How’s Your Business Email Marketing Strategy?

Social media marketing is the buzzword of the day, and a ‘traditional’ email marketing strategy can seem outdated. After all, if you can interact directly and instantly with customers on Twitter and Facebook, why spend time on an older marketing tool? But the truth is in the ROI: a good email marketing strategy is still a relevant and powerful marketing method. To make it work, you just need to understand your audience and current email marketing strategies – and then coordinate them with social media.

Email marketing content is, generally, more substantive than social media content. It allows you to send longer-form content in a package that people expect to spend a little more time on. Remember, social media users operate on a second-to-second basis. They skim headlines, glance at images, and make split-second decisions about if to click. If it can’t be digested quickly, it’s not going to work.

Once a user decides to open an email, however, it is understood that they’ll be spending a little more time on the content than they would on a social media post. Therefore, your content needs to be high-value, because it will help build customer loyalty, trust in products or services, and keeps them connected to your business.

Hard Facts about Email Marketing Strategy

Remember, email marketing is meant to be transactional. People understand this, so it’s especially important for eCommerce businesses. It’s still very important to provide high-value and actionable content, but the intention behind email marketing is to drive sales. Consider these figures:

• 81% of U.S. online shoppers are more likely to make additional purchases, either online or in a store, because of marketing emails based on previous shopping behaviors and preferences. (Harris Interactive)
• 72% of consumers say that email is their favored method of communication with companies they do business with.
• 61% of users say they like to receive promotional emails weekly and 28% want them even more frequently.
• The Relevancy Group says, “More than half of U.S. marketing executives believe that email drives the same amount of revenue as their social media, website and display ad efforts combined.”
• For sheer numbers, there are more than 2.6 billion email users worldwide, almost twice the number of daily active Twitter and Facebook users.

It should be plain that email marketing strategy is still a viable method for communicating with customers. Combining your email marketing efforts with social media will produce even better results.

How to Combine Email Marketing with Social Media

Today, leveraging content across platforms is essential. Not only should your email communications be connected to your social media accounts, but supplemental content should be posted around the Internet that drives people to the key content.

So, if your key content is a blog post and you send an email about it, you should also post updates about it on your key social media platforms.

Here are some simple and effective ways to integrate social media into your email marketing strategy.

Add social media buttons and links to your emails to provide users with a simple and direct connection to your social media profiles and allow them to share the content.

Run contests or giveaways via social media and your website. Ask users who enter or take advantage of the giveaway to provide their email addresses to build your email list.

Ensure your emails are mobile-friendly because most emails are read on mobile devices.

Post copies of your email newsletters on your social media accounts. This way, users are more likely to discover and share your content.

13 email marketing best practices

1. Only send marketing emails and newsletters to subscribers. Spam hurts your reputation.
2. Grow your subscriber list organically through personal contact or interesting content, such as a free report. Put a link on your website that encourages people to sign up in return for a discount or other offer. The days of buying email lists are over – don’t waste your time or money doing this.
3. Make it easy to subscribe or unsubscribe. This means 1-click functionality. Even a millisecond of frustration or confusion on the Internet is enough to lose customers.
4. Give people an easy way to opt out of your emails.
5. Spend time each month going through your email list and removing duplicate emails, emails that are obviously spam accounts, etc.
6. Don’t overwhelm them with email. Twice a week is a good amount to start with until you understand customer behavior within your email marketing list.
7. Send emails on a scheduled basis so people anticipate their regular arrival.
8. Always have something relevant and useful to say.
9. Keep your marketing emails lean. Don’t put too much text or include too many pictures images. This reduces both the amount of time people spend reading your email and the actual load time for the email.
10. Put your more important information first. And make it bold!
11. Don’t copy and paste text from other sites or plagiarize. If you’re not a writer, hire a professional copywriter.
12. Customize your subject line and make it engage. Communicate clearly and offer a subject line that compels people to read further. Stay away from generic lines like “Read This!” or “Exciting News!”
13. Use a good automated email client. MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, MyEmma, or SendGrid are great for small- to mid-sized businesses. They will also help you manage your lists.

Newsletters and Email Marketing Strategy

Your company newsletter is one of the most important parts of your marketing engine. They are a source of brand updates that go out on a regular schedule. Newsletters provide high-value free content with very little sales promotion.

They are integral to your success, which is why in our next blog post, we’ll explore 7 newsletter marketing tactics to build customer loyalty.

For more information about email marketing strategy, or to get your online business project started, contact DotcomWeavers today!