As you may have heard already through social media, email, and our press release, DataValidation has been acquired by Emailable.
Many years ago, DataValidation launched as one of the first email verification providers on the market and is responsible for pioneering email verification via API, providing a self-service web application, and offering free email quality reports.
Where we’re at today.
Since the acquisition closed in early July, we’ve been hard at work to consolidate DataValidation's infrastructure and existing customer base with Emailable. Existing customers will not only benefit from the enhanced performance, but also from future products releases. We remain committed to ensuring that Emailable provides existing DataValidation customers with the reliable and easy-to-use platform they’ve come to know and trust.
What does this mean for you?
By migrating to Emailable, you will gain a ton of exciting new features:
The migration to the new Emailable dashboard will be optional for a while, and the process to do so is fast and simple. Your credit balance will be transferred to your Emailable dashboard upon migration.
The setting, tracking, and achieving goals is one of the principal activities surrounding marketing in general, digital marketing, and all adjacent fields related to online marketing. All marketers need to understand if there is one thing that objectives cannot be attained without thorough planning and a clear strategy. The same is true when it comes to email marketing activities. Objectives are important, but so is the strategy that is set out to realize them.
With email marketing being the most successful channel marketers have at their disposal, it is salient that all tactics employed in this area are working together for the same goal. You cannot have impactful email campaigns if they are not connected to an overarching strategy. When it comes to email deployments, we implement a coherent and pragmatic strategy through a little thing called the email marketing funnel. Throughout this article, we are going to discuss the importance of defining the email marketing funnel, give you a step-by-step guide on how to build it up, and offer you suggestions and best practices for transforming it into action points.
Let's start by addressing what an email marketing funnel is and determine its purpose.
The email marketing funnel
An email marketing funnel is a marketing strategy that connects the different tactics used to promote a product or service and uses metrics to measure success. The main goal of the email marketing funnel is to increase brand awareness, generate demand or leads, and create sales.
There are 3 main stages of any email marketing funnel, starting with the awareness stage, continuing with the consideration stage, and ending with the decision stage. Of course, as with the general marketing funnel, various other secondary stages will be part of one of the main 3, but for the purposes of this article, these are the ones that we will address.
The awareness stage starts as soon as a new subscriber is added to your email database and deals with positioning a brand in the prospect's mind as a serious option alongside the brand's competitors. The goal of this stage is to generate interest in the product or service that is being offered. This is achieved by creating a sense of urgency, building a relationship with the prospect, and offering some sort of reward for taking the next step.
The consideration stage is where the prospect starts to look at your product or service as something that they need to have in their life. This is the time when you start to get to know your prospect, and their needs better. The goal of this stage is to convert the prospect into a lead by providing them with a clear understanding of what they are getting out of the offer, as well as how it will help them solve their problems.
The decision stage involves the prospect making a purchase. At this point, they have already been exposed to all the information that they need to make an informed decision so it's now just a case of providing them with an easy way to order. This is usually done through your website or an offer that you provide through email. Once the purchase has been completed, you can now move onto the next phase of your email marketing funnel which deals with turning leads into customers and customers into repeat buyers.
The purpose of the email marketing funnel is to create a clear path for customers to take when they are interested in your product or service but are not yet ready to buy. This process will help you understand your customers better, and make their experience with your brand more personal and memorable. The result should be an increase in the number of leads you generate while decreasing the overall cost per acquisition (CPA).
Now, that we have defined what an email marketing funnel is and touched upon its purpose, it is time to establish how it works.
Customer profiles in the email marketing funnel
To build a solid email marketing funnel, you need to start by understanding your target audience. Once you know who you are trying to reach, it is time to define your customer profiles. The next step is to understand each customer profile and determine which actions they are most likely to take. Once you know these actions, you can create different paths for each one of them, depending on how each one behaves. The final step is to establish a measurement system that allows you to track the progress of each action and adjust accordingly.
Let's see how all this looks in practice. Here we have 3 customer profiles based on three different stages of the purchase process. First-time buyers, repeat buyers, and loyal customers.
The first-time buyer has just heard about your product or service from a friend or through another channel and has decided to check it out. Since they have never bought anything from you before, you need to give them a reason why they should go forward with a purchase from you instead of any other company out there. You need to give them value and motivate them enough so they decide to purchase your product or service at least once.
To determine what information you need to provide this type of user with, you must first understand what stage they are in the purchasing process. In this case, we are dealing with a new prospect who has not yet made up his mind about choosing your product or service. Once you have identified this behavior pattern, you can begin the journey towards creating an effective email campaign for first-time buyers by successfully developing content that will lead them through the decision process. You can also develop a list of potential questions these customers may have while going through this process so you can be prepared for any inquiries they may have regarding the product or service.
