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Email Marketing is Evergreen

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Still known for the impressive return on investment (ROI) it delivers to users, evidenced by its ability to deliver personalized content that’s tailored to customer preferences as well as the ability to drive conversions, including customer purchases, more effectively than just about any other marketing channel, including social media. The evergreen marketing tool that is email marketing is the gift that keeps on giving. The strategy is a multi-purpose marketing tool that business owners and marketing managers are known to rely on when the goal is to develop and nurture customer relationships and initiate engagement that promotes brand loyalty, repeat business and customer referrals.

Email marketing is expressed in more formats than may immediately come to mind—it can be more than the basic email letter that clutters an inbox and is often deleted. Email marketing also refers to blogs and newsletters that recipients opt-in to receive, plus a range of other communications intended to deliver all manner of business information, such as service or product updates or special offers and personalized greetings, from holidays to customer birthdays. Not only that, marketing emails are also a convenient and effective way to invite customer feedback that gives business owners and marketers insights into what they’d like to see more of, or less of, in your products, services and operational practices. So—how does your company use emailing to carry out your marketing strategies?

Email is a familiar and well-accepted method of communication—in fact, your customers compose and send emails themselves. To maximize the effect of email marketing campaigns, marketers are recommended to create emails that amplify the message and persuade recipients to open, read and in some instances, save your emails—but never delete without reading. Because most people receive many emails every day, the first order of business is to make your emails stand out in a crowded inbox.

To grab customer attention and entice recipients to open and read your email, attach a subject line that recipients will find irresistible. You can also decide to shock or amuse recipients by crafting a provocative or unexpected subject line that promises to deliver surprising information. Subject lines that contain a relevant statistic, whether predictable or shocking, also make particularly alluring email subject lines.

Ideally, the email subject line functions as a “hook” that causes the recipient to linger for a few brief seconds and wonder—Is reading this email worth my time? Smart marketers have discovered that they can further enhance the perceived value of their emails by including a follow-up line of preview text that can further arouse curiosity or confirm that the topic is a priority for the recipient. Below are four components that build an outline for your emails and organizes the presentation of your content in a way that helps recipients quickly understand the purpose and relevance of your information:

  1.  The subject line is crafted to grab recipient attention. The right subject line substantially improves the success of email open rates. Research shows that recipients open emails featuring a subject line perceived as relevant. Almost half of all email opens rely on that first impression.
  2. Hold your recipient’s attention with a preview text teaser that contains approximately 10 words. Subject lines matter when you want your email recipients to notice, value and read your message. The The second line preview text will appear immediately beneath the main subject line in the email inbox. Do not ignore the importance of the preview text; it is an extra hook, especially for users checking email on mobile devices (and about 50% will do exactly that).
  3. The message content should maintain the recipient’s enthusiasm. Compose your information to communicate relevance and trust as it guides the recipient through your content’s message. Be sure to compose message content to convey your marketing strategy by aligning the themes presented in your blogs, newsletters, informational and relationship building emails.
  4. CTAs are crafted to persuade email recipients to take action on an offer by responding to your call to action. The CTA literally shows readers of your content what they should do next. In return, the reader will receive a benefit, which might be a free 30-minute consultation with you or one of your team members to clarify how your products or services can provide solutions they need, or maybe an opt-in to subscribe to your blog or newsletter, or maybe to receive a free e-book. Whatever the purpose of your CTA, make the benefit that recipients will receive one that is likely to be considered worthwhile. BTW, you will grow your mailing list when there is a response to your CTA because responding entails providing contact info, at minimum, recipient name and email.

Now—in addition to the marketing emails that you currently send, what other kinds of emails might you send to communicate marketing messages that can make your marketing campaigns more effective? Below are email strategies that might enhance your marketing goals.

A/B testing

How can you learn which subject line works best with your customers? Or do certain subsets of your target audience respond differently depending on how your subject line or other aspects of your message are phrased? You can find out who’s who by sending out two variations of an email to different segments of your audience to see which performs better. By testing elements such as subject lines, email layouts and call-to-action buttons, you can continually refine your approach to improve response and results.
Test two different subject lines to see which one yields a higher open rate and/or compare the response generated by two different email layouts in terms of click-through rates.

