Is Your Email Strategy Lackluster?
It’s easy to fall into patterns with your email marketing strategy and not come up with anything fresh or new. After all, email is one of those things you can set and forget, right? If your results are less than stellar, it’s probably time to redo your process and re-engage your subscribers.
According to Kinsta’s research, unsubscribe rates range anywhere from 0.1% per campaign to 0.48%. Unfortunately, you will lose subscribers each time you send out a message, but hopefully you’ll gain more than you lose and increase your reach over time.
If your current email marketing strategy is lackluster, you risk losing more subscribers than you’d like. Here are some ways to revamp your efforts and improve your retention rate.
1. Reset Your Goals
The goals you had when you first started your newsletter may be vastly different than they are today. What is your endgame with your email efforts? Perhaps you want a way to reach current customers and let them know about new products. Maybe you want to offer a lead magnet and seek new customers.
You can have more than a single goal, but you must know why you do what you do to be effective at it.
2. Focus on the Content
Building an email can take hours of coding, design and effort. However, you should look for tools with ready-made templates you can make your own and any other time-saving devices you can implement.
The content in your emails is far more important than perfecting the layout. There’s no reason to waste your time doing something others have already prepared for you, such as a theme.
Consider what your target audience searches for or asks questions about. Answer their queries in your messages. One example might be a beauty supply company sharing tips on the best skin care method to overcome adult acne. Within the emails, they can offer solutions and link to their products at the same time. The content is a win for both the subscriber and the business owner.
3. Tap Into Holidays
One way to ramp up excitement is to tie your promotions to holidays. Look at your calendar and plan out some events for your subscribers. For example, you might offer a discount on Labor Day and an online chat with one of your experts when fall starts.
Think about the holidays tying into your business model best. Retail stores may focus their attention between Black Friday and the New Year, while a garden center would look at spring and fall.
4. Embrace UGC
Tap into the power of your customer list and ask them to send in user generated content (UGC) to add some fresh voices to your emails. Feature someone using a product they purchased, a case study of one of your clients or anything else you can think of.
Some brands turn UGC into a contest by utilizing a hashtag and asking for a specific type of image or a story of some sort. You can then plug those posts into your emails and share them with others to encourage even more sharing.
5. Rework Your Subject Lines
The headings you place into your subject lines can increase or decrease your open rates. Work to personalize the greeting and use active verbs. For example, a subject reading, “Newsletter 5” is much less interesting than one reading, “Emily, Open This Email for an Exciting New Savings Calculator.”
You must show your users why they benefit from opening the email. One they do, you can better engage them.
6. Check Mobile
According to Pew Internet Research, approximately 97% of Americans own a cell phone. Many of your subscribers likely open your emails on their mobile devices. You can improve your marketing strategies simply by putting mobile first and ensuring emails appear crisp and clear on smaller screens.
Think about the types of offers people are most likely to take advantage of while on the run. Make sure they can complete a purchase with a single click and keep things fast and simple.
Get Input from Others
Your email marketing strategy may be lackluster because you have the same people working on it all the time. Gather input from those who don’t normally come up with your offers. Talk to sales about ideas they have and what they think customers might want. Survey your clients to see what they’d like to see in the newsletter. Study your competitors and see what their strategy encompasses.
Gather feedback and implement the ideas you like best. With just a little effort, your emails will go from drab to fab.
Eleanor Hecks is the editor-in-chief of Designerly Magazine.