Come on, make me a confession: Don’t you find yourself in a dilemma in front of your inbox every day?
Every day we receive promotional campaigns, and there are busier days, others less, and many times a smile is drawn on your face when you see that pop-up window saying that you have a new email, many other times, the smile turns into nonconformity and weariness, that’s right! And you really, really want to mark even your favorite campaigns as SPAM, because you’re just tired of the same old thing.
Well here are these numbers:
A person could be exposed per day from 3,000 to 5,000 advertisements talking about a bombardment by all the media. In hindsight, ask yourself how many you remember. Exactly , like about 1,000 right?
Now that I see those numbers, I realize that subscribing to a campaign is actually taking the advertising thing seriously, and having a perennial desire to inform you about what you clicked on. Almost almost an act of love.
How “forever” is my relationship with my email subscriptions?
Actually, it’s short-lived, there can be a lot of love from the user, but if the relationship with the followers is not fostered (like any other relationship really), believe me, it will not work. And in this case yes, if it’s you, not the poor subscriber who trusted you.
And what have you done in exchange for his trust?
You send him a newsletter that we don’t even talk about branding, if he left the cart abandoned or who notified him, did he have a birthday? I hope they have congratulated him, you call him Dear “user” because the truth is that you don’t know his name, much less his preferences.
At the end of the day, the inappropriate use of email campaigns that have proven to be effective for renowned companies such as Amazon , Mercado Libre , among others. They may not be giving you the expected results because you are not putting enough effort into it.
If you are already on the path of email marketing , I recommend that you take a look at the following 10 ideas to improve sales with email campaigns .
- The best advice: sell online.
- Do not exceed the length of the email
- Use your best days to send, not the best days of others.
- Make your content worth reading.
- Formal language vs informal language
- Do not send more than one weekly campaign. Myth or reality?
- Create a calendar (downloadable calendar).
- Set a to-do list
- Don’t expect extraordinary open rates.
- Email marketing is dead.
1. The best advice: sell online.
Originally the best advice these days would be to sell online. And how not to agree, for example, in the last year, Mercado Libre increased its sales by more than 70%, Rappi by nearly 50%, and Amazon added $13 million to Bezos’ bag in a single day .
But remember this: Rome was not built in a day , and these companies have been dedicated to customer service for years, and of course, the global pandemic has favored them by being companies based on online sales.
YES! Dare to venture into online sales, but send objective and well-targeted campaigns. In addition, complement your campaigns with social networks.
2. Do not exceed the length of the email
Length is a topic of conversation. Repeat after me, it’s an email, not a book, not a blog, an email! Get to the point please. The only campaigns that would be allowed to have a variable length are those based on e-commerce , since the images take up more space and will make the email longer, even so it is good to limit the space. If the campaign has another purpose, a good idea is to keep it short and concise. If you want to add more information help yourself with a landing page .
A good example is Everlane, it manages two items in its email campaign, large images, and makes you interact with a question: What do you think? Everlane sends 16 campaigns per month.
3. Use your best days to send, not the best days of others.
Much has been said about the best days to send and the best hours, the truth is that the useful thing here will be what works for you as a company as a marketer, if your opening rate has been higher on Mondays, your data matters to you more than generalized data. To know your delivery rate, click-through rate and more, remember to check your reports .
4. Make your content worth reading.
Require yourself to be able to send useful content of great importance to your readers, consider that they have arranged their time by subscribing to hear from you, make each subscription worthwhile. If you manage to send relevant content you will keep the reader interested that easy.
This is a clear example of an email that will be read by the subscriber. Sometimes less is more, don’t you think? RXBAR sends two responsive emails per month, but they sure get read.
5. Formal language vs informal language
Before you look for which is the best, you should ask yourself: What kind of public is subscribed to your information? Knowing your audience will lead you to choose the right language , get to know your audience through registration forms, surveys, polls and then segment. Knowledge is power.
Do you find it informal to use GIFs? Choose the right one for your audience and time and your campaign will look amazing.
6. Do not send more than one weekly campaign. Myth or reality?
There is no rule that indicates the exact number of campaigns that must be sent per certain time, however, an important rule would be NOT TO SEND THE SAME THINGS ALWAYS. There are companies that send an email even on a daily basis and have incredible engagement from their readers. Here we will go more for the quality than for the quantity, there are different types of campaigns that you can send under your own branding, for example, this would be a good batch of emails to send during a month:
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- Monthly Newsletter – Information on monthly activities, news, blogs.
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- Product – Promotion of new product, update, release, new feature.
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- Automations – The basics: upselling and abandoned cart.
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- Holidays or seasons – Announcement about prices or special promotions per season.
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- Webinar, events and invitations.
- Sales – Gift card, discount, special promotion other than promoting a product or service.
I didn’t even know there was a Drive Thru day, thanks to this campaign I found out, there is always a good excuse to send an email. Now do you realize? McDonald’s sends 4 campaigns per month.
7. Create a calendar.
The best advice I’ve ever been given is: drag the pencil . Many times we are so immersed in the computer that we forget to take a pencil and paper to define ideas. An excellent practice is to create a marketing calendar, printed or digital, but that allows you to be clear about your objectives even throughout the year, this will not only save you time, but also effort, since you will not stop to think about what but how. . It will no longer be a reason for question. And now what do I send? But the idea about your next campaign previously defined in your calendar. If you can’t imagine what this calendar can look like, you’re in luck, download our sample email marketing calendar template here .
8. Set a to-do list
Automations are great because it’s a job well done once, however, forgetting about it is not a good thing. A good idea with email marketing is to set yourself tasks such as:
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- Review reports (preferably every day – 5 minutes).
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- Find opportunities for improvement (weekly or monthly).
- Campaign design and planning (monthly).
9. Don’t expect extraordinary open rates.
Setting unrealistic expectations about email marketing will be synonymous with failure and disappointment. You can’t expect inflated open rates. On average, a company with very good practices, verified and segmented lists could expect up to 25% openings, and that number is very good.
But right away, and in your beginnings, you must understand that reaching that percentage is an uphill road, and to get there you need more than a verified contact list, you must send valuable content, maintain the branding of your campaigns, put attention to the basics, no spam words, good subject line, use automations, remember birthdays, anniversaries, create a bond with your users and the most important thing is that you understand that this work belongs to you as a company as the creator of campaigns, not your service provider, this is more of a personal issue than a software issue. Contact us to support you personally as each case is special.
10. Finally, the hackneyed phrase: email is dead.
Not at all, more relevant than ever, do not underestimate the value of adding this strategy to your company, if it has not worked for you it is definitely because you lack work and dedication, do not give up, continue your improvement process. Test and rectify your strategy.
Remember that at the beginning I said that we are exposed to more than 3,000 ads daily, and if you do the exercise of thinking about which ones you remember, you may even not remember a single one. However, email campaigns being of genuine user interest are more likely to be remembered.
Many people expect unrealistic goals from email marketing, but we must be aware that it is one of the few measurable and valuable means for its content.
Create personal campaigns that work for you, knowing that it has worked for others is fine, applying it is also fine, but knowing through your metrics what is working for you is the best thing you can do, trust your own numbers is a wise strategy.