Automated campaigns

Marketing automation ensures that your marketing emails are actually sent at your preferred time. For certain messages, notably blogs and emails, you want recipients to look forward to hearing you at a certain time (like Tuesdays at 11:00 AM Eastern!). Further, a marketing automation system will ensure, for example, that welcome emails are sent in a timely fashion to new or returning customers. You also want to guarantee that emails sent as part of customer onboarding, special occasion or holiday greetings are likewise sent within your preferred timeframe—and you don’t necessarily want to rely on your memory to manually perform these functions yourself. Instead, setting up automated marketing campaigns to ensure that you maintain a consistent communication with subscribers, nurture leadgen and customer relationships without manual effort as you reinforce the dependability and professionalism of your brand.

Drip campaigns

Drip campaigns involve sending a series of emails automatically, based on pre-determined timelines of your choosing or they are triggered by certain user actions. Have you ever searched a certain business or category and then received an email a few minutes later from the very business you searched, or from a local business within that search category? If so, you’ve experienced a drip marketing campaign. Drip marketing campaigns are excellent for encouraging leads because they respond to your immediate need or inquiry with the siren song of instant gratification.

Interactive emails

Incorporating interactive elements such as polls, surveys, or clickable content can increase user engagement. Interactive emails are more likely to captivate subscribers, encouraging them to interact with your content and brand—for a minute or two. for example, you might a three or four question survey to learn of or confirm what your customers find most appealing about your organization, or learn what they’d like to see more, or less, of to gauge customer satisfaction and preferences.

Integrating with social media

Enhance your email marketing by integrating it with your social media strategy. Encourage your email subscribers to follow you on one or more of your social media platforms, and vice versa, to create a cohesive brand experience. This strategy can expand your reach and strengthen your online presence.
Foe example, you might include in social media posts a line or two of an upcoming blog or newsletter post, as a teaser.

Re-engagement campaigns

Aimed at lapsed subscribers, that is, previously active subsrcibers who are now inactive, these campaigns are designed to recapture their interest and where possible, to also learn the cause of the disengagement. This could involve sending special offers, updates about new services and/ or products, or simply asking for feedback on why they are no longer active customers. Their responses can offer valuable insights for future improvements. Devising a concise survey email that asks open-ended questions that give lapsed customers or subscribers the opportunity to give feedback that expresses what for them what was lacking or unsatisfactory, whether content to which they subscribed, as in a newsletter or blog, or an aspect of doing business with your organization.

User-Generated Content: reviews and testimonials

Showcasing content created by your customers, for example, reviews or testimonials, can significantly enhance the credibility of your brand. When you include UGC in certain of your promotional marketing emails, that can not only engage readers, but also provide social proof that encourages them to try your products or services and as well, enhance your brand’s authenticity.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Winged Mercury special delivery stamp issued in 1954.

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Design Social Media Content to Fit Your Goals

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News flash—creating social media content that advances your company marketing goals may demand more attention than you might’ve guessed. Checking social media accounts might be something you do while having lunch—why not log into Facebook to see what’s up?—but the “free” resource known as social media works best when you are strategic when using it. Effective marketing in any format demands precise planning.

Keeping a strategy in mind as you develop social media marketing content means that all posts—text, images, audio, video—will be designed to work in concert. That’s your recipe for social media that clearly communicates talking points, tells the story, follows the strategy and delivers the desired return on investment. So whether the plan is to promote brand awareness, cultivate customer relationships, or facilitate customer service, for example, there is documented evidence that well-executed social media campaigns are able to deliver the results you want. Your job is to create the right content and post on platforms your audience trusts and follows.

If your company maintains a presence on more than one site, keep in mind that content posted on multiple channels may be tailored to fit the unique strengths of each platform used, but content will be most effective when aligned across channels. You want to ensure that you communicate a unified message to the audience on all platforms used. Unaligned, inconsistent messaging can confuse audiences and undermine brand credibility.

