Despite the emergence of other marketing strategies, email marketing isn’t as outdated as you think. Learn how to use emails to increase customer engagement.
Email marketing is one of the most basic ways to communicate with customers. But with the rising popularity of social media and chat marketing, is it still relevant today?
Yes, it is.
Even if some marketers feel like it’s the old-fashioned way of engaging customers, email marketing hasn’t lost its charm. Not to mention it’s a very straightforward way of communicating with your market.
You can use email to provide information about your business – whether it’s news about the company or an offer. Or, you can talk about something that your email subscribers will find valuable. It doesn’t always have to be about the product or service that you offer.
Do it correctly and email marketing can increase your customer engagement and, eventually, boost the profitability of your business.
In this article, you’ll learn about what it really takes to increase customer engagement using email marketing. You’ll also learn the five elements that’ll make your emails highly effective.
Proof That Email Marketing is Still Important
Email marketing is not outdated
The pandemic proved that we still need this strategy. With everyone forced to do business online, we need different ways to communicate with our customers – one of which is through emails.
Recent statistics also prove why you should never falter in your email marketing efforts.
For instance, it’s been reported that a daily average of 306.4 billion emails were exchanged in 2020 – with an average open rate of 18%. This figure should be bigger now since there are currently 4 billion email users as of 2021. And experts believe that it’ll grow to 4.6 billion in 2025.
Apart from that, reportedly 90% of marketers use email engagement as their top metric to measure how effective their content is. And 31% of B2B marketers revealed that they find email newsletters still work best in nurturing their leads, while 89% of marketers prefer to use email as their main channel to generate leads.
So, if you want to grow your business, you need to develop your email marketing skills.
8 Ways to Increase Customer Engagement Through Email
Way #1 – Segment Your Email List
It’s not a good idea to send one generic email to everyone on your list.
You need to segment your email list and group them according to similarities. This similarity could be their job title, website activity, purchase history, etc.
Segmenting your list makes it easier to find a common interest among each segment. And when you use those interests as the basis for your emails to them, the recipients will likely find your emails valuable.
Way #2 – Provide Real Value
The content of your email matters.
Make sure that your email provides real value to the recipient. That means it shouldn’t be something that YOU value.
You have to know enough about your email list to understand what’s valuable to them. And if you’ve segmented your email list, it should be easy to identify this.
For example, you can send an email with tips or a guide. Or, you can offer a discount on your product or service that you know will interest them. You can even send them an invite to an upcoming event.
Way #3 – Keep It Short And Concise
Don’t drown your readers with lengthy texts. That’ll just bore them and make them close your email without reading everything you wrote.
Remember, this digital age is defined by social media. It has made people more impatient, so your content has to be straight to the point.
Write emails that are easy to read. Find the balance between giving enough value without losing the interest and attention of the reader.
Not only that, the beginning of your email should immediately discuss the value that they’ll get from it.
Way #4 – Personalise It, Then Automate
To increase the open rates of your emails, make sure you personalise them. Even the simple act of putting the name of the recipient instead of some generic greeting will do.
The more you personalise emails, the more they’ll be valued by the readers. But this doesn’t mean you have to send a different email to every recipient.
You can simply group your email list by the product they bought, their age, and gender. Or maybe the industry that they work in. Then, talk about a product that relates to their job or their location, for example.
Once you’ve figured out how to personalise emails for a particular segment, automate it. Create a sequence of emails that’ll be sent out at pre-scheduled times.
There are many email marketing tools that can help you automate your email sequences. Automation Agency has worked with a lot of businesses to help them automate their email marketing. And we can help you set up email automation in your business.
Way #5 – Make It Visually Appealing
While the content of the email is important, so is the visual appeal. Make sure you consider your brand design when you’re creating your emails.
Brand recognition can increase your open rates. There are small details that matter, like your chosen images, logo, and infographics. Use the same guidelines that you follow when you create your website and landing page in your email.
Give the readers a sense of familiarity when they receive your email.
Way #6 – Provide a Clear CTA
Even if the purpose of your email is just to engage your list, make sure it still ends with a clear CTA (call to action). Remember that you’re not just nurturing and engaging your leads but also encouraging them to buy.
Your CTA could be about a product that relates to the email content. Or, it could be an invitation to look at new products you uploaded. It can also be about a guide that the recipient can download for free.
Try to create urgency in your CTA so the reader will act on it.
Way #7 – Schedule Your Email Frequency
Frequency is crucial in your email marketing strategy. You have to find the right balance because you don’t want to send too many or too few emails. That could either annoy your readers or make them forget about you.
How will you know what the right frequency is?
It depends on your subscribers and your email marketing goals. If you want a higher open rate, you should send fewer emails.
Test your email schedule and adjust accordingly. If your subscribers are busy individuals, you should be conscious of when they usually open emails and change the frequency of your emails.
Way #8 – Give Email Subscribers Opt-in Options
Let your subscribers opt-in on the type of emails they want to receive. Do they want to receive weekly newsletters? Or just product launches? And do they want to be updated on events in your business?
Giving them choices will make them feel in control. It’ll also increase your open rates because your subscribers are expecting the emails they’ll get from you.
And in case your subscribers want to leave, let them. You don’t want an email list filled with unresponsive leads anyway. So, make it easy for the uninterested leads to unsubscribe.
5 Elements of a Successful Business Email
Element #1: Strong Subject Line
The subject line is responsible for grabbing the attention of your readers.
Remember, a lot of people use their mobile devices to open emails. That means you’ll have to use your subject lines to stop them in their tracks. Make sure it’s catchy and short.
On mobile devices, only 5 to 7 words can be seen on the small screen. You only have that much to show your subscribers the value that they’ll get if they open your email. So, make every word count.
Element #2: Personalised Greeting
Don’t underestimate the power of a personalised greeting.
Not only will it make the recipient feel valued but also that you know who they are. They should feel that they’re not just a part of your email list and you understand what they need. This gives them the assurance that you’re willing to help them with their concerns.
Besides, an email addressed personally is more likely to be opened than one with a generic greeting.
Element #3: Valuable and Relatable Information
Making emails personal doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be too friendly and entertaining in your content.
You can talk about light topics in your emails, but they should still be valuable and relatable. It should hold enough information that’ll make your subscribers learn something new. If you give them fluff and nothing relevant, your subscribers will think your emails are a waste of time.
Don’t give them a reason to start ignoring you.
Element #4: No Grammatical or Typographical Errors
Your email represents your business, so you want to appear professional. And you should use emails to showcase your expertise.
But you can’t do that if your email is filled with grammatical or typo errors. The same is true for the use of slang words, shortcuts, and other informal references.
Show that you have impeccable communication skills so people will trust what you have to say.
Element #5: Clear Close and CTA
Your subscribers already spent their valuable time reading your email until the very end. So, make sure you end it with a bang.
To do that, give them a clear close and call to action (CTA).
Get them to act on something by being clear about the details. Instead of just telling them to go to your website, for example, include a link to your website in your email.
Start Engaging More Customers Using Email Marketing
Email marketing may seem outdated but it’s still a powerful way to engage your customers.
Make sure you know the rules that’ll make your emails really effective. It’s not just about the content. You have to make sure that you’re giving subscribers a valuable, visually appealing, and timely email.
What’s great about email marketing is you can also automate it. There are tools you can use that’ll help you engage your list regularly without taking a lot of your time.
If you need help with this, get in touch with our Concierge Service. Our Automation Agency Heroes can assist you to improve your email marketing campaigns.
