BUSINESS

Why Email Can Save Your Business in 2021

To this day, email remains the most affordable marketing form. Stats show that 102.6 trillion emails are being sent annually, with the average subscriber receiving 13 emails per day. And, 99% of email users check new messages daily, making email marketing optimal for reaching new audiences.

What is crucial to keep in mind is that the majority of emails are being accessed on mobile devices.  In fact, 40% of people aged 1 and younger always access new emails on mobile devices (81% of these are mobile phone users and the rest are tablet users). Stats also show that 23% of mobile email users tend to revisit read messages, with 65% likelihood the action will result in a click. Finally, 42.3% of people delete emails not optimized for mobile devices, meaning that email marketing campaigns absolutely must be responsive. The same applies to the page they’re linking to and, optimally, the entire website.

Benefits of Email Marketing

On top of email marketing being by far most affordable, it can also help you meet your prospective business goals. A good email marketing campaign helps a business build trust with the recipients, boosting the number of loyal customers in the process.

It is crucial to keep in touch with your audience. No matter the funnel, communication remains crucial for any marketing efforts. Make an effort to follow up after each action and ask for feedback.

For example, a surprisingly high number of businesses tend to forget to send a welcome email to new subscribers. This is a huge mistake, as these messages can be automated and easily personalized and they show the new subscriber straightaway that your business cares.

It goes without saying that any kind of transaction needs to be followed through — from order placement to shipping to delivery to invoice to feedback.

Defining Audiences

Many businesses unfamiliar with email marketing make a huge mistake in the beginning, namely they send their offer at random. Building a mailing list (and refreshing it regularly) is the first step. The usual practice is to attract new subscribers, which can be done in a number of ways.

One of the most popular ones is offering an incentive, such as a relevant free e-book in exchange for the email address. However, don’t misuse your mailing list. Always make certain to send only relevant emails and only to subscribers.

Finally, subscriptions are a vague category. People change their preferences over time and, depending on the type of products/services you offer, may not need continual services. To that end, every email you send should feature an unsubscribe button. Contrary to popular belief, it is better for people no longer interested in your offer to unsubscribe than to flag your messages as spam.

Effective Emails

Once you know your audience and have a mailing list, it’s time to brainstorm the content of your emails. Remember that your email campaigns should be aligned with your overall marketing strategy. Because email offers the option to personalize your offer, you can establish communication with prospective clients on a per-preference basis.

Emails should be skillfully written — be neither too short nor too long, and optimized for mobile users. This basically means that you should be careful with image-heavy emails because they use up broadband.

As for the contents of your emails, they should present/advertise target offers only, meaning they should be specific and concise. It is crucial that you brainstorm all subject lines because they define the fate of your email.

Emails with poor subject lines are rarely read. Keep in mind that people generally receive far too many emails per day and don’t have the time to read irrelevant offers.

As mentioned above, an unsubscribe button should be featured at the end of the message, as well as a CTA button. For CTA buttons to be effective, they need to stand out. Usually a different color or bold script is used, but make sure that they fit well into your message.

Tracking the Progress of Your Campaigns

It is not enough to merely send emails and wait for results. A good email marketing strategy calls for tracking the metrics and regular adjustments. Common metrics include open rate, click-through rate, bounce rate, unsubscribe rate, spam reports and conversions, which help you determine audience engagement.

Can Email Campaigns Really Save Your Business in 2021?

Year 2020 was novel to all of us. People around the globe have been forced to adjust their routines and the way they do business whether they like it or not.

Because lockdowns were (and in some places still are) going strong, pretty much all aspects of life have moved online. Businesses that adapted their strategies to meet the rising demand (online shopping and home delivery, in particular) have been able not only to cope, but also to thrive.

It has been assessed that, when it comes to retail trends, online shopping will remain strong in years to come, with large numbers of people originally unfamiliar with the practice realizing its long-term benefits.

This means that you can use emails to advertise your offer to prospective buyers with great efficiency. Nowadays, even people who didn’t use to subscribe to various offers are doing it because it’s cheaper, more convenient and saves time.

Use the momentum well to craft your email marketing campaigns to create urgency and address customers’ needs in a timely manner. One could say that now is the ideal time for that, with great many people turning to more convenient online solutions.

Mind the Timelines

Lastly, don’t go overboard. Advertising your offer in a moderate way is all email marketing is about. Too many messages will only scare people off. To boost engagement and sales, draft an email marketing calendar revolving around important dates, and look into email automation.

For example, advertise relevant offers during the holiday season. Seasonal discounts can be established as common practice, like AliExpress has done. Their annual sale on 11/11 is well-known among their buyers and advertised two weeks ahead.

When people know when to expect special offers, they will look forward to the promotions. Use this impetus to prepare a stellar offer and advertise it in a non-intrusive way. For example, you can send an email to announce the upcoming offer two weeks in advance, then send a reminder a day before the sale, and finally on the day of the sale, with relevant and personalized links. It’s never a good idea to offer everything to everyone. People have their preferences and you have access to insights. Use them to personalize your offer and learn even more about email drip campaigns and how to best implement them.

Conclusion

Email services have been around for a long time and even people who aren’t tech-savvy are familiar with them. That gives you a larger space to experiment with your strategy, allowing you to reach people who normally wouldn’t be looking up the offer online.

Email marketing is a powerful tool and can be utilized by any and every business. What matters is to make a proper strategy, do your research, and update your mailing list regularly.