Email Is A Valuable Component of Your Marketing Strategy
Email is an incredible tool when it comes to communicating. Email is a great way to reach out for a wide variety of communication needs.
While there are several different ways to use email, we are going to focus on sending emails through an email marketing service such as MailChimp.
Email Marketing is Very Effective
Emails are viewed as the most favorable method of communication across all groups of consumers1. By sending an email, you eliminate the pressure of expecting an immediate response. A 2016 survey by HubSpot showed that while consumers generally disliked all forms of advertising, many consumers had a favorable view of receiving email communications1.
Communicating by email allows the recipient to respond on their own terms, at a time that is favorable for them. Ultimately, there are only three possible outcomes of sending an email message; they read the message and maybe take action, they don’t read the message, or they unsubscribe from all future messages.
Email Has A High ROI
To fully understand the value of email as part of your marketing tools, we have to look at the Return On Investment (ROI). According to Salesforce, investments in email marketing yields an average ROI of 4,200%, meaning that on average, every $1 invested into email marketing returns $422.
MailChimp’s Forever Free3 plan is an excellent place for small businesses to start if they aren’t ready to pay for an email marketing platform. While MailChimp does have enhanced features with a paid subscription, they’re Forever Free plan is quite comprehensive. With the ability to use a powerful email marketing service, the only real investment of getting started is the time required to get it all up and running.
Types of Email You Should Be Sending
Since most of the emails you should be sending are similar, it makes sense to automate the process as much as possible. Emails such as following up after meeting a new connection, welcoming new customers, sending your blog or newsletter and birthday messages can be automated.
The types of emails you’re able to automate depend on a few other factors. For example, a conditional automation such as If This Then That (IF) makes it possible to import new contacts from your work Google or Office 365 account into a ‘Great to Meet You’ list, which would initiate an automatic email series. Connecting an RSS feed from your website would allow your blog or newsletter to be sent to subscribers upon publication on your website. Adding a field in your email lists for birthdays would make it possible to send a happy birthday message. Of course, there are more emails you could automate, the more other services you have connected.
Timing & Frequency Are Important
A successful email marketing campaign is an importance balance of when and how often you should send emails. On one hand, it is important to follow-up with new connections and prospects quickly. On the other hand, you don’t want your emails to overwhelm recipients.
Since the number one reason consumers unsubscribe from email marketing is receiving too many emails4, make sure that your emails are well planned and composed. The rule of quality over quantity applies to sending emails. You should never send an email without a purpose.
According to insights from MailChimp, the best day to send an email is Tuesday5. A more recent article from Propeller gives us a little more insight into the best time for open, clicks and responses B2B and B2C6. While there are variations on the best day to send depending on the results you’re looking for, they all perform better sent by 10:00 AM.
Getting Your Email Read
The challenge of an effective email is that you have a couple of different things to consider when composing your emails. First, spam filtering has become very effective at identifying promotional emails. Both Gmail and Windows Mail have developed an effective solution for routing these emails to a Clutter or Promotions folder. This is where it is important to underline why you should send fewer emails overall.
Next, because most emails are viewed from a smartphone or tablet7, you want to make sure your email translates well to smaller screens. Choose a short subject line and limit HTML elements such as pictures. Since most emails are read on a mobile device, emails with more HTML elements use more data. Bulky HTML emails take too long to load, risking your recipient deleting your email before they even get to read it.
Consumers and professionals are always on the go. Their time is valuable, just like yours. When your email makes it to their inbox and they open it, they are giving you a moment of their time. Keep your message short and focused with a clear call-to-action.
Look at The Numbers
The only way to know how your campaigns are performing is to look at the numbers. There are three main numbers you should focus on when reviewing the analytics of any email campaign. The three main numbers to evaluate are your open rate, click rate, and unsubscribes.
Open rates are often viewed as the most important number when measuring the success of a campaign, but it’s not an accurate measurement of success on its own. Your open rate is only a measurement of how many people opened your email message. This number includes recipients who didn’t act on your message. If your open rates aren’t what you expected, don’t worry, the average open rate for emails campaigns is only 22%8.
Your click rate is really the most important number to consider when measuring the success of your campaign. This is the number of recipients who took action from the email they received. This suggests your email was successful in convincing the recipient take the next step you’ve suggested.
While the number of unsubscribes is a discouraging number to look at, it is a very important indicator of your campaign’s effectiveness. Look at each request to see if they gave a reason why they unsubscribed. Checking out why recipients unsubscribe helps design more effective campaigns moving forward.
In Conclusion
Email marketing is an effective channel with a great Return On Investment. Designing an effective campaign takes time and effort. Any email marketing plan should include frequent review of analytics and modifications based on your results. If you’re not already using an email marketing solution for your business, sign-up for MailChimp for free here. For help getting your email campaigns setup or improving your existing configuration, we offer one-on-one training services here.
Sources
1: Native Advertising Rises As Consumers Opt Out: Mimi An, Retrieved May 13, 2021 from https://research.hubspot.com/native-advertising-rises-as-consumers-opt-out
2: 10 Email Marketing Statistics You Need to Know (Updated 2021), Retrieved May 13, 2021 from https://blogs.constantcontact.com/email-marketing-statistics
3: Forever Free Pricing, Retrieved May 13, 2021 from https://mailchimp.com/pricing/free/
4: Native Advertising Rises As Consumers Opt Out: Mimi An, Retreived May 13, 2021 from https://research.hubspot.com/native-advertising-rises-as-consumers-opt-out
5: Insights from Mailchimp’s Send Time Optimization System, Mailchimp Email Marketing Blog, Retreived March 11, 2018 from https://blog.mailchimp.com/insights-from-mailchimps-send-time-optimization-system/
6: The 2017 Email Marketing Field Guide: The Best Times and Days To Send Your Message and Get It Read, Retrieved March 11, 2018 from https://www.propellercrm.com/blog/2017-email-marketing-field-guide
7: Majority Of Emails Opened On Apple Devices, Android Users Pay More Attention, Retreived March 11, 2018 from https://marketingland.com/majority-emails-opened-apple-devices-android-users-pay-attention-115945
8: Email Marketing Metrics Benchmarks 2016, Emfluence Marketing Platform by Jessica Best, Retreived March 11, 2018 from https://emarketingplatform.com/email-marketing-metrics-benchmarks-2016/
