cull your email list quarterly. If certain people haven’t opened your email in 3 months, remove them. They’re skewing your data.
In 2021, Apple’s data privacy changes affected email open rate data. Now as soon as an email hits an Apple inbox, it’s marked as open. Regardless of it the person has actually opened the email. You can see why this would screw up your newsletter data.
The better metric to review is the click rate and heat map. Are people actually clicking on your links to go to your website? Which links are they clicking?
Next Steps
When you understand “the why” behind a marketing concept, it strengthens the overall process. Find more articles with tips to bring marketing in-house.
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