The Importance Of Email Marketing Today
If you are a business owner, you already know how important brand awareness and building credible relationships are for your success. Email marketing campaigns are your vehicle to achieve both goals and expand your reach to your existing or new audience. But, to generate new leads, you must always use the best email marketing practices, those that abide by ethical standards and create feelings of trust. This way, you can expect a high ROI. That is because you don’t need a lot of upfront investment to begin since you already have a devoted audience that is steps away from making a purchase. So, not only does your relationship with customers deepen, you also bring more traffic to your website thanks to the content you link to.
Additionally, among the benefits of email marketing is that you focus on high-intent leads instead of wasting time on poor ones. Therefore, you promote your products to the right people and increase engagement. Let’s not forget that campaign emails can also increase your social media traffic and engagement, as you should always include links to your corporate profiles. As a result, clients can feel closer to you and contact you on a more personal level.
Let’s dive deep into the best and worst practices that can make or break your email marketing efforts.
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Why Ethical Communication Matters In Email Marketing
Before we start talking about email marketing best practices, let’s examine the ins and outs of ethical email marketing. Ethical communication goes beyond laws and regulations, as it focuses on delivering honest messages based on moral principles. To build trust with your audience, you can’t lie or overpromise. You might get away with it once, but when they realize what you’ve done, you will lose their trust and industry credibility. This way, you won’t avoid getting in the spam folder and decreasing your deliverability and open rates. When a company truly invests in ethical communication, chances are it will follow the same path as its employee management. For instance, managers resolve conflicts quickly and make employees feel heard and respected. Also, higher-ups make wise and fair decisions that don’t affect others negatively.
So, to be ethical and create successful email campaigns, you should be transparent with your audience and respect their privacy and confidentiality. No matter how well you know some clients, maintain a professional and respectful tone. Don’t send unsolicited and spam emails, and be mindful of cultural differences so you don’t offend anyone. Lastly, proofread your emails before sending them and respond to client queries as quickly as possible.
12 Best Practices Of Email Marketing
1. Make It Engaging And Personalized
Let’s start with the basics. You can’t start targeted email campaigns without adding each recipient’s name at the beginning of your message. This is one of the best email marketing practices, as it makes people feel unique. However, it is not enough for successful SaaS lead generation. Your goal is to create dynamic content that speaks to people’s interests, pain points, and preferences. This way, you can push them down the sales funnel and nurture them until they make a purchase. You may even utilize the benefits of AI in marketing to analyze each recipient’s online behavior and needs to highlight content, products, and services that may suit them.
To keep your content engaging, you should be concise and use relevant language. It should be easy for recipients to scan your email and find different resources. Personalized email marketing should be educational and informative, not pushy and overly advertising. For some extra flair and personality, add a few emojis here and there when suitable—but don’t overdo it.
2. Build An Organic Email List
We can’t be talking about best email marketing practices and not mention organic email lists. Why? To have high audience engagement, every name on your list should be there by choice. If you have bought subscribers, many of them might flag your emails as spam, which will tear down your email authority and result in bans by internet service providers (ISPs) like Gmail and Yahoo. For this reason, remove any addresses that have been rented or purchased. It may take you a while to get people to join your newsletter, but it’s the best way to do it.
Gated content, including free eBooks, templates, and other resources, is the best way to lure subscribers. Personalized offers and freebies are also wonderful at gaining attention. Additionally, social media can be a place to promote your newsletter with a paid ad or organic posts. Don’t forget to add a sign-up button to all your email marketing campaigns and make it easy for people to subscribe.
3. Segment Your List And Clean It
Back in the day, emails used to be exactly the same for every recipient, no matter their needs and preferences. However, things have changed, and one of the best email marketing tips we can share is to segment your list and cater messages accordingly. For instance, create segments based on industry, location, and past purchases. Also, take into consideration what time people open their emails. This way, your emails will be at the top of their lists when they check their inboxes. If you’ve already segmented your ideal buyer personas, you may proceed with micro-segmentation to be even more particular. The more granular you get, the more meaningful the purpose of your email marketing becomes since people can feel related to the message. Lastly, clean your email list every once in a while to delete addresses that don’t interact with you at all.
4. Focus On Quality, Not Frequency
This one may seem like an email marketing tip for beginners, but trust us when we say that even experienced marketers make this mistake. You may be looking for email marketing solutions to increase conversions and open rates. However, pestering subscribers with messages all the time isn’t wise. When recipients feel overwhelmed, they will press the unsubscribe button or, even worse, mark your emails as spam. So, start slow and check how your audience responds to your messages. Instead of ramping up the frequency, improve the quality of your messages. Maybe you have to figure out the best time to send emails. For example, you may have to send messages at 11:08 instead of 11. This change may seem trivial, but it could yield unbelievable results.
