How much time per week are you spending on your targeted email marketing campaigns? An hour? Maybe even less?
Even if you’re spending 5 hours or more every week, not utilizing the right strategies your email campaigns might be falling right on their collective faces.
To be a targeted email marketing expert, you need to start thinking like one.
Consider the emails you receive that cause you to take action.
Was it a specific offer? Did it cause a positive emotional response? Did the email just happen to come into your inbox at the exact right time?
There are many different ways that targeted email marketing can increase your business revenue and solidify your branding.
In this article, we’re going to explore the top 7 ways that you can get huge returns from targeted email marketing.
1. Build a Quality List
This is where it all begins. It’s also the part that many businesses struggle to achieve.
Popups have become absolutely brutal while navigating almost any site. They are everywhere.
But when one pops up saying something like “Join our email list to get new recipes delivered to your inbox every single day!” what do you do?
If you’re anything like me, you immediately start looking at how to click away from the popup. Some pop-ups have become extra annoying. They don’t show you the “X” to click off of it, so you feel like you’re trapped. What to do then? Instantly leave the site!
This is not the way to build a quality email list. It is, however, a way to chase people away before they even explore your content!
Unless you have an absolutely ridiculous offer that someone will receive just for giving you their email (a free oil change, for example), skip the popups.
So how do you build your list? Here are some high-performing techniques:
Post-Purchase Incentives:
After a sale, offer customers a substantial discount code for their next purchase in exchange for providing their email. This mutually beneficial arrangement encourages customers to share their email and allows you to provide them with exclusive offers and updates.
On-Site Email Collection:
Take advantage of your website’s traffic by creating a quick and user-friendly web form to capture email signups. Highlight the benefits of joining your email lists, such as exclusive offers, product releases, and valuable content. Make the signup process clear, concise, and hassle-free to maximize conversions.
Leverage Social Media:
Tap into your social media following to drive email list growth. Direct your followers to a dedicated web form to sign up for exclusive offers and discounts. Emphasize that subscribing to your email list is the gateway to receiving unique benefits and staying informed about your brand.
In-Store Opt-Ins:
If you have a brick-and-mortar store, seize the opportunity to capture email addresses at the checkout counter. Train your staff to ask customers if they want exclusive offers by joining your email list. You’ll be surprised at the number of customers willing to provide their email, especially when informed about the benefits they’ll receive.
Streamlined Signup Process:
Make it simple for customers to sign up for your email list. Minimize the required information to the essentials (e.g., name and email address). Implement a double opt-in process to ensure high-quality leads and filter out potential junk emails.
Value-Added Approach:
Always provide value (or highly perceived value) in return when asking for email signups. Gone are the days when a generic “weekly newsletter” would suffice. Instead, entice customers with exclusive offers, valuable content, early access to new products, or personalized recommendations tailored to their needs.
Building a robust email list is essential for B2B businesses seeking to engage customers and drive conversions. Once you start building a quality list, your targeted email marketing will automatically start to improve.
2. Make Sure All Emails Are Personalized
Personalizing each email with “Hi Jessie!” instantly engages the reader.
People like hearing their own names. It makes them feel unique, not just one of the masses that are getting sent this email.
The bombardment of emails we all get makes it hard for yours to stand out. By starting out with a personalized greeting, you have gained a few extra seconds of the reader’s time. This helps them get to your message.
Once they get to your message, your first line better be powerful.
More on that later.
3. Emojis in Your Subject Line Help You Stand Out
Look at your inbox right now. What do you see? Words, words, and more words right?
Hundreds of words garbled together seem like a daunting task to get through. So what happens? You end up going through your inbox and deleting dozens of emails without even opening them.
We all do it.
Most of us use emojis in our personal conversations. It’s a fun way to express ourselves. When you incorporate a few emojis in your email’s subject line, it gets the reader’s attention. It makes them feel like it’s personal, and they are more likely to open it. They also cut through the overwhelming stream of words. Then they should see, “Hey Becky!” and you’re on your way.