The second profile represents someone who has purchased your product or service before but did not look into it enough before making his decision. In this case, they might be interested in buying more because they believe there might be value in doing so but they need more information before making a decision. This customer may have received a promotion from you via email but did not respond because they were not entirely sure if he wanted more of what you had to offer or if they wanted something else altogether as mentioned above. You need to provide them with valuable information that will make them want more of what you have to offer without overwhelming them with too much information at once (which can cause them to lose interest). You also need to understand what stage this customer is in the purchasing process so that you can personalize your content as much as possible when interacting with them via email campaigns. They need something that will convince them that buying from you again would be beneficial in some way shape or form.
The third profile represents someone who has purchased your product or service multiple times before and seems very dedicated to doing so in the future as well as spreading the word about you by recommending other potential buyers. This would happen through word-of-mouth advertising channels such as social media or their own blog/website/social media page as well as syndicated review websites. These customers usually receive multiple promotions from your company because they seem very committed to buying your products or services over and over again without significant hesitation. What you must understand here is that while these types of customers seem like an easy target for sales pitches because they already know exactly what they want. In reality, it is much harder than it seems since everything becomes repetitive after a while. And since there is no novelty factor involved anymore when communicating with these types of customers, you will need to figure out creative ways of engaging them.
Tactics for customer profiles
Let's analyze what tactics work for each of these 3 customer profiles.
First-time buyers
New customers are the easiest to acquire. They don't have any preconceived notions about your brand and they are usually open to try new things. That means that you should design a funnel that focuses on acquiring as many first-time buyers as possible.
How can you do that? The first thing you need to do is build trust. New customers don't know much about your brand, so they won't buy your product or service immediately. To build trust, you need to prove that your business can be trusted and that it is worth investing in.
To build trust, you need to focus on providing value for free. The key is to create content that offers value to your customers by educating them about your product or service. You can do this by creating useful resources such as ebooks, guides, or whitepapers. The more information you give away, the more likely it is that they will become customers later on.
Repeat buyers
Repeat customers are the most important part of the funnel because they are already familiar with your brand and know what to expect from it. This makes them much easier to convert than new customers since there is no need for trust-building or introducing new products/services through an email funnel. All you have to do is re-engage with them in a way that keeps them coming back for more over time.
One way of doing this is by sending out a series of emails with valuable content related to the products/services they bought from you in the past. For example, if they bought a digital course on SEO, then over time you can send out emails with tips and tricks related to SEO that might help them improve their website's search engine rankings or get more traffic from search engines in general. This way they get value out of the product they bought from you before and might be willing to buy from you again in the future.
Another tactic is offering discounts or special deals exclusively for repeat customers only. These deals might include extra discounts or free shipping, but their main purpose is to encourage repeat purchases so that you can upsell them on higher-priced products and services in the future. For example, if a customer bought a digital course on SEO last year, then this year when they see a discount code for a new SEO course offered exclusively for previous buyers only, they might decide to buy it so they don’t miss out on this offer. If they decide not to buy it again then at least they still get some value out of last year's purchase and might be willing to buy from you again someday down the road once they find themselves in need of another product/service from your company.
Loyal customers
Loyal customers are the ones who have bought from you multiple times and have a strong connection with your brand. They are easy to convert to sales because they already know what to expect from you and trust your brand. However, it is important to keep them engaged over time so that they don’t forget about you or lose interest in your products/services. Keeping your brand top of mind is crucial in creating an effective email marketing funnel for loyal customers.
This can be done by sending out offers or special deals exclusively to loyal customers. For example, if a customer has bought from you 5 times before, then sending them a discount code for 10% off their next purchase might incentivize them to buy again.
There are few things more frustrating than building an engaging email marketing strategy just to see your recipients unsubscribing in large numbers. Such a development creates pressure from stakeholders and confusion regarding the measures that can address the issue. The success of email campaigns lies in their ability to determine contacts to take any action, be it to purchase something, connect with your brand on different platforms or channels, download gated content, provide feedback, or something different directly linked to your overall business and marketing goals. But when your email deployments fail to properly engage subscribers, you know some changes are in order. Creating relevant and efficient action points may seem like a difficult endeavor, but in this article, we are going to show you some proven measures that will positively impact your email marketing engagement and reduce the number of unsubscribers.
