A recent Roper Poll uncovered some interesting information in a recent poll completed with the Custom Content Council. According to the poll results, over three-quarters of respondents said they “understand the company is selling something, but that’s fine as long as the information is valuable.”
What’s even more interesting is the ROI possible. Other sources say effective email marketing delivers the best ROI (averaging $44 per dollar spent) of any digital marketing tactic via marketing firm Kapost.
It’s All About the Relationship
If people are kind enough to let you into their overloaded inboxes then you have an obligation to provide plenty of value in exchange.
It’s just plain good manners and good marketing.
Email marketing can be a powerful relationship building tool.
So, how can you make sure your subscribers are getting value from your emails and beginning to know, like and trust you?
1—It’s all about your reader. Focus on the benefits to the reader. Make them care. Show your reader how your product or service is the solution to their problem. Will it save them money? Great, how much? Will it make their lives easier? Show them how.
2-Provide valuable content—If every email is a poorly disguised promotion, you won’t have a high open rate and people will unsubscribe. Offer useful information. You can include a relevant link to a Special Report or information rich web page to further inform the visitor and ultimately move them through the sales cycle.
Generally, the more expensive your product, the more information your visitor will need before they make a decision. Make it easy for them to buy by offering a short e-course, downloadable report or series of autoresponders to answer their questions.
3—HTML or plain text? This is a matter of personal preference—your readers’. Most email providers will send your newsletter out in both formats. How it displays in your readers’ browsers depends on how they have their email set up.
You do want to test your email in both formats to see how it displays. Set up a template to simplify your life. You’ll be able to use it again and again.
5-You want your email to fit within the screen. Email clients like Mailchimp and Aweber let you preview your email on mobile devices. It’s a good idea to also send a test email and view it on your phone.
According to the Content Marketing Council, 64% of decision-makers open email on their phones.
6—How long should it be? Opinions are all over the map on this one.
I get many emails that are a couple of short paragraphs and I get others that are essay length. You have to test and measure the results. A report from Email Labs found email users spend 15-20 seconds on each email. So, if your click thru rate is higher on the short ones than the long, you use that as your guide.
It also depends on your goal. Is this a monthly newsletter type of email or is your goal to get people to a live (or online) event?
Different goals = different messages.
7-—Call to action—about that click thru rate or call to action– if the goal of your email is to get people to go your landing page and buy something or download a free report your email has to be written with that in mind. Guide them through the process.
Give them a useful tidbit and they can access the rest by clicking on the link.
It works. Effective email marketing builds multi-billion dollar businesses.
You’ll get the best results if you plan your email marketing strategy — even if it’s only your first few emails. Then, review the results and tweak.
Great subject lines, great offers and integrate it with the rest of your marketing. Test, tweak and refine. Those are the keys to successful email marketing.
How will you incorporate these brief email marketing tips for your small business?
