More Opens, Clicks, and Sales with These Email Marketing Best Practices

Sherry —The Biz Starter Author

Posted On Jan 09, 2023 |

Entrepreneurs have many tools at their disposal today with options to help build a successful business. Of all the tools and strategies available, the one that is the most cost and cost-effective is email marketing. 

Email marketing has magic that can enhance every other digital marketing strategy.

You are missing out if you’re not using email marketing in your business. It is one of the most effective methods to build relationships and increase sales. The best benefit is that it works for any business, including service providers, retailers, coaches, creators, artists, online businesses, and brick-and-mortar businesses.

Here’s why email marketing is a must-have for any business:

Email marketing allows you to engage with your audience with personalized content that educates, inspires, tells a story, builds relationships, and provides solutions. Very few marketing strategies have the ability to achieve each of these successfully.

Adding personalization to your email marketing helps make your reader feel like they matter and are not just another email you’re sending. Segmenting your subscriber list ensures the right people receive the right email with content they want to read that applies to them and their situation. Email marketing platform like Convertkit make segmenting your list with tags and list management easy. Email marketing, when used consistently, helps brand building so you can be viewed as the expert in your industry.

Here's a complete guide to best practices for email marketing:

1. E-commerce & CRM Integration

Before you begin your email marketing journey, decide whether to use email marketing to engage your audience or sell to them. If you plan to sell to them, ensure the selected platform integrates with your e-commerce site. Some programs integrate better with selling through email. Don’t forget to integrate it with your customer relationship management program so you can easily manage customer data, plan content, and gather feedback.

2. Perfect the Welcome Email

The welcome email you send to your new subscribers is 'THE' most important email you’ll send to them. It establishes the relationship, shapes their opinion of you and your brand, and impacts if they will open other emails you send. Usually, the welcome email has the free content they signed up for, which makes it the email with the highest open rate, another reason the welcome email is important. Your welcome email should include the following:

• Say thank you! Tell them how much you appreciate them for subscribing or requesting your freebie.

• Include the item they requested. Add the attachment or link, making it easy for them. Tell them to let you know if they have any issues downloading or accessing. This builds trust and lets them know you are accessible when they need you.

• Remind them of what they signed up for, like a session, newsletter, or digital product. Communicate you will be sending them other offers and resources to set expectations. No one wants to be reported as spam. Also, ask them to whitelist your email, so they don’t miss your emails in the junk folder.

• Share a personal story and welcome them to your community. Everyone wants to feel part of a community.

• Give them your social media account links as more ways to engage with you, your brand, and your community.

3. Master Subject Lines & Messages

Spend time creating a crafty subject line to entice your readers to open your email. Your subject line should stand out and give her reader a witty glimpse of the contents of the email. Don’t forget to include “preview text” when creating your emails in your email platform. The preview text appears after the subject line in the subscriber's inbox.

Emails sent to your subscribers should offer something of value; information, resource, solution, update, etc. Avoid emailing simply for the sake of emailing.

Provide value to your audience, educate them, or share a significant and relevant story. Most people skim through their emails to make them easy to read, with the text broken up into short paragraphs.

Check for errors and punctuation, and use your reader’s name if you require it in your lead magnet or subscription opt-in. Grammarly is a lifesaver and helps with tone, spell check, clarity, and grammar. Treat each email as a chance to build a stronger relationship with your reader.

4. Segment, Test and Go Easy on Promotion

Leverage your email marketing platform to segment your list to avoid sending irrelevant emails to your readers. Gather information about your subscribers so you can send the right email to them at the right time.

Also, test your emails' subject lines, headers, images, calls to action, etc. The most popular testing is A/B testing of your subject lines; start there because the most important thing you need is for your subscribers to open your emails. Testing and analyzing open, click-through, and conversion rates will provide the feedback you need to improve your emails.

Segmenting your email list correctly will help you sell more to your list. Not every person on your list will find the same emails interesting. Don’t send the same message to everyone. Offer exclusive deals to your subscribers. However, most of your emails should be informational, not promotional. You can offer your subscriber an exclusive deal early, but be careful not to over-promote and make your emails all about them buying from you. Do this, and your subscribers will ignore you and eventually opt out or report your emails as spam. Tread lightly and focus on the 80/20 ratio. Provide 80% information and 20% promotion, depending on your audience.

5. Get Interactive, Add Media, and Automation

Stand outside the normal, static emails with text and images. There’s nothing for your subscriber to do except read and click on links. While having some of your informational emails in this format is necessary, it won’t keep your reader’s attention for long. Add more interactivity by including a short video, audio, gif, quiz, poll, or interactive call to action.

For example, I used this gif on the right in a recent sale email campaign. It shows the first few pages of the Canva template I gave as a gift to my subscribers.

Automate your email marketing by using it in your sales funnels. It’s one of the fastest ways to help you value-packed qualify leads. You can offer exclusive offers and promotions with your informational content, narrowing your list to buyers. See these 7 Incredibly Useful Email Marketing Tips for more helpful strategies. Eventually, you can offer your larger ticket items to your subscribers as your build a stronger relationship.

Finally, you can save time with automation by utilizing AI automation. You can discover how to use it for content and email marketing ideas. See my recent newsletter highlighting ways you can leverage it for your business.

There’s no better way to build relationships than offer value, qualify leads, and build your business. If you keep providing consistent value through email marketing long after their opt-in and purchase, you can create strong relationships and positive experiences that will earn you loyal customers. Let's chat if you need help with email marketing for your business.

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Categories: Email Marketing