Alexandra Marin is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at CodeCrew, an Email Marketing firm founded in Oakland, CA. Their specialty is delivering data-driven results to clients from any industry. The leadership team has decades of combined experience working with the hottest startups, established industry leaders, and everything in between.
Every small business owner knows that every detail matters for the bottom line. And, with email marketing being a cost-effective source of revenue, you’ll want to ensure that you’re doing everything you can to get subscribers to purchase. Here are five things you should avoid if you want your emails to hit the mark.
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once
As your customer list grows, you’ll need to fight the urge to hit “Send To All” in hopes that your message will find the right audience. This never works. In fact, you’re more likely to lose subscribers by including them in all your emails. Instead, you’ll want to segment your audience according to habits, purchase history, location, etc.
Here’s an example: If you’re selling a discounted 5-piece furniture set this month, there’s no point in emailing a bachelor with a tiny studio apartment. By segmenting your audience, you’re honing in on their preferences and sending emails that truly matter to the recipient.
Bad Timing
Your customer base has its own peculiarities, and it’s your job to know them. One of these is knowing when they’re most likely to read emails. Sending an email at the wrong time could cause it to get lost in the clutter and eventually forgotten.
Through A/B testing, you can gradually ascertain the best time/s to ensure your email is on top of their inbox. A/B testing means sending the exact same email at different times and monitoring the results. If one email gets a better click-through rate, you can say with fair certainty that it’s down to a better send time.
Do this with various send times; eventually, you’ll hone in on the best times. Don’t forget to test weekend sends as well as many subscribers prefer to catch up during their downtime.
Boring Subjects
Since your subject line is the first contact point with any email, you’ll need to really double down on creating an effective one-liner. Think of your subject line as your “elevator pitch” – it should be concise, yet punchy enough to entice subscribers to open the email.
Try A/B testing your subject lines to see what your audience prefers. You can compare long versus short lines, with and without emojis, personal greetings, etc. The important thing is that your subject line packs enough punch to stand out in an inbox.
Sell-Sell-Sell
Yes, you’re using email marketing to convert sales, but there’s a subtle art involved. By only highlighting your products and services for sale, you’re essentially telling your audience that you’re only interested in their money.
To ensure your customers feel valued, you’ll want to balance out your sales emails with informative content. This serves two purposes: You reward them for signing up with industry insight and know-how while positioning yourself as an expert in your field.
Try alternating your products and services with tips and insight. Your audience will feel like they’re getting exclusive content, which is one of the main reasons they signed up in the first place.
You could even set up “Content Pillars” to organize your content into specific sections. Some pillars may include sections like promotions, UGC, tips and advice, etc. Use these pillars when creating your email calendar to ensure a well-balanced strategy from one month to the next.
Calling All VIPs
The main reason customers sign up is exclusivity. If they can get the same information on your website, there’s no reason to be in their inbox, right?
To reward your customers for signing up, you can offer them exclusive early access to promotions or, even better, run a few sales exclusively for your email subscribers. If you’re using a website overlay to encourage email subscribers, you can add an exclusive welcome discount, which they’ll receive after signing up.
Be sure to highlight that these promos are exclusive to them and that they are the VIPs of your business. After all, getting access to great deals ahead of everyone else is a strong incentive to stay subscribed – no one wants to leave an exclusive club.Â