The science behind email engagement
There are five main key components of an email marketing strategy that contribute to overall engagement. These components are:
The format of the email
The email subject line
The email body copy or content
The call-to-action
The layout of the email
So how can these components be effectively used to improve email engagement and reduce the unsubscriber rate? By taking a closer look at each element distinctly, we will be able to identify solutions, best practices, and tips and tricks.
Email format: plain text vs. HTML
Most modern email marketing platforms or email service providers (ESPs) allow marketers to choose between plain text and HTML formats for their emails. Both formats offer benefits, but they are used for different purposes and they should not be treated as equals.
Plain text is best used for transactional emails, such as order confirmation or account update notifications. It can also be used when you need to provide information on a sensitive topic, such as new product announcements or product recalls. In addition, plain text emails are much easier to manage since you do not have to worry about styling or complicated coding issues.
On the other hand, HTML is better suited for newsletters and promotional emails. It allows you to include more content in your messages and create a more personalized visual experience for your recipients. Using an HTML email ensures that every element you include in the message will appear as it was designed. However, sending an HTML email requires having knowledge about proper HTML coding and being able to customize your code accordingly to make sure that you provide a good user experience for all subscribers, regardless of their devices.
Subject line: create interest and get engagement
Your subject line is what will make your recipients open your message or decide whether to hit that dreaded “unsubscribe” button instead. To create an effective subject line, here are some general guidelines that should always be kept in mind:
Keep it short
Simple and direct subject lines are easier to read and remember; they create a sense of urgency, they grab attention faster than long ones, and they increase open rates with no additional effort required.
Make it memorable
Use personalization in subject lines by using your recipients’ first names or by leveraging the existing relationship between your brand and the subscriber.
Keep it consistent
Do not change the tone of voice from one campaign to another. Additionally, make sure that the phrasing is appropriate for your audience. If you are communicating in a B2B space, do not use emojis. On the other hand, if you are managing a B2C brand, try not to be too formal. But, whatever you realize is working, always be consistent with your subject lines.
Stick to one content idea or action
Even if your email communication addresses multiple topics, it is important that the subject line sells the main one. You should put this main topic above the fold so that recipients can easily identify it as soon as they open your email.
Use dynamic content in subject lines
Try to include dynamic content in your subject lines and use it as an opportunity to personalize each campaign in a way that makes sense for your business goals.
Be careful with humor
Humor is a way of making your content more engaging for recipients, but it depends on the type of your brand and what your target audience may be expecting from you. If you are running campaigns for a B2B brand, your recipients might not be looking for humor delivery in your subject lines.
Email body copy: make it personal
The content of your email body goes a long way to reinforce the brand voice or to be able to take advantage of the email as a marketing tool. Your email body is an opportunity for you to connect with your subscribers on a deeper level, so use it wisely and add value to their lives. Here are some tips for creating an effective email body:
Add value with content
Always have something interesting to share with your recipients and include valuable and useful information in your emails. Whether you are sending transactional emails or promotional ones, always provide something helpful that can guide your recipients through their purchase process or help them accomplish their business goals.
Put yourself in your recipient’s shoes
Think about how you would react if you received an email from the company you are sending out email communications from. Try to write emails that would make you want to read more or click on a link. Always keep in mind that your goal is to make your readers interested in exploring what else you have to say.
If possible, use images in your emails. Images help to tell stories and they also create a more engaging environment for recipients. If you do not have any images that fit the context of your message, try using GIFs, photos, or even videos. Receiving an email with an image included is always better than receiving one without any visuals because it adds some color and excitement and it also encourages subscribers to engage with your messages.
Use the right tone of voice in your emails
You may think about the tone of voice as something that is used only in social media communications, but it is also a very important factor when we talk about email marketing campaigns. Take into consideration who your recipients are, what relationship your brand has with them, how many times they have interacted with your brand, how familiar they are with your brand’s voice etc. Determine which approach works best for each situation that arises and try not to vary too much between campaigns.
Call-to-action: do not be afraid to ask for action
Creating a call-to-action (CTA) should not be a difficult task. This is an action that you are asking your recipients to take, such as clicking on a link in your email or filling in a form. Even though this may seem like an obvious step, many marketers are afraid to prompt their audience to make a purchase or take another specific action. Therefore, they do not add CTAs at all and they end up losing potential customers. Remember that the purpose of your email campaign is not only about keeping the contact information of your contacts but also about getting them to engage with your brand on different platforms and channels and to drive sales.
Here are some proven suggestions for creating relevant CTAs that will encourage your recipients to remain subscribed to your email list:
Create a sense of urgency
Make sure that your recipients know exactly what they will miss out on if they do not take action. Create a sense of urgency by making your CTAs timely, even if we are not talking about new products or limited-time offers and discounts. Fear of missing out (FOMO) is a strong incentive for users to take action.