5. Keep Email Design On-Brand
Being on-brand and consistent is definitely one of the best email marketing practices so recipients know exactly who sent them an email. Whether you use a template or have a developer code your messages, your email design should be impeccable. It should be easy for your email marketing list to click on links and CTAs and navigate your website. Starting with the look of your emails, the colors should align with your brand, with your company logo being at the top. Additionally, the image/text ratio should be balanced, while your footer must include company information and an unsubscribe button. Don’t forget that you should create email CTAs that grab people’s attention and make them understand what they are clicking on. In other words, your CTA buttons should stand out visually and make a good and accurate impression.
6. Include Multimedia Elements
Whether you are delivering a promotional campaign to your recipients or creating a fun, interactive newsletter, multimedia elements dial up engagement levels. What types of elements can you add? Let’s start with GIFs. They are so simple yet so effective because they give your email a fun touch. Videos are another powerful way to drive engagement and get more clicks. Not to mention that people are likely to stay longer on your email. To embed videos, you can use a static image with a play button. When someone clicks on it, they will be redirected to your website, YouTube, or Vimeo. Alternatively, you can create a GIF of your video that people can click to watch.
7. Testing And Analyzing
You can use all the best email marketing practices and not know whether they’re working unless you set and measure metrics. Like you measure content marketing performance, you should also track your email marketing open rates, bounce rates, clicks, delivery rates, unsubscribes, and complaints. Iterative testing, like A/B testing, is fundamental for an email marketing campaign strategy’s success. You can never really predict what will work for your audience, so start testing your subject lines, CTA buttons, and anything you are not 100% sure about. Simply send two different versions of the same email to different email segments and check how they perform. Don’t make too many changes, though. Start with tiny differences and track your performance.
8. Stay Compliant With Email Marketing Laws
To ensure compliance with your email marketing campaigns, you should be informed about GDPR email marketing rules and CAN-SPAM Act guidelines. The General Data Protection Act (GDPR) ensures that users’ personal information is processed when subscribers have consented and are on your list of their own will. Also, marketers can use data to promote services and products to customers who have purchased from your brand before. The CAN-SPAM law, on the other hand, instructs you to let people know when a message is an advertisement. Lastly, you should be careful with catchy email subject lines. Sure, they may increase open rates, but if they are misleading, they will increase unsubscribes.
9. Use The Best Tools
Gmail and Yahoo may not be enough for business communication. A trustworthy email service provider helps you land in recipients’ main inboxes and not in the spam folder. Not only that, but providers offer you automation features that help you organize and schedule your sends. HubSpot is one of the most popular platforms that combine customer relationship management (CRM), website building, and email marketing. This way, you can gather information regarding email marketing metrics, sales, and website activity. Reporting is another aspect of software like HubSpot, as they offer invaluable insights. Lastly, deliverability should be at the top of your list when choosing an email marketing tool.
10. Incorporate Case Studies
One of the best lead generation techniques and email marketing practices is that of case studies since customers value social proof. Case study articles or videos allow you to showcase your success stories by highlighting issues and solutions. Let your clients be the driving force by asking them to express their viewpoints and feelings about your brand. If your buyers tagged you in their social media posts, use them in your campaign emails to show how valued you are in your community. Additionally, gather customer testimonials and reviews to prove why you are at the top of your niche. Remember that your audience isn’t looking for a one-man show where you are on stage all the time. They want to hear from your fans, too.
11. Utilize Account-Based Marketing
SaaS and B2B companies in niche industries usually have long sales cycles, investing a lot of time and effort into converting leads. Account-based marketing (ABM) helps you target only high-intent clients and cater your emails to their needs and challenges. Effective email marketing strategies are highly personalized and feel like you are talking to a friend who needs your assistance. With account-based marketing tactics, you identify high-value businesses, create highly targeted content and emails, offer personalized deals, and build trust. Retargeting is also crucial in recapturing people’s interest even if your first interaction wasn’t fruitful. Social listening is necessary for ABM, as it gives you insights regarding each prospect for a hyper-personalized experience.