Here are a few examples:
- “🔥 Don’t Miss Out on Exclusive Discounts! 💼”
- “⏰ Time is Running Out! Grab Your Deal Today! 💥”
- “🌟 Unleash Your Business Potential with Our New Solution! 💡”
- “🚀 Skyrocket Your Sales with Our Cutting-Edge Technology! 💯”
- “💰 Boost Your ROI with Our Limited-Time Offer! 💼”
- “🎯 Get Ahead of the Competition – Unlock Your Success! 🏆”
- “🔑 Unlock the Secrets to Sales Success! Discover Our New Guide! 📘”
- “✨ Elevate Your Business with Our Proven Strategies! 💼”
- “🎉 Celebrate Success with a Special Offer – Exclusive for You! 🎁”
- “🔧 Streamline Your Processes and Increase Efficiency! 💼”
Remember, when using emojis in email subject lines, make sure they are relevant to the content of your email and align with your brand’s messaging and audience.
4. Constantly Be Testing the Times of Your Targeted Email Marketing Sends
In targeted email marketing, it’s all about the time your emails hit. There’s no hard or fast rule on this. It varies based on your business type.
For example, if you’re a bar owner and want to announce an unexpected two-for-one night that evening, you probably don’t want to send it in the morning.
The best time to send would be about an hour before office people are leaving work.
Send your emails when it makes the most logical sense for your business. Remember, most people have push notifications on their phones when they receive an email. Make your message timely to get it opened.
In addition, always be testing. Separate your email list into 4 different groups and send the identical email at 4 different times.
Then dive into the analytics and sales results.
A major study of 20 million emails showed that 11 a.m. Eastern Time had the highest open rate. That may or may not be true for you, but I would suggest using that time for one of your sends and seeing for yourself.
A major key to targeted email marketing is always be testing your send times.
5. Have a Custom and Fully Responsive Email Template Designed
Yes, services like Constant Contact and MailChimp offer many responsive templates for free.
However, today’s consumers are very sophisticated. They know right away they are getting an email from one of these services.
It can make you look a little small time.
To stand out and look like a big player in your industry, have a custom email template designed. However, make sure that the template is fully responsive on all devices.
A whopping 66% of all emails are now viewed on mobile devices or tablets. If you have a template that doesn’t format properly on mobile, you’re going to lose the vast majority of those readers almost instantly.
Just like with your website, responsiveness is no longer an after-thought. It’s an absolute must.
6. Always Include a Direct Call to Action
Ending an email with “These patio sets are on sale now thru June 1st” is not going to be effective. All that does is tell the reader they have plenty of time to think it over.
Then minutes later, they forget all about your email.
An effective targeted email marketing campaign tells a reader why to take action now, and how to go about it.
“If you don’t click here by midnight Central time, this one-time offer will be gone for good.”
That directs action and creates more sales.
It’s also a great idea to include an instant call to action in your subject line.
“Open Me Before it’s too late!” would be an example of how to include a call to action in a subject line. I’m sure you can think of many more that make sense for your business.
Never assume a reader knows how to take advantage of what you’re offering. Always tell them what they need to do in a way that creates urgency.
For e-commerce sites, choose the best platform that makes converting the sale easy on the customer.
7. Write Good Copy. Pour Over Every Word. Test, Test, Test.
You’ve got the reader’s attention. They’ve opened your email.
Now, what message do you have that will get them to the next level?
The opening line of your email is where it’s at. Make it personal. Make it impactful. Use power words to get the reader to keep reading past the opening line.
When you do your testing, play with the wording of your opening line and again, segregate your list into 4 parts. After a few weeks of seeing what’s converting, it becomes much easier to write a great opening line.
Once you get past the opening line, get to your offer or message as quickly as possible. Make is short and concise. Avoid using too many words.
Write short sentences and paragraphs so there is a lot of white space. When people see 8 sentence paragraphs of words, it intimidates them out of reading your message.
After writing your copy, go back through and figure out which words you can remove.
For example, in the prior sentence, we had originally written, “After you’re done writing your ad copy, spend some time going back through it to figure out which of the words you can remove from it.”
See the difference?
Short and concise copy sells.
Conclusion
Make no mistake, targeted email marketing can and will bring you a world of success. But you have to spend the time to do it right.
If you’re in need of an experienced team with expertise in targeted email marketing, you need to get in touch and let us help you develop and deploy an effective strategy.
Otherwise, with these 7 tools, you’re well on your way to success!