Use social proof
Show how many people have already taken action and encourage your followers to join them. For example, if you send out an email announcing a sale, include a testimonial from one of your customers who has already purchased your product. You can also include the overall review score of your product or service. Anything that helps you establish usefulness will help you in the long haul.
Give clear instructions
As you have probably noticed in your email marketing experience, most emails nowadays get deleted without even being opened. If this happens with an email that has a CTA in it, there is no chance for your recipient to take action. Therefore, if you manage to get your subscribers to open your email, make sure that your instructions regarding the CTA are clear and easy to follow and that they provide all the information needed to take action immediately.
In addition to these three recommendations, we recommend creating CTAs that are short and simple but also direct and interesting. Don’t try to be too creative thinking about how you can create an eye-catching CTA, instead, focus on its relevance to the topic of your email campaign. Once you have created relevant CTAs for every email campaign, make sure to test them against each other in order to discover which one is working best for you at the moment. Keep on testing different CTAs until you notice an improvement in engagement and a decrease in unsubscribers.
Layout: create a unique experience
Your layout should always be completing, simple, clean, and easy to read. Try using images but be careful with how many you include in one email campaign. If you are sending out transactional emails, keep the layout very basic. On the other hand, when it comes to promotional emails, try adding at least one image. The look and feel of your emails will determine how recipients will react to them. Therefore, it is critical that you find a layout that works for you, that your subscribers react positively to, and that provides you with the results set out in your strategy.
Follow these tips and tricks when designing your email template with the aim of reducing unsubscribers:
Use images as links
Users have a tendency of clicking on images. While this behavior has its roots in web pages and blogs, you can use it to increase engagement. Engaged subscribers are less likely to opt-out from receiving emails from you in the future. But even if you include links in images, make sure to not include them in icons.
Do not use bright colors in your template
Bright colors look especially good for print, but when it comes to digital assets, such as a web page or an email, bright colors can create a sense of emptiness. Use contrasting colors to help email skimmers get a full picture even if they do not read the entire email.
Use the same font throughout the email campaign
You should always strive to create a sense of consistency with your email communication. It is a good idea to keep the font simple and easy to read for everyone. Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, OpenSans, and Georgia are just a few examples of fonts that work well on all devices and browsers.
Avoiding graphical backgrounds
If you want to make sure that your page looks good after being sent through certain email clients or devices that have smaller screens, simply use a graphical background for the entire page rather than within the text areas. Then have a device-specific version with different formatting that can be shown to recipients who view your emails using specific devices or software. This way, you can guarantee that your emails will always look good no matter where they are opened.
Unsubscribing rates reduction tips and tricks
Based on everything we have talked about so far, here are some specific measures that can help you reduce your unsubscribing rate:
Make sure that you are not sending out too many emails
Sending too many emails can affect your overall email engagement and leads to unsubscribers. Try to limit the number of emails that your contacts receive from your brand, especially if you are communicating with a B2B audience. Sending more than 3 emails per week can be considered spammy or overwhelming. When it comes to B2C businesses, you can send more emails but only if they are relevant and valuable for the recipients.
Make sure that you regularly optimize your email content
Do not include irrelevant information in your email campaigns. If you send updates or promotions about products that are no longer available, it will create an impression on your subscribers that you are not serious about what you do and this will eventually lead to unsubscribes. Always make sure that the information included in your messages matches what is provided on other channels or platforms of communication.
The layout of your email should be clean and simple
Always remember that less can be more when it comes to the layout of your campaign. Limit yourself to one image and a short text box with an interesting headline or statement. This will help you avoid making your email look like a spam message. Also, try using a single-column layout so that recipients can focus on the content in front of them without any distractions. Another thing to keep in mind is that every image included in the message should have an alt tag, which is used for visually impaired users or when images fail to load properly.
Personalize your subjects lines as much as possible
When it comes to subject lines, personalization is key because it creates an immediate connection between recipients and the messages they receive from your business. Try putting recipients’ names into subject lines instead of corporate names, avoid generic expressions such as “Dear customer” and use something more personalized instead, try asking a question instead of providing a statement. It all depends on what works best for each situation but always keep in mind to be consistent with what works well for your brand and stick with it.
Cold emailing continues to a favorite tactic for sales and marketing purposes alike. It allows companies to engage with people outside of their existing customer base, but it also allows sending prospects targeted communication that might prove of interest.