Budget

Let’s start with money, the ultimate commitment. A financial investment is worthwhile for companies that are serious about social media marketing because a well-developed strategy that has the potential to achieve marketing (think revenue) goals can be realized only if all aspects of the content match your aspirations. If your marketing goals require a high-performing social media campaign, the strategies that get you there must be enabled by the right budget. Can you strike a balance between the funding needed to support the campaign you want and a financial commitment you can tolerate?

If the money is there, you might decide to hire a social media specialist to produce all text and image content. If your budget is modest, or you prefer to copywrite the text yourself, you could focus your spend on audiovisual elements and invite a pro to shoot and edit the visual elements.

Authentic

Today, “raw,” unscripted content sets the standard for what’s considered authentic and credible—i.e., trustworthy. Cinema verite is where it’s at and conversations and actions that feel scripted and rehearsed are a turn-off. Your followers want to see a slice of life—tear off the band aid, peek behind the curtain, get the view from backstage.

So, if you’re scheduled give a talk at a business association program, your social media audience may find it interesting to watch you getting ready to take the stage. Recruit a friend or ask your social media specialist, if you’ve hired one, to video you en route to the venue. Your commute to the venue can be filmed and you can supply background info about the organization during the ride. If the sponsoring organization allows, you can also be shown meeting the host, being introduced and walking to the podium to launch your presentation. If allowed, your talk can be filmed in its entirety and short clips can be edited to use in future marketing collaterals.

Interactive

Rather than waiting for your social media audience to make the first move, recognize that they will probably need a compelling invitation from you as motivation to engage with your content. The good news is that invitations to interact with your audience are not difficult to design.

For example, some of your viewers may agree to take a quick survey or poll that gauges their feelings about a particular topic (which may not directly involve your products or services). Social media users often enjoy opportunities to connect with the brands they follow. From time to time, just be sure to include a question or two about what they’d like to see added to your line, or what might make a useful upgrade for your product or service. Your audience will feel more connected to your brand if they feel as if they’ve contributed to your company’s product development.

Soft sell

The hard sell no longer works. The soft sell, like soft skills, is the new champion of today’s marketplace. Instead of coming on like a carnival barker on the midway and shouting “Step right up, folks!” the preferred approach employs social media platforms as a conduit to current and prospective customers who would like information about your products, services and you and your company. Customers, prospects (and influencers, if you’ve caught the eye of one) would like to get to know you. They often don’t trust or respond to aggressive sales tactics. A smart sales strategy is designed to cultivate a steady stream of customers and prospects who engage with your content and then make purchases and referrals, give testimonials and become brand cheerleaders, too.

Avoid over-sharing

It is true that being reliable and predictable—consistent—is reassuring and you should keep that in mind as you post content to your chosen platforms. But how do you know how often to post? Two posts a month is probably too little; two posts every day of the week is definitely overkill. You want site visitors to see worthwhile information—not always serious, sometimes amusing, always interesting and never a waste of time.

You don’t want your content (and company) to be perceived as annoying and irrelevant, a burden that clogs their feed with filler. Working with a good social media professional can help you determine how often you should post and how you might diversify your content to enhance interest and keep viewers coming back.

Call-to-Action

Remember to include a call-to-action in your social media content. It’s a feel-good to see great numbers when reading the statistics of your site’s impressions and views, but you won’t get your full reward unless followers are asked to do something—take an action—so you’ll receive a tangible result of some sort.

Your CTA completes the social media experience by inviting your audience to click a link and—-watch a video, request a free 30-minute consultation, register for a webinar or course. The CTA allows you to both collect and measure the ROI of your social media marketing campaign. You’ll be certain that your campaign goal is reached—brand awareness and brand loyalty enhanced, customer relationships nurtured, names added to your customer list (through the sign-up), warm leads created.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Rex Features. British actor Sean Connery (August 1930 – October 2020) with Anthony Sinclair of Anthony Sinclair Suits, his Savile Row tailor in London, during the 1960s James Bond movie era.