Email marketing is the use of email to target your customers and audience, promote products or services and also to develop relationships with potential customers or clients. It is one segment of internet marketing, which encompasses online marketing via websites, social media, blogs, and more.

There are a lot of different available marketing platforms, and they all have their pros and cons, but the email market should be in the top three(3). It helps you boost conversions and revenue by providing subscribers and customers with valuable and relevant information to help achieve their goals. Today businesses can enjoy more control over the process, thanks to developers creating some awesome tools (MailChimp, Drip, AWeber etc).

Email Newsletters may include:

  • News about promotions, sales, and discounts.
  • News about your business, brand or new product/ service announcements.
  • Updates about blog posts or articles on your social media platforms with links to other content you’ve written.
  • Information about events that you want to host.
  • Relationship-building content which will show users new ways to use your product or check in to see how they’re doing.

However, in order to achieve maximum results, you need to put your efforts in the right area otherwise you may end up spending more without seeing actual results. There are numerous tactics for using email to capture new leads, drive repeat business and build brand loyalty, some of which include;

1. Know your audience and what you want to accomplish: knowing your audience will help you to critically plan how to create your email list. Before you start drafting a single word, make sure you have an understanding of your audience and what you aim to achieve with your newsletter. Bear in mind your goal should be something beyond “how many subscribers opened it.” Instead, it should be more closely tied to your overall business goals.

Pick the right email platform for your company (Aweber, Drip, Mailchimp etc.). Customers have different preferences and would want to connect to your email list for different reasons. They are searching for content that speaks specifically to them, and you can use email marketing to your advantage by giving them what they want, that way, you are building a relationship with your customers.

2. Carefully segment your email: Email segmentation allows you to divide your email list into smaller, more targeted sub-groups. Segmenting your list will let you target your consumers based on their personal preferences. It also allows you to promote your products or services in a personalized manner.

 Segment your email list based on their age, gender, geographical location, and buyer personas as it helps you send suitable emails; this in turn also improves your chances of getting a higher number of sales in the long run. For instance, your business is selling real estate properties. You can ask your subscribers what budget of land they can afford-this may be in the form of a survey. You will likely end up creating segmented lists for location, price, estate type e.t.c. And depending on what they choose, they could either be on a single campaign or multiple campaigns.

3. Write a catchy subject line and an engaging content: The open rate of your email solely depends on your subject line, so, remember to always keep it short and catchy.

Avoid writing a generic email. No one likes to interact with Robots. Always make your customers feel that they are engaging with a human being that has something genuine to offer. Include interactive pictures and videos to grab your customer’s attention. The idea is to make your subscribers aware of the offer you have for them. It is not to hard-sell them, but to give them a soft nudge of what you have to offer.

Also include explanations to users on how they can contact you if they need anything as regards your business. This is particularly important in introductory emails.

4.Personalization: By leveraging the secret of personalization, you make your audience feel exclusive or special, which improves that chance of them doing business with you. The more personalized an email message is, the better the open and conversion rates will be. It’s more relevant and valuable.

 So if you have access to the first name of your email recipients, it’s advisable to use it in the body of the email (e.g. Hello Blessing,). You should also consider asking easy and relevant questions in the email to give a personalized feel e.g. “Hey Blessing, Do you know what will taste better than chicken this Easter”? Avoid going overboard with your personalization for best results.

5. Use clickable Call-to-action: There are lots of clever ways of engaging with people and one of them is using Call to Action in your email newsletter. For instance, you can end your newsletter with these simple questions;

“what are you waiting for“?

Including a CTA at the end of your email newsletter is a great email marketing hack very few people know about. Having clickable CTA buttons in your emails are going to give you a huge edge. It immediately attracts the eye and it makes it easy for users to click and get to where they want to go. It will definitely increase your conversion rate.

Email marketing is a critical relationship-building tool as much as it is a direct sales tool and it can give you valuable information about what different customers care about. However, in order to get the best out of the email marketing tips, you need to go beyond just sending emails to your list. You need to take the right steps to make your email marketing campaign stand out from the rest.