And while most people are familiar with the concept of cold emailing, many of them are unclear as to what exactly it entails. We’ve compiled this blog post to help you better understand what cold emailing is, how it can be used, and the steps you need to take to cold email effectively even when you don’t know someone’s email address. Alter going over some overview insights regarding cold emails, we will share with you some tips and tricks for figuring out a work email address when you only know someone’s name and the company they work for.
What is cold emailing?
To put it simply, cold emailing is the act of communicating with someone you don’t know (or someone who doesn’t know you). Some marketers might also refer to this as “cold calling,” but that term can also refer to calling or sending voice mails to someone with a sales objective in mind.
However, the key difference between cold emailing and cold calling is that while cold calling demands a response, cold emailing allows your prospect to decide whether or not they are interested in speaking with you. As the names imply, cold emailing takes place over email communication, whereas cold calling would occur over the phone.
Cold email best practices
The best way to get started with cold emailing is to make sure that you always have a clear goal in mind before starting to compose your message. For example, if you’re looking to generate leads for your business, then your goal should be to have people fill out a form or schedule a call with you.
Once you’ve determined your goal, it will be easier to work on crafting your message. This means that you’ll want to make sure that you incorporate the following best practices into your messaging:
Target a specific person
When you send out a cold email, it’s important to identify a specific person you will be exchanging messages with. If possible, try to find the name of the person in charge of making purchasing decisions or even someone who might be able to introduce you to the right people.
Personalize your email
It can be difficult to get people to respond to cold emails if they aren’t personalized. Remember that cold emails should be taken more seriously than promotional emails, and that means taking the time to include information about your contact in your message. The more context you can provide, the more likely it is that people will respond positively.
Be concise
Cold emailing is a great way to get your name out there, but it isn’t always the best format for detailed information about your company or product. Keep your messages short and sweet and focus on what you want the person to do next.
Write as you talk
Your cold email should be crafted as a message from one human being to another, and not like spam from a faceless company. By taking this approach, you will have a better chance of getting a response from your cold emails
How to identify a business email address
For cold calling purposes, being able to figure out the business email address of one of your prospects will prove extremely valuable. But determining an email address when it is not publicly available can be a tricky task. That’s why we want to share with you one proven approach that will deliver results on almost all attempts.
Most companies use one of the following naming conventions when creating email addresses for their employees. Before going over them, let’s simplify things by imagining an alias for our prospect. Exemplifying these naming conventions will help you understand how to use them to find the business email address of the specific person we have talked about in the best practices section of this article. Let’s say that the person we are trying to connect with is called John Prospect, Head of Procurement at Domain TLD.
Business email addresses naming conventions
As we have already mentioned, most companies use the same naming convention when creating email addresses. Based on this rule, here are some of the examples you can go with when trying to find John Prospect’s contact information:
john.prospect@domain.tld
j.prospect@domain.tld
jprospect@domain.tld
prospect@domain.tld
prospect.j@domain.tld
prospectj@domain.tld
prospect.john@domain.tld
j_prospect@domain.tld
john_prospect@domain.tld
prospect_j@domain.tld
prospect_john@domain.tld
Ok, that all sounds nice, but how exactly will this information help you? It’s not like you are going to send out an individual email to all of these recipients, in the hope that you will end out in John Prospect’s inbox. Of course not. It’s actually easier than that.
When you have the website of the company and you can confirm that the same domain is used for email purposes, you can start compiling a list of all variations and save it as a CSV file This is where the magic will take place.
By using an email verification service like the one provided by DataValidation, you can upload that file and verify which contact details are valid and which are not. Email verification is the process of confirming whether the email address provided by a user is real or not. The same process can help you identify the correct email address of your prospect.
The best thing is that you don’t have to do anything. DataValidation does everything for you. All you need to do is to upload the CSV file and wait for the results.
You will receive a report with the final list of validated email addresses in a few seconds, so you can send out your pitch right away. The report will also contain the valid email, so you will know exactly what to expect from your campaign before even starting.
If you are doing cold emailing on a regular basis, signing up for DataValidation should be a no-brainer. When you register for a new account you can unlock up to 500 free verifications, so you can even test the service without making a purchase. If you are happy with the results, DataValidation uses a tiered pricing system that allows you to know exactly what you will be spending by cleaning your email list.
As we have mentioned on many occasions on this blog, email marketing functions as one of the best channels in terms of results and engagement. Overall, there are 3.7 billion email users worldwide, with 233 million of them in the US. Given the large reach that email marketing can have, combined with email outperforming other channels, it becomes clear why marketers should make email a priority. That means focusing on delivering outstanding email experiences for users, prospects, and customers, while also working behind the scenes to improve results, achieve goals, and support business needs.
