So, how do you become a master email marketer?
Put simply, understanding email marketing can be divided into three steps. One, build your list. Two, maintain the health of that list, and three, email a list with valuable content every time. In this article, we will deep dive into the art of mastering this form of content writing. By the end of reading this article, you would have a profound knowledge of how to write high-conversion rate emails and automate it to drive traffic.
Building a List
Let’s start by building your list. When building your email list, there’s really one rule and one rule only, and that’s never buying or renting a list. And there are more rules, but let’s just focus on that one for now. Buying or renting an email list can lead to low open rates, bad brand appearance, and even hefty fines from privacy protection agencies.
Just don’t do it. Instead, go for the organic approach of getting email subscribers by prompting users to add their email.
Offer Something
So, what should you do to build up a quality email list? Well, using HustleVentureSG as an example, we built our email list by providing 2 articles on personal finance or side hustle daily to keep our readers entertained. Maybe you can offer a free trial of your service or an online seminar, or other experience.
Whatever you offer, it needs to be something valuable enough to convince users to part with their personal email information. In addition to the landing page, most websites will let you place a pop-up to collect emails. Set one to appear after the user has spent some time on your site, which indicates that they’re receiving value and might be open to more information.
Prompt Them
And if your business involves online ordering, make sure customers are prompted to opt into your email list when making a purchase. Why is it important that users opt in? Well, having users opt-in means they want to hear from you. It also keeps you compliant with ever stricter anti-spam policies being implemented by governments, as well as email services themselves.
A double opt-in is even more effective since it requires the user to open and click an automated email they receive when signing up. This not only prevents users from giving fake emails, but it also trains their email app to recognize quality messages from you. And with that… (spam cackles) we just launched a spam folder.
Now, Maintain it
How you go about building your email list will set the stage for future success, but just as important is how you maintain your list. This means periodically scrubbing your email list to remove emails that bounce or addresses that never open your emails. A good rule of thumb is to scrub your list every six to 12 months.
Why is it Important
You might be wondering, “What’s the harm in emailing people “who don’t open them, right? “I should be able to do that, right?”
Well, another metric that email algorithms use to determine if something is spam is the engagement ratio.
The more you send emails that never get opened, the more likely the email services will eventually categorize your emails as spam.
Why you need to invest in email
Make sense? The good news is that despite these increasing obstacles to email deliverability, the overall value of email marketing is actually on the rise. In 2010, Digital Marketing Association put the return on email marketing at $40 for every dollar spent. By 2019, that return increased to $42 for every dollar spent.
Why has the ROI gone up? Because I’m opening everyone’s emails for them?
No, but actually though, a major reason is the increased use of segmentation in email marketing. Segmentation means dividing your email list into smaller groups so that you can send each segment, content-specific to their interests.
Learn to understand your customer
You can segment your list by demographic data like location, company size, or anything else that’s important for your business. So the real email ninjas use what’s called behavioral segmentation, which is grouping based on how the user previously interacted with your brand. Things like previous purchases, lifecycle stages, and customer loyalty.
Creating triggered email flows for specific behaviors allows you to be responsive to your user’s needs. So, it’s no wonder that 77% of email marketing ROI comes from these sorts of segmented, targeted trigger campaigns. It’s the best tool for giving your audience the valuable content they’ll want to open because they know it’s tailored to their interests.
Send only valuable emails
This brings us to our final step in mastering email marketing. Send valuable emails. The average office worker receives around 120 emails per day. That is many. Out of that 120, 40 are important business emails that require a response. That leaves 80 other emails vying for attention.
The only way to stand out is by having a super clickbait title for the subject line. That’s a real tip, you should do that. (chuckles) No, the only actual way is to stand out by offering something your subscribers want to click on because it somehow improves their lives. Think about a company like OpenTable which uses subscribers’ past behavior to offer useful discounts or recommend new restaurants, or Spotify which sends regular emails, notifying users of new music by artists they follow.
These are great examples of valuable emails that subscribers want to receive and are happy to open. One more useful tip. Whenever you’re recommending something to your subscriber, be sure to remind them of the activity that triggered the recommendation. That way, they associate the good feeling of the previous experience with the new one you’re offering.
How do you push out Value?
Now, when it comes to emails, conveying value starts with the subject line. This can mean literally telling the recipient what they’ll get from opening the email and trying to do it in 50 characters or less.
Use those 50 characters to peak the customer’s interest.
Don’t give everything away up front like me with Bobby Jenkins in the fourth grade, I gave him my Goku action figure and then he just didn’t talk to me anymore after that.
Don’t give out everything
Leave a bit of mystery so they’ll feel compelled to open the email to know more. Just be sure that whatever you tease in the subject line is actually delivered in the body of the email. No one likes deceptive, clickbaity subject lines. So watch out.
Use Headers
Now, you can also use the preheader. That is the first few words in the body of your email that get previewed in your inbox to support the subject line. Most email marketing systems will allow you to set the preheader when you enter the subject line so you don’t have to worry about altering the actual body copy of your email.
Test before publishing
And always A/B test your subject line so that each email you send teaches you something for the next one. So, all the messages from your email list have been delivered, and thanks to your brilliant subject line and preheader, good job, folks are itching to read what you’ve sent them. So, what are you going to say? (lighthearted electronic music) Crafting killer email copy could be its own video.
Until that time, here are some tips. Tip number one. Keep text neat and simple, with the main point upfront. Use short sentences with lots of paragraph breaks. Save those verbose think pieces for your blog, this is an email. Tip number two. Write for your audience. Remember those list segments we made? This is why they’re so important.
Email a list
And tip number three, write in a friendly one-to-one style. This isn’t just a good way to treat your customers, it also helps prevent your email from getting tagged as spam. And speaking of spam, HubSpot keeps an extensive list of spam trigger words that you should avoid when writing email copy. There will be a link in the video description below, and if you don’t click on it, I’ll be sent to the spam folder.
You should also run your email through a spam task before sending it to make sure you’re formatting, punctuation, and fonts all pass through the filters. There are plenty of free spam checkers online you can use. You’d be amazed how a few tiny tweaks can make a huge difference. So, when it comes to email marketing, sending valuable content in a compliant format to users who you know want to receive it will allow you to execute successful campaigns for years to come.
Happy emailing. I’m off to the spam folder. Which… (burbles) I don’t know why, that’s like my I messed up sound, but it is and we’re rolling.
