There has been a lot of talk about email going away and being replaced by social media. Well, it hasn’t been and it won’t be for a while. Decades after the invention of email, it’s still alive and kicking. Email marketing is not dead.
How many times a day do you check your email? I check mine far too often. I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night for a quick check. It’s a problem, I know. But as a marketer and business owner, I hope there are more people out there just like me who are addicted to email. And I know there are because our ConvertWithContent emails get opened, read and acted upon. Our clients emails get opened, read and acted upon too.
Email Marketing Statistics
- 70 percent of U.S. adults prefer a company communicate with them via email. (Marketing Sherpa)
- 15 percent of Americans would like to receive promo emails DAILY. (Marketing Sherpa)
- 7 in 10 Americans have made a purchase based on an email. (Marketing Sherpa)
So let me reiterate this. Email is not dead!
Here’s how to make your emails work for you and help you bring in more sales.
1. Your List Needs To Be Good
Bought a list? Throw it out right now! Let me be clear with you, if your list sucks your emails will not be opened. They will not be read and they will not be acted upon. But Steph, I have a list of 500,000 people who have never heard of me, that has to be worth something, right? WRONG! Clean up your email list and start building it with people who are actually interested in the products and services you sell. Without this you have nothing.
Sorry for the brutal honesty, but let’s be real.
2. Your Headlines Should Be Catchy
The next step is your headlines. This is what gets someone to click through. It needs to be catchy and relevant and pass any spam guidelines. The last thing you want is your email going straight to the spam box.
3. Your Content Should Be Optimized
Your content needs to be optimized for mobile users. More than 50% of cell phone users access their email here. It’s where our addiction begins. Your emails needs to look good on the big screen as well as the small screen. Most email platforms optimize your emails for you but to be safe, make sure you are using bigger font sizes and nice clear headlines.
4. Don’t Forget To Optimize Your Images
This goes for images too. They can’t be so big that the email takes forever to load, but they need to be big enough to capture your reader and potential buyers attention. Especially as emails are super powerful to drive sales, product images need to do the talking for you.
5. Trigger Emails Based On Behavior
This is a bit more strategic and advanced, but if you have the opportunity to capture emails and make people login to your site you have the opportunity to send triggered emails based on their behavior on your site or at the very least based on how they interact with previous emails. This will not only increase the odds of a purchase it will also increase click-throughs.
BONUS – don’t worry about unsubscribes. They are going to happen and they are actually a good thing because they clean up your list for you. You want buyers on your list! Buyers won’T unsubscribe.
Are you using email marketing as a part of your online strategy? It’s time!
