In today’s marketing world, marketers have emphasized the new technologies available such as chatbots, social media, and influencers to reach customers. But these new marketing methods shouldn’t dissuade folks from one of the most effective messaging channels – email marketing.
Folks might be wondering if email marketing is still a worthwhile effort in connecting with current and prospective clients, and well yes, yes it is. According to HubSpot, there are on average 3.9 BILLION daily email users and 80 percent of business professionals believe that email marketing has increased their customer retention.
Here are some important aspects to consider when crafting your next email campaign.
Subject Line
The main items to consider when creating a subject line for your email campaign is to keep it short, limit punctuation, be descriptive, and add some personalization. Low open rates typically show that the subject line is not relevant or interesting enough for your subscribers to want to open the email.
The best way to know what resonates with your clients is to test out different subject lines to increase your open rates. An effective subject line clearly describes what’s inside your email and is intriguing enough to get folks to want to learn more.
To test the subject line craft two to three versions that differ slightly, and then set them up in an A/B Testing Campaign. Most marketing email platforms will have A/B Testing as part of their software, but if not, you can segment your list of contacts evenly, with each list receiving one of the subject lines you are testing. This will allow you to see which subject line had a higher open rate, and you can craft your future emails using this similar style of subject lines.
Email Structure
Get to the point quickly. Most folks will skim through their emails first, so it’s important to keep your email short and right to the point, so it grabs their attention and, they respond right then and there.
Make the email personable. Greet your client by name, add in something you’ve talked about before and thank them for their business.
Provide a Call to Action (CTA). Make it easy for your client to respond or make it clear how you want them to respond. Include a calendar invite with your next planned call, your phone number, and any required information or documents you need.
Building Your List
Segmenting your client lists can help increase engagement, open rates, and follow-up efforts. You can have folks on more than one list but split the list’s into contacts with similar demographics, interests, lending patterns, and where you met them, so you can send the right content to the right people. Research shows that a segmented email campaign can have a 14 percent higher open rate than non-segmented campaigns.
Additionally, if your combination of contacts in a segment is not receiving the engagement you’d like to see, experiment with the lists until you find the most effective way to reach your contacts.
Overall, emails are necessary to maintain relationships with your current and prospective clients. Email marketing is an increasingly preferred communication method, but like other forms of marketing still works hand-in-hand with phone calls as well to keep your interactions personal.
