Email Marketing – The most important in a nutshell |
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A large number of e-mails reach us every day. However, many of these mails are already automatically sorted out as spam from our inbox. Occasionally, this also includes advertising mails from companies. The question therefore rightly arises: What is the significance of e-mail marketing today? What should companies keep in mind to ensure that mailings are not filtered out as spam? How can marketers manage to get the attention of recipients and convince them with their offers? In the following, you will receive valuable tips that you can use to successfully integrate e-mail marketing into your company.
Business and commercial e-mails are often dismissed as spam by mail providers or are not opened or deleted by recipients. Nevertheless, e-mail marketing – whether for large companies, e-commerce or medium-sized businesses – can be very efficient.
Email is still one of the most used communication channels in online marketing and therefore an indispensable component of any marketing mix. Existing customers and potential new customers can be addressed directly and personally in a one-to-one communication, which increases the chance of achieving various marketing objectives. For example, more conversions (e.g., sales) can be generated by focusing on products or offers. This leads to a central and probably decisive advantage: the increase in sales. Email marketing is proven to be one of the most efficient channels in online marketing for driving up sales figures. A study from 2019 found that every euro they invest in email marketing campaigns brings you a whole 49 euros. This makes this tool the true winner in terms of return-on-investment (ROI) metrics.
The special thing about email marketing? You can cover the entire customer lifecycle. From the welcome email when signing up for the newsletter to birthday emails and reactivating inactive customers – through direct one-to-one communication, you build a strong long-term bond with your customers, who then feel valued and noticed. This factor in turn has a positive effect on the other potentials of email marketing.
With the help of commercial emails, your traffic can be targeted. In addition to the obvious links to your own offer or online store, buttons for your own social media channels can also be integrated. This way you can increase your brand awareness (link to brand awareness blog post). Also beneficial for brand awareness is the regular use of the brand name and the visibility of your products, which you achieve with the repeated appearance in the inbox of your (potential) customers.
The costs for email marketing are kept within limits and are above all one thing: transparent. All that is required is an appropriate tool and the creation of the e-mails. The practical thing here is that they only have to be set up once. Many professional e-mail marketing softwares also offer free basic versions. This means that – unlike other marketing tools – large numbers of recipients can be addressed simultaneously at low cost and with little effort. Including those who are not necessarily digital natives with extensive social media use. Because aside from that, most people today – regardless of age group – know how to check their email.
When using many modern marketing tools, you are heavily dependent on third-party providers such as Google, Facebook, Instagram and Co. Not, however, when it comes to email marketing. You can choose from a variety of different newsletter tools and design your campaigns entirely freely. Your contact list belongs to you – on this basis, you can develop sending strategies, carry out possible filtering and realize associated potential. Email marketing is in your hands and not in the decision-making scope of a big tech company like Meta or Google.
However, in order to take advantage of the above-mentioned potential, you should keep a few things in mind. We will give you a few tips here:
It always pays to pick up a professional tool for email marketing. This also applies if you are just starting out with email marketing and the recipient list of your newsletter is still very small. This is because, among other things, you can use it to create individual templates and display previews of your planned content for multiple screen sizes. It also lets you schedule and automate processes and manage and filter a large list of recipients. This helps you avoid careless errors that can easily occur when sending email campaigns manually.
Moreover, with professional tools you can reduce the risk of your mailings being caught by recipients’ spam filters. The reason for this is that the servers of professional software are listed on the important whitelists and are thus considered trustworthy – your ticket to the inbox of potential customers. Nevertheless, in general, before sending your first campaigns, you should perform a spam test, send your mails only from the company domain and make sure that HTML formatting is correct.
Successful newsletters have one thing in common: animating call-to-action buttons with a clear call to action. After all, you want the recipient to not just skim your mail, but take action. For example, in the form of ordering from your online store or reading your blog post.
LocalUp-to-Date newsletter with integrated call-to-action buttons
The sending of commercial e-mails is regulated by numerous laws. These include the Telemedia Act, the Federal Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulation. To avoid warnings and legal problems, it is essential to follow a few guidelines for email marketing:
Footer of the LocalUp-to-Date newsletter with imprint and unsubscribe link
Put yourself in the shoes of your customers, their needs and problems in order to conduct successful e-mail marketing. In terms of visual appearance and content, it is worth asking why they might have signed up for the newsletter and what added value the customers expect. In this way, you can create mailings that will help you achieve your business goals. Specific customer requirements can be: Informative links, blog articles, guides, tutorials or discount codes.
The same applies to email marketing: first impressions count. The subject line is the first thing your recipients see of your mail. Within milliseconds it decides whether the mail will be deleted, ignored or opened. Therefore, it is essential to formulate a subject line that creates a high click incentive and that your recipients will find difficult to resist. This can be achieved by arousing curiosity, listing benefits and a personalized approach. You should still be brief, because the subject line can be shortened in mobile view depending on the device. If you manage to get a recipient to open your newsletter, the same naturally applies to its content: you must offer added value through an exciting presentation. When implementing this task, the question helps: Would I want to read this e-mail myself? So the motto “Content is King” also applies to e-mail marketing.
Appealing subject line of the LocalUp-to-Date newsletter
You will have noticed while reading this blog post: Email marketing offers numerous advantages for your company that you should definitely take advantage of. Among them, first and foremost, the increase in sales, but also the increase in customer loyalty and brand awareness. In addition, positive aspects such as cost transparency, favorable prices and high accessibility of potential customers should not be neglected. Also worth mentioning is the independence from third-party suppliers. However, to take advantage of these opportunities, marketers should follow some tips for successful email marketing. These include using professional newsletter tools, formulating appealing call-to-actions, complying with legal requirements, putting yourself in the customer’s shoes, and writing irresistible subject lines and exciting content. With these tips, your email marketing campaigns are guaranteed to succeed.
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