Email Marketing is accepted as one of the most popular ways to reach, engage and convert customers. With over 50% of emails being opened on mobile devices, it is essential to learn how to leverage email marketing effectively for mobile.
This webinar focuses on the following:
- Fundamentals of email marketing
- Build your email database
- Create eye-catching emailers that succeed on mobile (without professional help)
- Create effective email content
- Setup, send and measure your success through analytics
- Q&A
Fundamentals of email marketing
Simply put, email marketing is a cost-effective way to reach customers in a place they visit the most – their inbox. McKinsey 2014 states that email is nearly 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined in helping your business acquire new customers, while DMA 2013 states that 66% of consumers have made a purchase as a result of an email marketing message. According to a 2014 Constant Contact survey, businesses that use multiple channels in conjunction with email reported more customer engagement (73 percent), more new customers (57%), more website traffic (54%) & more revenue (40%).
Email marketing is unique because it enables the following:
- Access to data of who opened, clicked, converted etc. via the email campaign
- Building relationships and trust over time with customers and prospects that have opted in, i.e. given you permission to contact them
- Targeting of customers and prospects to deliver the right message at the right time
Build your email database
The first and foremost important rule in creating your email database is to not use harvested email IDs or third party databases, as most of such databases are usually outdated and sold to several other buyers. People generally open emails from known sources, while the others are trashed or marked as spam. Such ‘spamming’ activity can also lead to a violation of the CAN-Spam Act which can attract huge fines. The best way to get people to actually read what you share is to ask the contacts for permission to be added to your email list. When you clearly specify that users will be signed up to receive email communications from you, you will find lesser but actual followers looking forward to your content.
Here are some ways to build your email database:
- Leverage web forms like Google Forms to get people to share their details
- Offer free whitepapers, eBooks and other downloadable material in exchange for sign-ups to your mailing list
- Offer regular newsletters with industry news, best practices and other useful information for those who sign up
- Share attractive offers and discounts to entice viewers to sign up and share their details
- Collect email addresses at physical events like conferences, meet-ups etc. and upload them to your emailing platform
- Include your social media followers in your email database
- Capture email info through “native” methods like Twitter cards, Facebook pages etc.
Once you add your customer database to your mailing list, be sure to communicate with them about updates, news & other useful information on regular intervals, and be judicious in emailing inactive accounts.
Create eye-catching emailers that succeed on mobile
The next step after creating your email database is to get a hold of a good email marketing platform. Popular platforms for small businesses include MailChimp, Constant Contact, Zoho & VerticalResponse , that enable you to do the following tasks:
- Create emailers with HTML templates, images, copy etc.
- Deliver your emails
- Track and report analytics
- Manage your mailing list
- Perform a host of advanced tasks like drip marketing, automation, A/B testing, third-party app integrations etc.
All Email Platforms offer a wide variety of templates which can be used as-is or customized according to your needs. The elements of these templates include images, copy, logo, headers, social media icons etc. You can also build your own email through the drag/drop/edit features of the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor of your platform. Here are some examples of templates:
Email is a very crowded medium where attractive visuals are a sure-fire means to grab the user’s attention. Therefore it is important to choose the right source for the best images. Here are some of the sources:
- Google Image Search: you can use images that are “labeled for reuse”
- Websites that offer free stock photos, like pexels.com, StockSnap.io, Gratisography.com, FreeStockPhotos.com, etc.
- Shutterstock.com – for a large supply of good quality stock photos and videos. Plans start at $169/month
- Create your own with DIY tools like Canva (highly recommended!)
Some of the best practices for email visuals include the following:
- Images are often default blocked by email clients. Ensure they have “alt-txt” tags set – so users can still read them
- Don’t use any element that requires Flash or JavaScript. If moving images are needed, use animated GIFs (they are very effective!)
- Don’t design an email that’s essentially one large, sliced-up image; While these kinds of emails look pretty, they perform poorly
- Optimize for mobile – ensure aspect ratio of images is preserved, that they are not too small or large, text on images is readable and buttons are easily clickable
Create effective email content
The average email is reportedly read for only 51 seconds, and most users “scan”, not read the email. So, keep the following points in mind while creating content for your emails:
- Keep your email short: users drop off as the email extends “below the fold”. So keep your copy crisp and make your important points at the beginning
- Make your headlines short and catchy: six words or less work well. You can slso use numbers and action words ( for e.g.Top Five Tips, Usability Best Practices That You Can Implement etc.)
- Add CTAs: definitely have prominent Call To Actions on your email (for e.g. Register Now, Go To Site etc.)
- Make it scan-friendly: breakup your email into easily digestible blocks of content
Savvy email marketers use editorial calendars effectively. They help you plan, coordinate and operate email marketing smoothly across product/service launches, seasonal sales (for e.g. holiday season, New Years, Diwali etc.), planned promotions etc. You can download an email calendar template here – https://www.smartsheet.com/9-free-marketing-calendar-templates-excel
Setup, send and measure your success through analytics
Once your email template is ready with the proper content, A/B testing of your email campaign allows you to test different versions of a single campaign to determine which changes have a big impact on your results. Here’s how to set up your A/B test:
- Choose a single variable type (Subject Line, From Name, Content, Send Time, CTA etc.) and create multiple variations of your email. Each user will receive a single variant, and each variant will get roughly equally distributed
- Choose the test audiences (thumb rule of 10-20%), and winning criteria (Opens, Clicks)
- Choose the test period i.e. how long the test will run before the winner is decided
Based on the results, you can note key content winning points that work with your audience, and incorporate them in your future email campaigns.
- Open rate: (#Opened/#Delivered) It helps us to learn which subject lines make users want to open, what % of users are interested in your email, which days your emails are opened the most, etc.
- Click-through rate (CTR): (#Clicks within email/#Opens) It shows how many users are engaging with your content
- Conversion rate: (#Conversions – sign-ups, purchases etc./#Opens) It defines how effectively your conversion goals are met through email marketing
- Bounce rate: (#Bounces/#Sent) It stands for the health of your email database
- Subscriber growth rate: % Growth in # of subscribers
- Audience growth: How much your audience is growing (around 25% of a list degrades naturally annually)
As with all things digital, you must conduct tests regularly to see what works and keep measuring the results on regular intervals.
Questions asked during the webinar:
Q1. Will sending the same email frequently work or not?
Not to the same target audience. However, we could send a variation of same email to a set of users who haven’t opened the email.
Q2. How to do template optimization for different mobile devices?
Most templates nowadays are mobile responsive, and you can test the same for different device screen sizes while creating your campaigns on platforms like MailChimp and HubSpot. In case there are some optimization constraints, they can be simply rectified using some basic HTML coding.
Q3. How to build an effective email list?
You can build an effective and responsive email list by selecting authentic contact information of those who opted in for receiving your emails.
Q4. Do you offer any courses on this?
Yes, you can opt for Edureka’s Mobile Marketing course, which will include a module on email marketing among other modules.
Q5. Can you recommend a cost-effective email marketing platform for startups?
There are several options like MailChimp, Zoho etc. shown in the PPT which have low-cost starter packs.
Q6. How to create A/B testing for an email?
Platforms like MailChimp and HubSpot have inbuilt options to conduct A/B testing using different variations that can be easily setup.
You can check out the webinar PPT below:
Got a question for us? Mention them in the comments section and we will get back to you.