No one likes spam emails–that’s a given, right?
Constantly receiving annoying, pointless fluff in your inbox is frustrating. You grit your teeth every time a weekly email from that one company (you know the one) pops up in your notifications. How often must you hit “delete” until they get the message?!
Oof. Now, as a business owner, you certainly don’t want to be on the receiving end of this disdain. But, is crafting an email marketing strategy that actually attracts customers (instead of repelling them) possible?
Of course! Anything is possible if you just believe (insert inspirational theme song). All jokes aside, you can feasibly craft a campaign that doesn’t wind up in the abyss of deleted emails with a few calculated steps.
Do we have your attention?
Good. Let’s dive in.
What Is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is a tool for providing subscribers with information about product launches, sales, store updates, and ongoing projects. These campaigns can play a significant role in laying the foundation for long-term patronage, brand loyalty, and establishing trustworthiness.
With modern technology, you can personalize emails to fit customer demographics and use analytics to see which content performs best. With time, you can grow and adapt campaigns, thus creating a valuable asset subscribers are happy to receive.
Are There Different Types of Email Campaigns?
Marketing emails can take many forms depending on the purpose. Copy aimed at regaining customer interest will be very dissimilar from a “We Want Your Feedback” survey.
To choose the correct format to implement, consider your end goals first. What do you aim to achieve with this marketing campaign? Increased sales? Re-engagement? Perhaps gauging customer experience? Use these answers to gain direction.
Check out these common types of email marketing:
- Promotional emails: Promotional emails are terrific. You can easily lure customers to your store or website with free gifts, first access to new products, and gated or subscriber-only content. These incentives are especially effective during peak buying seasons like Black Friday or Christmas.
- Retention emails: This form of email marketing aims to bring customers back to you. For example, “Welcome,” “Abandoned Cart,” “How-To Use,” “Thank You,” and “Next Steps” emails keep customers engaged and interested in your brand.
- Informational emails: You can also use email newsletters to inform customers about exciting events, service changes, product launches, and other updates (e.g., shipping delays, website maintenance, etc.).
- Survey emails: Ask for customer feedback via email with surveys! Make these fun and personable so recipients feel inclined to provide opinions.
- Seasonal emails: This content offers customers time-sensitive information regarding holidays, special sales, or seasonal tips and tricks.
The Importance of Email Marketing
There are many benefits of marketing and advertising by email. Compared to other campaigns (e.g., social media, print, etc.), this approach offers substantial freedom and flexibility. You decide exactly what to include and have total, uninterrupted access to customer inboxes (no worrying about pesky algorithms!).
Here are some benefits of email marketing:
- Increased sales: Promotional emails are wonderful because they can convert readers into customers almost instantaneously! “Abandoned Cart” messages can also remind recipients to complete a purchase.
- Customer loyalty: You can establish and cultivate relationships with your customers through marketing emails. The more valuable content and appreciation you provide, the more likely they are to continue purchasing, engaging, and growing with you.
- Customer retention: Akin to loyalty, email marketing can boost retention rates. As we explored above, check-in messages can motivate customers to stay active with your brand.
- Boosted brand awareness: Regular marketing emails ensure your brand stays relevant in customers’ lives.
What About Email Marketing Regulations?
You can’t just create an email marketing without considering the ethical aspect. Customers don’t want to receive content unrelated to their subscriptions or have their personal information shared without their knowledge.
For these reasons, the US government passed CAN-SPAM to regulate content for all commercial emails. Businesses must avoid using false information and provide customers with an opt-out of subscriptions. They must also clearly label messages as advertisement material.
Of course, self-education is pivotal here. Stay informed on restrictions by conducting your own research and carefully studying the guidelines to prevent the risk of legal complications.
Essential Email Marketing Content to Include
Typing up an email campaign can sound easy enough in theory. Still, a lot of thought should go into your final draft. As with any content creation process, you should honor customer preferences, needs, and demographics. Your copy should also remain true to your personality and distinct tone of voice. No matter the objective, crafting an eye-catching subject line and engaging body text can make all the difference.
A successful marketing email should contain:
- Enticing subject lines: Immediately grab customer attention with a catchy subject line. In many cases, this short, seemingly unimportant tag can make or break an email campaign. Capture the essence of an email with witty, promotional, or inquisitive one-liners to get subscribers interested in learning more.
- Engaging body text: Here is where you can get creative and fun! However, create a clear, easily navigable structure to preserve readability.
- Delightful visual elements: Utilize visual aids to support your email, such as before-and-after photos, charts (sparingly), or progress videos.
- Final CTAs: Don’t forget to direct customers to your website, social media accounts, or other CTA.
9 Tips for Writing a Unique Email Marketing Campaign
We’ve educated you about the basics of email marketing, so now is the time to get to work! Leverage your unique assets to craft a striking, attractive campaign that caters to customer needs. Take every opportunity to evoke their curiosity, emotions, and desire to interact more. Leave space for open communication and let subscribers know they’re an essential part of your crew!