12. Create Drip Campaigns
One of email marketing automation’s best uses is that it allows you to start conversations with prospects no matter where they are on their buyer journey. The most effective email drip campaign examples nurture leads depending on their needs until they are ready to make a purchase. Now, this may take months, but you have to be patient. Provide prospects with valuable content and resources they can download for free. For example, someone who downloaded a free eBook might be at a different stage from someone who watched a pre-recorded webinar or downloaded a demo. People’s actions show you how ready they are to buy something and how much nurturing they need.
6 Worst Practices Of Email Marketing
1. Buying Email Lists
If you’re wondering how to start an email marketing campaign, we can tell you that buying email lists is the absolute worst option. It is a lot like buying backlinks. It may be easy and fast, but you will end up with some extremely annoyed recipients who will mark your messages as spam. This would harm your domain reputation and can lead email providers to block your emails entirely. Also, the audience you are reaching may be completely irrelevant to your niche and, therefore, not interested in what you’re selling. Last but not least, buying email lists is illegal. When someone hasn’t consented to receiving your emails, you are breaking GDPR regulations.
If your list is still limited and you need a legitimate way to increase subscribers, you can collaborate with a trustworthy figure, like eLearning Industry, for newsletter featured placements. Or, even better, you can choose an exclusive email blast, which includes a campaign created just for your brand.
2. Not Using Signup Forms
One of the best email marketing practices that, unfortunately, many marketers ignore is high-converting signup forms. Many companies ask for a name and email address in an effort to increase subscribers. While this approach may be effective, you might not get the information you need to segment your leads. Ask for a few more things, including industry, company name, income, and budget. This way, you know which prospects are worth running after and which ones don’t align with your company’s mission. Plus, you may add a double opt-in to ensure that subscribers are genuinely interested in your messages. Therefore, you increase open rates and reduce bounce rates.
3. Not Creating A Content Calendar
Great email marketing isn’t only about engaging subject lines and multimedia elements. A content calendar template keeps you organized so your email marketing efforts remain engaging and relevant to your audience’s needs. Also, you can strike a healthy balance between promotional and educational emails, with diverse subjects. Another benefit of content calendars is that you don’t forget to send emails. Whether it’s daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly, you organize your content appropriately and stay easily on track. Keep in mind that it’s not professional to send emails on different days and at different times every week because it creates inconsistency and distrust.
4. Relying Too Much On Automation
Automation may be one of the top applications of Artificial Intelligence, but it doesn’t mean that you should put all your apples in that one basket. Sure, you will automate email sends depending on each buyer’s journey and the actions they took. However, you can’t rely on automated emails for all cases. The purpose of email marketing is to connect deeply with potential buyers and make them trust you, which can’t happen with automation. When you identify high-value customers, you must communicate with them on a more personal level. A highly personalized approach is valued significantly, as clients can tell the difference between a one-size-fits-all approach and a tailored message.
5. Being Overly Urgent
Creating urgency is often marked as one of the best email marketing practices. While sending time-sensitive offers is a method almost all B2B companies utilize, it’s not something you should do often. Trying to create constant hype has the opposite effect of what you’re probably wishing for. Clients may think you are nothing but a money-grabber looking for some easy cash. What you should do instead is build up a great reputation by focusing on the high value of your products or services. This way, even if your prices are a bit on the high side, clients may still trust you. Many businesses prefer highly knowledgeable professionals at a higher price than mediocre businesses with low prices.
6. Not Sending Through A Personal Account
Sending emails through a company account is a regular email marketing practice for every B2B business. However, don’t limit yourself to that. Who is your company’s thought leader? Use their name to send emails to your audience. Personal accounts foster trust a lot faster, as they don’t feel promotional. A trusting figure in the industry brings extra value to your email content, especially when you feature their image. This way, subscribers can find them on social media platforms and follow them for additional information. As a result, you maximize clicks and visits to your lead generation website.
Key Takeaway
Finding ways to make email marketing work is vital for any B2B content marketing agency, no matter what industry they are in. To create relevant and effective email campaigns, you should make your messages personalized based on the segments you’ve created. Analyze your CTA buttons and other elements to check which ones make the best impact and include multimedia elements to increase engagement. Building an organic email list is one of the biggest email marketing challenges, but you should resist the temptation to buy lists. Stay compliant and ethical in your approaches and utilize client cases to showcase social proof. Plus, don’t rely too much on automation, and create a content calendar to keep yourself organized.
Still, sometimes you may need external help with your email marketing efforts. If you are in the eLearning or HR field, eLearning Industry has a powerful and dedicated audience that is actively looking for solutions. Whether you have a new webinar coming out, SaaS software, or other tools, we can help you maximize your reach to the right audience.
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