Email Marketing Engagement Improvement Tactics
That’s why we have compiled a list of the 5 best approaches for boosting email marketing metrics. Get ready to learn what best practices you can apply for your email activities, in which areas to increase effort, and what new tactics to develop to take your email marketing to the next level. Email marketing can be a fantastic tool for gaining the attention of your target audience, but you must approach it strategically.
1. Improve Your Email Deliverability
Because deliverability is a crucial part of any email marketing strategy, it is vital to focus on improving it. Email deliverability is currently in the spotlight, and for good reason – it can be a serious challenge for marketers, especially when it comes to making sure that your emails end up in the inboxes of your subscribers. The best way to ensure that is by avoiding spam tactics such as bulk emailing and sending unsolicited emails. In addition, you should also invest in making your email marketing app compliant with anti-spam laws and industry regulations.
An email verification solution, such as the one provided by DataValidation, can also help you remain compliant with email regulations, reduce bounces and protect sender reputation. Email verification is the process of confirming if the user of an email address actually exists or not. Email verification can be done manually or automated, with various programs available on the market that allow you to do so. While manual solutions are great for small-scale emailing, they are not ideal for large-scale campaigns. Instead, we recommend investing in an automated email verification solution. More specifically, DataValidation offers a powerful and highly customizable email verification solution that helps marketers reduce suppressed emails and bounces, as well as deliver emails to the inboxes of recipients.
At its core, DataValidation is a powerful IP reputation management platform that helps businesses verify if their users are legitimate or not. It can also be used for managing unwanted traffic on different online properties. The DataValidation solution is designed for all types of businesses – from e-commerce platforms and online marketplaces to software developers and other SaaS companies – who need to protect their sender reputation and improve their email deliverability.
2. Consider Multi-Channel Delivery
Email users are increasingly using multiple devices and channels to access their email accounts. This makes it crucial to devise a multi-channel delivery strategy. By sending some of your emails from different channels, such as SMS or via social media, you can increase your reach and improve the number of opens and clicks across different devices and platforms.
The best way to engage with your audience is through email marketing, alongside social media, or paid advertising. If you are interested in learning more on this subject, we highly recommend you read some of our articles focused on these topics:
It’s important to take advantage of all the tools, platforms, and apps available and integrate them into a successful omnichannel marketing strategy. Many companies are still unaware of the power of integrating their email campaigns with other channels, such as social media or SMS marketing to increase the reach of their message.
3. Optimize Your Emails For Mobile Devices
According to CampaignMonitor, 41% of all emails are opened on mobile devices, which is steadily becoming the most impactful platform, leaving behind desktop devices and webmail clients. In this context, there are many opportunities to boost mobile activity through optimized emails. In fact, the best email marketing providers offer features that allow you to send responsive emails that expand or shrink automatically when they reach recipients’ inboxes. You can also use click-to-call links that convert mobile users into callers or customers in-store or online.
These are just some of the ways that you can harness the power of mobile email marketing to drive sales on all channels. Here are some other things you can try out to ensure that your email deployments perform well on mobile devices:
replace large images with smaller, more impactful ones
keep the body copy short and to the point
include the most relevant section above the fold
make it easy for recipients to share your email campaigns
include links to your mobile site or app
make the CTA (call-to-action) buttons clear and simple
include actionable CTAs in your email content
build links to your social media profiles
4. Pay Attention To Content Personalization And Learning
Personalization has proven itself as one of the most effective tactics for getting email results, but it is still not widely adopted by marketers (only 28% do personalization). When it comes to personalizing content, there are multiple ways to achieve this goal: including personal information about subscribers in subject lines, displaying content based on previous interactions with the subscriber, and designing more personalized templates that incorporate information from user profiles such as gender, age, and location.
In addition, you can personalize content by creating smart segments based on engagement with previous emails (useful for inbound marketing purposes). Another way to boost engagement through personalization is by integrating email marketing with CRM tools so that you can interact with subscribers based on their individual preferences, behavior, and purchasing history. To take full advantage of this tactic, make sure that you have an email app that will enable you to do this seamlessly – if your app does not offer CRM integration features already built-in then consider implementing one syncing or integration app instead.
5. Use the Power of A/B Testing
We have left the best method for boosting email marketing results last. The reason for this choice is because A/B testing is already well-established, but also because we wanted to offer you some out-of-the-box solutions first. But ignore the potential of creating variants of your email campaigns at your own peril.
