Email marketing gets a bad rap. Over the years, as a bunch of unsavory marketers, salespeople, and scam artists have inundated our inboxes with spam, marketers have largely begun to believe email is ineffective for their business needs. On top of that, email itself is seen as a closed system, founded in outdated design and development techniques.
What many of us have missed, however, is email’s comeback over the last five years. With data driving more and more marking decisions, email has reemerged as the perfect channel for honing your messaging and achieving maximum ROI.
In fact, according to email service provider Emma, 47% of marketers say email provides them the greatest ROI of any channel.
At our recent “Email Lunch N Learn,” we dug into what email marketing looks like today. Our presentation provided a high-level overview of email marketing, explored the psychology of opening and acting on emails, and offered best practices derived from real-world examples.
Here are four key takeaways:
Email Is So Much More Than a Communication Channel
Unlike your social media following or viewers of your digital ads, you fully own your email list. This means you can use your list and the data within it however you want, and you don’t have to rely on algorithms or other platforms to reach your audience. It also means that all of the data you collect from sending emails can be used in any other marketing campaigns.
Marketing Emails Come in Three Forms
Generally speaking, there are three kinds of marketing email marketers send: one-to-one messages, campaigns, and triggered and transactional emails. With the rise of automation, the third category is becoming critical: triggered and transactional emails generate over half of all email revenue.
While campaign emails get the bulk of the attention, transactional messages such as order and shipping confirmations can be the biggest driver of conversions and revenue in your email program. Simple, automated calls to action—“complete your kit before we ship,” or “the item you’re watching is now in stock!”—can double your email sales. In fact, transaction rates for post-purchase emails were over 800% higher than for campaign emails!
Just Say No to “Eblasts”
Email marketing is about them, not you. The #1 mistake marketers make with email is sending out content that isn’t relevant to their audience. Relevance includes everything from the nature of the email to the way you write subject lines. Use data within your list to segment and target your audience, and only send segments emails that matter to them.
There are times your whole list may want to receive the same email (e.g. when you’re announcing a new product line, or a retail business’s hours are changing), but no matter what, make sure you take the time to tailor your message to your audience.
Use Best Practices, and Only Break the Rules Intentionally
Walls of text, nonresponsive design, long headlines—countless brands fall prey to the don’ts of email marketing, but the masters understand there’s a time and a place for everything. We looked at several emails that don’t work next to several more that shouldn’t work but do, and analyzed the difference between not-so-good and really, really good.
In short, you have to know the rules to break the rules. Do you know the best practices for content, design, and development? We have a short list inside our presentation to get you started.
Get Your Copy of Our Email Presentation Delivered—Where Else?—to Your Inbox
These are just a few highlights of our in-depth report on email marketing. Want to see the rest? Sign up for the Grady Britton newsletter and we’ll send our email best practices and strategy presentation to your inbox.
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