The basic formula for email marketing tells customers about a product and its multitude of benefits, tells them where or how they can get it and guides them on the next step they need to take. Email is also used to nurture leads through the sales funnel. And it builds relationships with customers as it lays the groundwork for upsell.
Not only that, email’s flexibility and measurability also offer another powerful perk. Whatever results you are seeing in this channel, you can always make improvements – starting with these principles:
All Customers Are Not Alike. You can segment your list based on “customer journey” or, said another way, what they’ve done lately. The easy example is: Don’t send an offer for a new system to someone who recently installed a new system. That person gets an upsell for a Maintenance Agreement program.
Learn What Works and What Doesn’t. Tracking success has always been important to marketing. In some cases, that’s been as easy as a tick sheet at the receptionist’s desk, where the caller is asked: “How did you hear about us? Newspaper, website, Direct Mail, friend, other, etc.?” Email marketing brings that data to your fingertips with access to metrics that let you test subject line by opens and the offer itself by clicks.
Offer Opt-Out Alternatives. If you’re a super-sensitive marketer, it might hurt your feelings if someone opts out of ever hearing from you again by email. But people are often simply overwhelmed by what comes into their inbox. You can keep the connection (and the email address) by offering an “opt-down” as an alternative to the opt-out. In other words, give them the option to hear from you less frequently.
Optimize for Mobile. Yes, screen size matters. More than half of your customers probably read email on their mobile devices, so make sure your emails can be read and actions taken via a small screen format.