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If you\u2019ve not yet planned out your year-end email campaigns, now is the time to get to it! No matter what you might hear from the social media gurus, email is still one of the most powerful marketing tools at your disposal, with the best ROI<\/a><\/strong><\/span> that outperforms even organic search (SEO). Harness email\u2019s ability to yield maximum conversion with these pointers:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Your subscribers will likely receive hundreds of marketing emails at this time. Make sure yours offer relevant value and are sent at the appropriate time. Unless you know your audience inside-out and their lives are different, plan for a chunk of your customers to be in frantic work wrap-up mode right up until the school holidays start, and then mostly offline or travelling from then. Another large group of people will work up until the Reconciliation Day public holiday, after which many businesses will shut shop for the year. Entrepreneurs may be working intermittently all the way through even from the road. You\u2019ll need to know your audience and your product to make the call on whether its likely that orders for courier will still be made closer to Christmas, however \u2018last chance for orders\u2019 emails will often hook those who\u2019ve left it too late to organise anything else. Think of ways to make it a no-brainer for them to buy from you, for example offering a wrapping service or hand-written cards so that gift orders can be delivered direct to the recipient or picked up while the giver is travelling to their holiday destination.<\/p>\n Your campaign schedule could look something like this, but remember it\u2019s always based on knowledge of your customer profile:<\/p>\n Don\u2019t be afraid of sending many emails, unsubscribes are likely to mean they\u2019ve decided they won\u2019t buy anyway. Don\u2019t forget to also promote your social media channels if this is where you typically generate the most sales, and track your click-throughs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prioritise subject lines <\/strong>and give a lot of thought to what will be engaging and accurately reflect the value delivered inside the email. (47% of all emails are opened because of the subject line alone<\/a>)<\/strong><\/span>. Keep them short and interesting. Think in terms of savings of time or money, or emotional value, or status. As usual, refer to what you know about your audience. Use of emojis or puns work for certain markets, and if you can personalise the subject line this often helps with open rates, and sales. An Experian study<\/a><\/strong><\/span> found that personalised emails convert 6 times higher. Getting your emails opened in the first place is of course the first hurdle! Expect these to be low. For a new email marketer a 20% open rate might seem like a blow but that\u2019s actually an impressive stat. If you\u2019re getting high open rates but low conversions, perhaps your product offer or the wording or content within the email is not up to scratch. Keep tweaking and testing.<\/p>\n Make sure the fonts, colours and image styles are visually similar<\/strong> from your emails to your website. Consistency builds trust and helps to establish expectations. Don\u2019t try to be fancy by changing template layouts from one campaign to the next and don\u2019t waste time trying to find animations or colours that \u2018stand out\u2019. Besides, moving images are distracting. Religiously sticking to your brand style lightens the cognitive load on your readers as they recognise your aesthetic, giving their overworked minds one less decision to filter as they trawl through emails. Focus on delivering value and don\u2019t be tempted to follow unrelated trends. Note that not all fonts will be installed on your recipient\u2019s device, so use a web-safe font available in your email template designer that looks similar to the one on your website, otherwise it could be substituted with a font that clashes with your branding. Most US studies show that revenue per email on mobile devices is 4X higher than desktop, but this will depend on your market. Prioritise the design of your emails based on this information (all bulk mail providers will show you what your layout looks like on a range of devices).<\/p>\n Use copy that converts.<\/strong> Again this will be based on your client knowledge, but less is definitely more. People will be skimming, so keep it punchy and to the point, and use headlines and bold text tastefully to get your offer value across quickly. Even your button copy should be well thought out \u2013 for example, consider whether BUY NOW or SAVE NOW would be better. Always keep tracking click-throughs and testing and adjusting to optimise your conversions.<\/p>\n Call to actions (CTAs)<\/strong> \u2013 for example \u2018buy now\u2019 or \u2018contact us\u2019 buttons\/links \u2013 placed just under a header image or headline shows marked increases in click through rates. The higher the contrast between a CTA link and the rest of your brand colours or shades, the more actionable it will appear. Gone are the days of using red or yellow flashes to draw attention (unless one of those stylishly contrasts with your core palette). Recipients are sophisticated, you don\u2019t want to make your brand look cheap, and besides, their attention is already on their inbox as they read their emails so don\u2019t go the billboard-in-Times-Square route.<\/p>\n Get the details right.<\/strong> Your customers are as busy as you are. Make sure your links direct to exactly the right product or landing page \u2013 don\u2019t waste their time by sending them to a generic home page where they have to search through your stock. You\u2019ll get high bounce rates for this annoying oversight. It should go without saying, but use a real reply-to email address! Even better if the address is for a dedicated salesperson.<\/p>\n Manage your lists well and segment as far as possible so you can track what kinds of offers convert for each kind of subscriber. The bulk mail service that you choose will have tutorials on how to do this. Segmentation provides positive outcomes in terms of open rates, leads and sales. Segments could be in terms of:<\/p>\n Extra information can be gleaned by simple follow-up sequences (automated or manual, depending on your time and budget) that ask why the jewellery was purchased. You can also use this to survey your customers about any other marketing, sales or branding data (keep it brief) that you may need clarity on. Offering a surprise discount voucher on their next purchase is a great way to surprise and delight customers, and increase your chances of future sales.<\/p>\n Utilise the power of automation.<\/strong> From welcome emails on signup to abandoned cart reminders, get your email software working for you. Research shows consistently that sales are made in the follow-ups. Emails that are triggered to send to a recipient following a certain action on their part (for example a click, or no action taken) can generate up to 5x higher open rates and 15x higher click-through rates, and can be responsible for as much as 20% of email marketing revenue<\/strong><\/span><\/a>!<\/p>\nPlan your publishing schedule for impact<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Design your content well<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nSegment, track and test<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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