Shaun Haase, CMO at ProsperWorks, looks at customer email list best practices for businesses.
Marketers enjoy blasting their digital newsletters directly to their contacts in order to drive customer engagement and grow brand awareness, but click-happy marketers run the risk of turning an effective medium into one that is seen as spam, therefore disengaging the very people who can benefit from their products or services. It’s not enough to gain subscribers –– bothersome emails can be left unread or frustrate contacts enough to make them unsubscribe –– but keeping them engaged will ensure your company’s growth.
It’s especially important for a small business trying to gain customer confidence and loyalty to attack the digital landscape with a bulletproof strategy by arming yourself with these four emailing tips:
Don’t bombard your customers
It’s all about timing, timing and timing. According to a study conducted by Marketing Sherpa, 85 percent of customers prefer to receive an email on a monthly basis, 63 percent prefer a weekly basis and only 15 percent enjoy receiving them daily.
Businesses should tailor the frequency of emails they send to more efficiently fulfill their marketing goals. However, this point is twofold. Once the frequency is determined, you should decide at what time of the month or week best suits your customers’ needs. For example, you wouldn’t send a B2B email on a Saturday at 3 pm but you may send a B2C email if relevant. A thoughtful email delivery schedule is a sure way to keep your customers informed and engaged, allowing them to reap the full benefits of being a subscriber to your business.
Utilize a CRM to keep your emails relevant
Emails should address the current issues your customers are facing or provide some sort of immediate value, whether that be relevant news, tips or special offers. However, timing is still an issue. It’s fruitless to send communications with a CTA that your customer may have already completed, or one that isn’t relevant to the recipient.
Utilizing a CRM can help prevent marketers from sending untimely and irrelevant emails. Effective CRM software keeps your email communications relevant by grouping together contacts based off their shared characteristics, creating highly targeted customer segments. Targeting groups that have similar demographics, needs and interests can help you personalize your emails and make them more valuable to the recipients.
Giving your digital communications a personalized touch lets your subscribers know you care about their needs, which is why the right CRM that works across different channels and integrates seamlessly with your marketing automation software is so critical.
Make it worth their while
If your subscribers are doing more for you than you are for them, staying engaged with your company may not be worth their time. Don’t over-promote and congratulate yourself for how amazing your business is doing. If they didn’t like what you have to offer, they wouldn’t have subscribed in the first place, so don’t ruin that relationship. Instead, make sure a majority of your emails contain something of value; your goal should be to either educate, entertain or entice. The rule of thumb is: only one out of every ten emails should be self-promotional.
Create visually appealing emails
Images, tables and graphs are a great way for people to visually digest information and can also entertain recipients, but make sure your visuals are aligned with your brand and campaign goals. Depending on your target audience, consider infusing some personality into your emails with emojis, stickers, sound bites and videos. A small addendum like this can tie the whole package together and keep a subscriber engaged.
When utilizing visuals, keep in mind that some email clients may require user consent to load images. Some people may forego this step so make sure your copy delivers the intended information with or without the images.
Additionally, we no longer interact online solely through desktop/laptop computers so it’s important to make your emails compatible across all platforms, including mobile. Put in the time to test the email’s appearance and usability on multiple platforms and various email clients.
By following these tips, you’ll realize that the line between effective and ineffective email marketing isn’t fine, but rather clearly defined.
By Shaun Haase
CMO
ProsperWorks