What is the most effective way to get the most out of your email? You’ve just spent all this money and time on the most up-to-date and ground breaking technology, but you’re still not seeing a marginal increase.
Maybe the data’s wrong, or the technology isn’t as powerful as you first thought? Or perhaps your email just isn’t that good? Here are some handy tips to take into consideration when you are building your next email campaign.
True personalization
This should go without saying in the modern world of marketing, but it’s a point that stands clear and strong. True personalization is going further than industry standards, and keeping your marketing messages in context. By this I mean real-time – using previous shopping history, geolocation data etc.
The stats show that personalization and contextualization work and have a huge impact, and customers do expect this from today’s marketer. ‘The Entertainer increased their returning customers from 14% to 60% in 12 months by offering personalized recommendations.’ – Source: SmartFocus..
Micromanage your data
Okay, now you have all this data on your customer base. You need to use it and make the most of it. By micromanaging your data (by micromanaging I mean literally using every bit of it) you are able to build your email specifically for the segments you have created, and avoid looking like another ‘Batch & Blast’ piece of marketing.
‘Personalized emails deliver six times higher transaction rates, but 70% of brands fail to use them’ – Source: CMO.com.
Subject line
Some people may argue this is the most important part of an email. The most effective subject lines seem to have a few things in common; so keep them short, keep them relevant, keep them personalized and keep them localized.
The use of emojis within subject lines has crept up in recent times and is proving to be effective, provided that they are used within the right context. They can be useful when trying to convey an emotion which will help to make sure your messages stand out from the mass of emails that are in a consumer’s inbox.
Tone of voice
‘The trick with copywriting is to do this with a tone of voice that fits the brand values.’ – Source: Econsultancy.
The best practice for this is to read your email text aloud and picture yourself in the mind of the consumer reading the email. Think “how would I feel if I received this content?” Ultimately we are all consumers of some brands, so you know what works.
Images and layout
With email service/marketing cloud providers becoming more and more powerful, the images that you use and the layout of the email is becoming more important. The way that the consumer should be reading the email should flow easily, as well as being aesthetically pleasing.
A lot of email providers still won’t show images within emails (at least without giving permission first). So, although the use of images are important and should be kept relevant to what the email is promoting, don’t have it as your main way of conveying the message, as there is a strong chance that it can go unnoticed.
Personalize yourself
Sending a marketing message, from the whole company or department just seems so impersonal. People don’t want to be treated as if they’re just another name on your screen.
One of the main objectives marketers fail to realise is that in order to have a successful customer retention rate, customers are going to need to have trust in that brand, and having a ‘familiar-face’ emailing them instils this more than a blank computer screen.
Keep it relevant!
Content is king, although context is worthless without relevancy. No matter what the message is, if it doesn’t apply to a customer, they will not be interested. This is why companies collect data, so we can bring together all elements of personalization, contextualization and other aspects of our consumer data.
Contextualization is the bridge marketers have been waiting for; it is the connection between the customer’s online and physical world. Every purchase matters when it comes to the consumer. Identifying and reacting upon this is vital in order to maintain relationships with the customer.
“From a personalized / contextualized recommendation engine, Peak Performance were able to increase Average Order Value (AOV) by 50%” – Source: SmartFocus.