At the beginning of 2020, there were approximately 3.9 billion email users globally. That means almost 50% of the world’s population use email. Yes, the uses for email may vary in form and function, but the reality is that if you are using either a smartphone or computer, you most likely have an email account, or two.
For companies, this is great news! Not only does email make it vastly easier to communicate directly with your customers, but it also offers a great manner to track, assess and improve on these communications due to the insights email provides you. This in turn also increases the ROI of your marketing spend. #winningallround.
Here are some ways companies can use email to create more returns on their marketing spend:
- Use it to keep your customers in the loop of your business activities
Making sure your customers, and potential clients, know how you operate is key to having them trust your business and spend their money with you. Communication is vital, especially during times of unease like the current COVID-19 pandemic, so making sure clients understand what you’re doing to look after their interests shows you care and have them in mind. - Offer customers pre-sale deals
Customers want to feel special, especially those that are part of the database. What better way to achieve this than by offering those on your database the option for pre-sale offers? Not only does this allow them access to “exclusive” opportunities, but also keeps them engaged and looking out for your content. - Properly segment your database
A properly segmented database is a powerful way to engage more personally with your database. Knowing which groups of prospects or clients are interested in specific elements of your offering creates an easy way for you to become highly targeted and personalised in your approach.
- Use A/B testing to ensure emails are working
Probably the most under-utilised feedback mechanism in email is the effective A/B test. Most companies simply use subject-line testing, but you can do so much more!Testing the from-name in an email can show you if your database wants to hear from you as a company, or from an individual representing the company. Content and design testing are also great ways to find out what content is getting more engagement and where to focus your design elements. - Customise your emails
Customisation and personalisation are great ways to create more tailored, targeted and personalised campaigns. To illustrate the power of customising content, personalized emails are 26% more likely to be opened and 760% better at generating revenue.You can also get really fancy by adapting content based on behaviour, interaction and email engagement. This helps you to profile your customer and build segments to fit their personas as buyers.
- Promote add-on products
Email is a fantastic way to cross-sell and upsell customers. Not only do you have insights into their preferences and interests based on what they engage with in email, but you also have the ability to subtly create value to complementary products or offers. You already have their attention, now use that to define what they receive from you.Automation is a great way to have this done in the background by setting up email triggers based on what your subscribers are engaging with in your email campaigns. - Offer discount codes
Discount codes are really easy to generate and automate via email. You can either generate these codes based on interaction (or lack thereof, such as vouchers that are triggered if your subscribers aren’t frequently purchasing or engaging with your emails) or based on various offers or incentives you are looking to promote.It’s also a lovely way to entice email engagement because let’s face it, who doesn’t like a discount? - Get customer feedback
Lastly, email is a great tool to use to generate customer feedback. Now, I’m not talking about yet another survey or NPS score (which can be done) but the fact that you can gain direct and accurate feedback from your audience.By encouraging subscribers to reply to campaigns or providing them with an effective way in email to feedback to your company, you give your customer the opportunity to offer comments that can be direct and acknowledged, not simply another complaint on Twitter.
We would love to help you win with email. Get in touch with us today and let us show you how!