11 Tips to Help You Build a Successful Email Marketing Strategy | StartUP MQL
“Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches - at scale.”
- David Newman
Learn how to use email marketing as a tool for your business. Here are some tips and tricks for creating a successful email marketing strategy.
Companies that use email marketing with highly targeted messages gain more than just customers. They receive invaluable insights about their customers' behaviors, preferences and interests - which they can then use to drive future email campaigns, website design decisions and content development.
With the right strategy in place, businesses can reap many rewards from an efficient, effective email program:
Higher ROI on marketing spend
Higher conversion rates for sales leads
More timely customer engagement
Improved relationship management over time
The only thing standing between a startups high hopes for a successful demand generation initiative and its actual execution is a well thought out Email Marketing Strategy. Email isn't just another medium – it's a way of engaging each customer. In the absence of a well-thought email marketing strategy, your email program runs into the risk of low Return on Investment (ROI) and failure. So how do you get around this?
Let's look at the steps involved in building your email marketing strategy:
1. Create Your Email Marketing Objectives
Your email marketing strategy is built around your goals - and your goals are made up of a variety of objectives. In order to create an effective strategy, it's important to set realistic expectations. If you make a list of all the things you'd like email to do for your business right now, chances are that some items will be more easily attained than others. After identifying each objective, categorize them by feasibility and importance
2. Develop Your Email Marketing Plan
The next step would be developing an actionable plan on how you intend on achieving these objectives in the most cost-effective manner possible while being able to offer maximum ROI on investment. Whether your efforts require a one-off email or a sequence of emails in a drip campaign to achieve your objectives make sure your plan is tied into a marketing platform like HubSpot to ensure you capture results and to deploy automatic responses based on the action your target has taken.
3. Develop Your Content Strategy
Email content development is one of the most critical pieces to an effective email marketing plan. If your email themes, messaging and frequency are not consistent with the goals outlined in your plan then you run into the risk of low ROI on investment. Throughout the rest of this post I will share tips on how to develop a successful content strategy.
4. Set Up Email Automation Workflows
Email automation workflows enable you to keep customers engaged with your business and deliver the right message at the right time – based on previous interactions they've had with your brand. Here are a few items to cover with any automated email campaign:
Identify actions that trigger an automated workflow
Craft emails for each stage of the process
Determine frequency & schedule (weekly or monthly)
Develop email subject lines
Ensure proper deliverability.
5. Demonstrate Your Understanding Of Your Customer Base With A Clear And Compelling Value Proposition
The value proposition isn't just about pitching your products or services - it goes deeper than that because it's about making sure that you're demonstrating the specific value that your products or services will deliver to your ideal customers.
For example, if you run a business consulting company that helps startups with lean methodology implementation, then you might phrase your value proposition like this: "Helping entrepreneurs streamline their business processes so they can launch new products and services faster."
This example demonstrates how this company's products are helping entrepreneurs create more value by providing them with an efficient way of doing business.
6. Convey Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) And The One Thing That Makes You Unique In A Compelling Way
Your unique selling proposition is also known as your competitive advantage because it conveys what makes you different from your competitors. Whatever it is that sets you apart from the rest of the market – whether you offer better quality or a more efficient process – this is your unique selling proposition and it should be brought forth in the beginning of your email marketing campaign.
The goal here is to convey what makes you stand out from the competition as early as possible so that those who read your emails can immediately put two and two together and understand why they need to work with you over someone else.
A good way to do this is by using statistics since these help highlight trends that are happening in the industry, provide insights on how customers feel about certain issues, etc.
7. Strike A Tone That Reflects Your Brand's Values And Voice
What voice do you want your business to reflect? Do you want it to sound laid-back and casual or professional and formal?
There are many factors that will affect the tone of your email campaign, but whatever it is that you decide to go with, make sure you're sticking to it. Don't attempt to be something you're not just because you think this tone will resonate better with your customers. On the contrary, if your brand's voice isn't coming through loud and clear on paper then this could pose a problem for those who receive your emails since they might not even realize what industry you belong to.
8. Promote Your USP Throughout The Email With Bullet Points And Sub-Headings
As I mentioned before, there are certain things about your business that should be brought forth throughout your email marketing campaign so that your audience realizes they should be working with you over someone else.
A great way to do this is by using bullet points and sub-headings so that it's easier for readers to digest the information. Bullet points highlight key takeaways while sub-headings break down long blocks of content into chunks, making it easier for people to read in case they only have limited time available in their schedules.
9. Use A Strong Call To Action (CTA) That Makes Sense For Your Target Audience And The Value You Promised
Whenever you sit down to plan out the email marketing campaign for your business, make sure its purpose is clear from the very beginning. Ask yourself "What's my call-to-action?" - if the answer is "I don't really have one", then you need to go back to the drawing board.
Every single email should have a goal behind it, whether this is to gather leads, sell your product or service, get subscribers to watch a webinar you're hosting, etc.
So whenever someone finishes reading your email marketing message, they should be in no doubt about what they need to do next in order for your business to achieve its goals.
TIP: Since there are so many different types of calls-to-action that can be used in an email campaign (e.g., buy now! visit us at xyz!), make sure you know which one is most appropriate for each situation and how it will help you reach your end goal.
10. Have A Clear Messaging Style That's Consistent Throughout Your Email Marketing Strategy
Remember when I said that your email marketing campaign should be one cohesive message? Well, this is where the consistency factor comes into play!
Since it can sometimes take someone a while to fully grasp what you do and why they should work with you, don't confuse them by telling them different things in each email or changing your messaging style wildly throughout the course of your campaign.
This only confuses your audience since they won't know which story about you is real nor how to act on this information. All they will know is that whatever strategy you're using isn't working, so their natural inclination would be to unsubscribe from future emails in order to reduce the noise in their inbox.
11. Personalize Your Email Marketing Content As Much As Possible
Another way to make your email marketing strategy more effective is by using personalization in every single campaign you send out. This means that you should try to include the recipient's name in each message, preferably at least once in the subject line and somewhere in the body.
This way, you'll be able to build a sense of familiarity with your audience so that they know they can trust you and why this is so important when it comes to working together.
TIP: If you think this sounds too complicated or time-consuming, don't worry! There are tools out there which you can use to personalize your email marketing messages like AutoPilot.
