6 EMAIL MARKETING TECHNIQUES FOR BEGINNERS

New to email marketing and are wondering where to begin? Here are 6 email marketing techniques to get you started

Let’s define the term, and examine the reason why email marketing is still relevant in today’s digital marketing scene, then we’ll end with the best techniques to use for a beginner to get a great ROI.

What is Email Marketing?

We don’t like to take things for granted, so let’s begin by defining Email Marketing so we’re on the same page.

Email marketing is the use of electronic mail to promote and give updates about your goods and services to prospects and existing customers.

To do that, you need contacts or recipients to send emails to; a database of people interested in your product or service and have shown this interest by responding to the call-to-action on your website asking them to sign up to receive updates and news from you.

Why is Email Still Relevant in Today’s Digital Marketing Scene?

Email is one of the most effective marketing components of digital marketing, but also one of the most abused and I dare say underused.

In this age where your senses are constantly assaulted everywhere you turn with all kinds of advertising, the inbox was meant to be a safe zone and act as a sanctuary of sorts from all that. A place you may enter, but can’t stay without permission from the owner and without being relevant or adding value to them.

But now, with spammers abusing this medium of marketing, it’s harder than ever to reach people effectively this way because they’re afraid of receiving constant worthless bulk messages from marketers concerning products or services they’re not even interested in to begin with.

Apart from the fact that it feels like an invasion of privacy, it’s also very annoying, to say the least.

Despite this challenge, smart marketers have figured out a way to get people to look forward to receiving mail from them consistently. And in the long run, turn recipients into loyal repeat customers.

Also thankfully, email service providers have come up with a way to block spam messages from getting to users, which in turn has forced marketers to be creative with this form of marketing.

6 Email Marketing Techniques for Beginners

What’s the secret of those who get the job done? Well, I’ll be sharing with you 6 proven effective email marketing techniques that we at ZIZA Digital use to drive some of the businesses that we manage

1. The perfect email subject line:

As with all advertising, the number one aim is to grab attention and keep it long enough to be heard.

Only after being heard can prospects develop interest and become leads, then leads become customers.

So if you’re offering content, or have a great deal or new update you don’t want a prospect or client to miss out on, the key to getting them interested at first glance is to have a catchy subject title.

Depending on your niche and industry, creativity is really needed here. Examples of great subject lines;

Suggestions for saving money during NYSC or

Suggestions for saving money this festive season (if you’re in the banking or financial industry)

Sales: 50% off everything (if you have products available for sale)

Laptops for as low as 20,000 Naira, limited offer only.

Make sure the title will get the receiver curious enough to open it.

2. The Perfect Timing

It is important to send your emails at the perfect time so that they can get read before they are pushed down by other emails. While having the perfect subject line is good, sending at the perfect time improves the chances of your mail being read by 50%.

For example, busy professionals only have a few hours a day to come online, so the best time to reach such people may be between 8 p.m and midnight after they’re done with work and want to relax and catch up before going to bed.

So study your target audience and their typical behaviour pattern so you can know when best to reach them.

Also sending reminder emails at the nick of time is effective when turning existing customers to repeat customers.

For example, sending a reminder to renew subscription days or a week before expiration helps the customer plan accordingly and make a decision beforehand instead of just cutting them off the service without warning or sending a reminder a day before doing so.

Sending emails during the weekend is also quite as effective as the 8 pm to 12 a.m trick for a select target audience.

3. Give free content (valuable information) through email

Who doesn’t love free quality things? It is the ultimate bait and it is very effective when you want to get people to do something they normally would hesitate to do, like try out a new product with no precedence.

When you consistently give away free quality content, templates or tools, you build trust between you and your prospects, and when they trust you, they’re open to whatever you want to sell later on. This doesn’t mean they’ll automatically purchase things from you but they just will be more willing to listen and consider your goods and services especially if they need it.

This isn’t limited to content alone, giving out demos, trial versions, products, and services or coupons with huge discounts will always draw people in, and if what they use is good, could turn them into customers quicker than talking yourself out trying to convince them your product or service is worth a try.

4. Ask for permission to send them emails

Thanks to Seth Godin, permission marketing will be linked to email marketing permanently.

The concept implies that business owners and brands first seek permission from visitors of their websites before sending them emails. Once you get this permission, you can then personalize the content of the email and do follow-ups accordingly.

You seek permission by asking them to subscribe to newsletters or updates on your website via the call to action buttons. Getting permission to inbox them instead of obtaining their email details in other ways is very important because it’s like getting permission to come to their house to have lunch with them. Do not abuse the privilege by spamming and sending junk messages.

5. Personalization

Admit it, when you receive an email with your first name on it, don’t you feel like it’s personal? Hence, you read it till the end because you feel it’s specially written to you.

In the same vein, for your email campaigns to be effective, pay attention to the specifics. Make sure the content is tailored to each recipient’s SPECIFIC needs and peculiarities. You can send bulk mail but add a personal touch to it so it feels like a real person sent it not a bot.

Pay attention to each detail so you don’t send the right message to the wrong audience, therefore coming off as spammy.

6. Analytics. Track and measure your email marketing campaigns

Analytics is simply keeping track of the campaign process. From tracking to know how many people actually received your email, to how many people opened and saw your email, how many people actually responded to it by clicking a call to action or contact link embedded in the email, how many people visited your site as a direct result of reading your mail etc.

All this information will help you see what’s working for you, what isn’t, what needs to improve or be changed, and how effective your campaigns are. This knowledge will help you fine tune your methods and get better which will yield better ROI in the long run. And a higher return on investment is every marketer’s dream.

Email marketing can be fun, easy and a cost-effective way to boost sales, connect with your target audience and build your brand.  Here’s hoping the above techniques will help you use this marketing tactic more effectively.