A/B tests are based on the principle that one version of a message can be universally better than another, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. As a result, the idea is to create 2 versions of every campaign and then test which one performs better with your audience. It sounds simple enough, but the power of A/B testing is its ability to identify something that works for your audience while simultaneously providing an interesting insight into how to improve future campaigns.
Here are a few tips for using A/B testing:
Start small. The point of this process is to determine what works and what doesn’t, so you should start with a small sample size and gradually increase as you see results. For example, start by testing two different subject lines in groups of 100 recipients. This way, you can precisely determine the relative effectiveness of each version without wasting significant resources.
Analyze your results. Once you have reached the end of your A/B test, it is always worth analyzing the results in detail. This will help you understand the differences between each version and the reasons why one may have performed better than another.
Communicate your results. Ultimately, you cannot improve without identifying shortcomings in your campaigns, so you must communicate your findings to other members of your team who will be able to use them appropriately. This can be done through meetings or emails sent from marketing managers to the rest of the team.
Email marketing is an essential component of any business’s marketing strategy, but it must also be treated as part of a wider campaign approach that will ultimately lead to increased profits and sales. Therefore, while email remains important, it must be regarded as part of a wider marketing strategy.
In the context of a global pandemic, jobs, careers, and work priorities have shifted quite a lot. The move towards remote working has accelerated. Professionals are reassessing their options and considering new opportunities. In the same context, not being mandated to work from an office allows employees to look outside their current career paths. Creative jobs are becoming more and more attractive for candidates who have been previously stuck in positions that have failed to be rewarding or challenging.
In this sense, remote work seems to be a beneficial side effect of the pandemic. Additionally, cultural competency has taken a new form. The need for intercultural skills is now required on a global scale. Employees will continue to drive change and embrace new opportunities - entrepreneurs will start businesses that capitalize on these landscape shifts, and companies will respond by adjusting their internal policies. It's been shown that remote workers are more productive, more focused, and less stressed than their office-working counterparts. We’re sure we'll also see a lot of pro-remote worker legislation passed in the coming years because of the tremendous benefits remote work provides to individuals and businesses alike.
Marketing, specifically email marketing, seems to be an option people are increasingly looking at because the field promises to provide a much-needed change for those interested in taking charge of their careers and exploring creative jobs. Throughout this article, we are going to analyze the most important skills an email marketer needs to perform tasks and achieve success.
Let’s clarify one thing before moving forward. Email marketing is not an activity on its own but rather a set of tools and processes. Email marketing can take different shapes and forms, including segmentation, list building, content creation, sending, and tracking. But the field is also closely related to lead generation and lead nurturing. We cannot talk about email marketing as a single approach or as a unique marketing channel. For the purposes of this article, we are going to explore the skills needed to succeed as an entry-level email marketer.
Essential email marketing skills
1. Writing skills
The ability to write engaging and relevant content or copy is key to any marketing role. That doesn’t mean that different marketing tactics do not require different approaches. The style of writing used when creating content for emails is different than other forms of writing. It’s much shorter (typically less than 300 words), must be written in a conversational tone, and should be tailored to each person (or list segment) on your list and their interests. Every email you send should also reflect your company’s tone of voice and personality. This will help you build trust with your readers, keep them engaged, and make it easier to convert them into customers over time.
The best starting point for growing or perfecting your writing skills is by starting your own blog. Having a dedicated space where you can define your writing style, play around with various topics, or just analyze what kind of content generates the most engagement will prove extremely valuable. Additionally, multiple online courses can help you explore content writing and understand best practices. Platforms such as Udemy, Skillshare, or Coursera offer courses aimed at beginners. Employers tend to appreciate any kind of proactive learning activities that entry-level email marketers have been involved with.
2. Researching skills
Sure, research can be perceived as a vague term. But when it comes to email marketing, researching your audience will help you understand what kinds of content they like to engage with the most. This skill goes hand in hand with the first one because in-depth research will reveal the type of content you will have to produce more in the future. You can research your audience by reading blogs they have an interest in, following them on social media, subscribing to newsletters from your competitors. You can also get more insight into their preferences and opinions by reading their reviews on your or your competitors’ websites. Once you know what kind of content they like best, you can create more of it for them so you can continue to build trust with them over time.
Researching skills are not limited to your audience. As an email marketer, you will be expected to run competitive research, analyze tools and platforms, be able to work with data and extract relevant and actionable conclusions. Content is just one piece of an otherwise complex puzzle when it comes to email marketing. But having good research skills will help you out a lot.