1. Balance Text With Visuals
When attending Cultivate 2024, I had the opportunity to hear from Katie Elzer-Peters, a thriving author and marketing guru. She highlighted the importance of marrying terseness with inspiration. Encountering a massive body of text is jarring! Readers aren’t looking for scholarly journals when they sign up for email newsletters. Instead, they want the perfect balance of informative and engrossing.
Ensure recipients can easily follow the flow of an email. Don’t get sidetracked with excessive details, and incorporate photos and videos that capture the primary theme–avoid unnecessary showiness and fanciness
Additionally, while tempting, avoid overloading readers with graphs and similar metrics. One or two can be helpful, but getting overly technical is often a deterrent.
2. Personalize Emails
Spend a few minutes analyzing customer behavior and information to create personalized emails. Receiving a message designed with them in mind leaves customers feeling special and appreciated. Happy subscribers equal returning business, higher engagement, and prolonged interest!
Check out these ways to personalize your marketing emails:
- Include customers’ names in the subject line
- Refer to recent purchases
- Send emails that align with their preferred topics (e.g., product launches, educational guides, etc.)
- Inform them about upcoming subscription renewals, product refills, etc.
3. Remember to Add Value!
Marketing emails should serve a purpose. Most customers aren’t keen on the idea of receiving content they can’t apply to their lives in some capacity. They subscribed to your campaign because something about your brand resonated with them, and they found what you have to offer important.
So, remember to stay relevant to your audience and mission. Marketing emails are just another tier of your brand–they represent your products, services, or knowledge base. Regardless of the CTA, ensure content honors your promise of delivering authentic, credible, and practical education or insight.
4. Use AI for Inspiration
AI can be your friend… to some extent. While you certainly don’t want to become reliant on AI, you can use these programs to combat writer’s block and pinpoint the next blog post topic. Just provide your platform of choice with a prompt and you can be swimming in a pool of content ideas within seconds.
5. Keep Things Chill
Marketing emails can be a safe space to bare your skin with customers. Separate yourself from your business–become “human” in your writing. Share personal experiences, be honest, and don’t overthink.
Your audience is genuinely invested in you, and they value how you portray yourself and your brand. Keep them entertained by building on these strengths with every correspondence. Authenticity can be hard to come across in the digital world. Be a beacon of personability amid the sea of one-dimensional, robot-like content.
6. Bring Your Audience Inside Operations
Captivate your email audience with behind-the-scenes footage, expert tips, and insight into daily workflow. Tie these elements into your CTA, leveraging them to garner enough interest and traction to seal the deal.
For instance, include photos of your latest in-progress greenhouse construction project. Incorporate information about the process while encouraging readers to visit your website to learn more about the intended outcome, design plan, and sustainable practices. Ask them to tag along further by following you on social media for the latest updates.
Providing insider access not only keeps customers informed but also fosters a sense of community. They feel welcome to join you in this exciting adventure and share in your triumphs. Emails with a special “Your Role Matters” message don’t embark on the dreaded trip to the recycling bin!
7. Always Proofread!
A typo can be one of the most head-spinning, irritating distractions, no matter the form of content. As a type-A grammar and spelling freak, I can personally attest to this reaction. However, as a business owner, a small proofreading slipup can be even more frustrating because a sent email can’t be unsent!
Avoid falling victim to the “I trust my spell-check software” mentality. Triple-scan every campaign for improper verbiage, poor punctuation, run-on sentences, and incorrect possessive pronouns (THEIR, THEY’RE, and THERE are VERY different). The age-old phrase, “The third time is the charm,” has never been more applicable!
8. Exorcise the “Ghosts”
Regularly check your email inventory for inactive users. Reach out to “ghosts” after a few months of non-engagement with a promotional or “Are You Still There” email to hopefully reignite their interest.
If customers don’t respond, remove them from your list. In the end, shortening your index can help rebalance analytics and better reflect customer engagement rates and favorability.
On a similar note, make the unsubscribing process simple. Sometimes, people subscribe to an email newsletter for one reason, such as a downloadable ebook, product catalog, or promotion. After the initial goal is met, they may not need regular emails anymore–and that’s totally okay! Keep their opinions high by showing you understand their desire for a clutter-free inbox.
9. Give Yourself a High Five!
You’ve come a long way and deserve a little recognition! Delving into customer analytics, needs, and buying behavior takes substantial time and effort. Take a breather and pat yourself on the back. Buy a cake in celebration (we won’t judge)!
After a little celebratory hoo-haw, keep the vibes going by measuring your success. Use analytics to evaluate the success of your email marketing campaigns. Input this data to a spreadsheet you can revisit and update quarterly with new metrics. This way, you have a tangible, visual representation of performance, reception, and retention.
Here are some marketing email metrics to track:
- Open rates
- Click-through rates
- Bounce rates
- Unsubscribe rates
Email Advertising & Marketing Can Be Fun
Don’t think about email marketing as another chore. See this practice as an extension of your identity. Remember, customers love genuineness and can spot dull, superficial content from a mile away. Showcase your brand personality and avoid shying from creativity and humor. You’ll likely find that data demonstrates the monumental potential of well-crafted marketing emails.