Are you looking to start an email marketing campaign? You’re going to face some stiff competition.
There are 74 trillion emails sent every year. Our inboxes are flooded by our personal network, small businesses, large-scale media operations and more.
The fight for attention has never been greater. But that doesn’t mean your email marketing campaign can’t be effective. You just need to up your game to stand out from the crowd.
Targeted email marketing is a uniquely personal form of advertising with fruitful long-term benefits. Boost your email strategy by using a few tried and true methods for success. Here are six actionable steps you can take to take your email marketing to the next level.
1. Do Research and Set Goals
This might seem like an obvious tip. Research and goal setting is paramount to any successful business strategy. But you’d be surprised at how many people skip this crucial step.
Targeted email marketing starts with detailed research. You need to understand who your audience is and what you want from them.
Creating buyer personas is a useful tool for any email marketing campaign. A buyer persona is a representation of your ideal customer based on market research. This can help you understand what factors weigh into buying decisions.
Mold your email marketing around your customers’ buying process. Figure out what kind of content will get them to move into the next stage of the sales funnel.
Use free research tools to make key discoveries about your audience. Google Alerts and Google Trends are great resources. You can use them to find keywords and content topics.
2. Show Off Your Expertise
No one likes a sales-y email.
People subscribe to email lists to get insights and valuable information from industry leaders. So why not show off your expertise?
Your content should encourage your audience to keep reading. You want them to be invested in your emails.
How do you get them invested? By providing them with valuable information.
Yes, your emails should get people to buy from you. But they shouldn’t be over promotional.
Think about what kind of value you can bring to your readers before sending out your emails. People are much more likely to buy from a respected leader than someone trying to sell them something.
3. Use Call To Actions
Targeted email marketing should focus on conversions. But conversions don’t always refer to sales.
With emails, a conversion can refer to a number of things. Conversions are about getting somebody to take the next step with your business. You should include a call to action on all your emails.
CTA’s encourage readers to stay engaged. You can invite them to read a blog post, sign up for a webinar, download an ebook, or even offer discounts on purchases. CTA’s still provide value to readers, but they also help convert subscribers into customers.
4. Be Consistent
Consistency is key to any targeting email marketing campaign. Readers are much more likely to respond to consistent emails than random ones.
Think about the approach taken by different content distribution channels. Successful blogs, podcasts, and even television shows stick to consistent schedules.
Consistency helps you build a relationship with your audience. Stick to a strict schedule so that your audience knows when to expect emails. A targeted email marketing calendar can help you stay on track.
Your emails should be consistent in frequency but also in tone. Your voice should be consistent with your brand and messaging. Readers should know what to expect in regards to your content’s schedule and style.
5. Use Marketing Automation Tools
Automation is changing the way that we live. Why not take advantage of it?
Targeted email marketing can be time-consuming for busy professionals. Even the most dedicated leaders struggle to keep a campaign up to date. You have to update your email list, personalize messages, and stay on top of your calendar.
Marketing automation tools can help alleviate a headache. These programs allow you to do many tasks in a short amount of time. You can set up an email list, create templates, and schedule your distribution.
These tools allow companies to streamline and automate tasks. This can increase efficiency and yield greater financial returns.
MailChimp is a go-to option for targeted email marketing. It’s a marketing automation tool for online businesses. Their easy-to-use platform allows you to craft emails and build your mailing lists at the click of a button.
Marketo is an option for businesses looking to uproot their current marketing campaigns. This tool is more comprehensive in its approach. You can use their CRM to gain insights, manage leads, look at analytics, and handle your email marketing.
We all lead busy lives. Marketing automation helps to make our lives simpler.
6. Analyze and Adjust
Marketing is an ever-changing science. It’s important to make adjustments no matter your campaign.
It’s no different with targeted email marketing. You should be tracking key metrics to determine future changes.
Consider that only about one-third of U.S. retail email list subscribers actually make a purchase from the retailer who they subscribed to. Subscriptions are great. But they don’t mean much if no one is converting into a customer.
Email subscriptions are still an important metric. But you should also look into other key metrics.
Bounce rates and clickthrough rates are metrics that are easy to change. Website traffic and conversions are more difficult to diagnose.
Run A/B tests to determine what is working best. You can look into conversion rates to determine the success of your emails.
Small changes can make a big difference in email marketing. Don’t be stagnant. Analyze your data and don’t be afraid to make changes.
Your Targeted Email Marketing
There are trillions of emails sent every year. It’s up to you to stand out from the crowd.
Targeted email marketing is a useful tool for businesses. If done correctly, it can be your pathway to increased sales and conversions.
Follow this guide to be more successful in your campaign. Remember to set goals, use powerful tools, and analyze your results.
There’s no magic formula to email marketing. But this advice will give your readers more of a reason to click subscribe. Or maybe even purchase.