If you want to exercise your researching skills, the following steps prove efficient:
learn about SMART objectives
learn the basics of a SWOT analysis
conduct research on a specific company
conduct research on the industry sector
do some market research
do a background study on the business plan
watch video interviews
3. Critical thinking skills
This skill goes hand-in-hand with research skills because critical thinking is what helps you interpret data after researching a subject or person or group of people. Critical thinking allows you to process information efficiently so that you can make sound decisions about what future action steps should be taken based on what you found out through research. When looking at data from campaigns in the past, critical thinking helps you identify trends so that you can better predict future outcomes for future campaigns (i.e., I had a 100% open rate with this type of subject line so I will use it again). Being able to identify trends will help your email marketing grow faster in future campaigns!
4. Customer service skills
You have these skills already if you’ve worked in retail or customer service before because the two are very similar. When creating content for emails, you must pay special attention to how you speak to your readers in the copy and make sure that they feel comfortable engaging with your brand. It’s crucial to be as friendly and helpful as possible while still being professional and polished at all times. This will help create a better relationship with your readers over time so that they feel comfortable reaching out to you when they need customer support on anything related to your products or services. Good customer service skills are essential for keeping an online business running smoothly.
5. Work effectively under pressure
You’ll receive deadlines for your email campaigns and that means you have to do everything you can to meet them. There are many different things to think about when creating content for emails, so it can be easy to get overwhelmed. The more deadlines you have, the fewer resources you have to meet them. This is where effective time management skills come into play. If you’re able to plan out your time efficiently, you can create engaging and relevant content for emails without sacrificing the quality of your work. Effective time management skills will help you meet all of your deadlines while still leaving room for any last-minute changes that may pop up.
6. Be a hard worker
As with any job, there are going to be days where you feel a bit lazy or unmotivated. But if you want to succeed in the world of email marketing, you have to work hard every day. You don’t need another reason other than that, but it’s an important one nonetheless. Nothing worthwhile happens without hard work and dedication to a task at hand, so don’t be afraid of putting in long hours every day if it helps you reach your goals faster.
7. Be resourceful
You don’t need everything to run a successful email campaign and this is something that many new marketers make the mistake of overlooking until it’s too late. Email marketing involves finding solutions that make sense for your business and executing them in a way that works for everyone involved in the process. It may take some time to find what works best for your business, but if you take the time to learn what resources are available and how they can benefit your business, then you’ll save yourself a lot of time in the long run.
8. Know how to think on your feet
Marketers need to be able to make quick decisions when working on an email campaign because they rarely get second chances when they make mistakes – especially if their campaign goes live without having gone through any testing first. If you want to thrive as an email marketer, then it’s important that you know how to think on your feet and not panic when something unexpected comes up halfway through a campaign. This is where having good problem-solving skills comes into play because no matter what happens during a campaign, there is always a way around it as long as you use your head and take advantage of any resources at hand at the right time.
9. Eye for good design and user experience
Customers might not be able to articulate what they want from your content, but they will be able to tell you when they don’t like it. If it doesn’t look good, if it doesn’t make sense, or if it hurts their eyes to read, they will probably stop engaging with your content completely. This is why it’s important to pay attention to the design of the emails you send out and make sure that you are using a consistent design and color scheme. You want to make sure that your emails are easy to read and that they look great so that your readers will keep reading them in the future.
If you can practice UI/UX skills, as well as familiarize yourself with best practices when it comes to good email design, do it. You can create trial accounts on multiple email service providers, such as MailChimp or GetResponse, test out their templates and see what you can do to get outstanding emails. Additionally, you can use email services to test out different designs and see if you can get better results with a different color scheme, layout, or design. Lastly, consult the ReallyGoodEmails website to learn more about what other companies are doing to enhance the look and feel of their email communication.
10. Technical skills like HTML and CSS
Email marketing is one of the most popular forms of digital marketing out there, and it’s the most cost-effective way for companies to reach their target audience. According to a survey from Campaign Monitor, 91% of salespeople use email marketing to connect with customers and prospects, but only 44% of them say that they’re effective at it. The reason that this happens is that companies don’t have the skills necessary to create their own emails and so they are forced to hire an outside provider or agency. While these companies can help you get your message out there, you can also do it yourself if you know what you’re doing.
HTML is the computer coding language used to create web pages and email templates while CSS is used to style web pages. Learning how to use these two tools can be very useful when creating your own email templates from scratch because you can do anything you want with them. You may not need this in the beginning when you first start out with email marketing, but it’s definitely something to learn as soon as possible because it will help you tremendously as your career prospects grow.
