With social media gaining popularity by the day, one might think email marketing is entering its twilight years. Think again. Because of a high return on investment and a low cost, effective email marketing will never die.
Effective Email Marketing Is More than Just Click-Through Rates
Although email marketing is here to stay, it did have to adapt to the digital era to retain its impressive 4,300 percent ROI. Just like we all shed our old AOL email accounts, email marketing grew up, too. While the medium remains the same, today’s strategies have adjusted to keep pace with the changing needs and expectations of the customer.
Start a Dialogue with Your Email
Email marketing is not just about spammy offers anymore. Today’s top marketers advocate start dialogues with their consumers. You can add value to the conversation with relevant content by including one of your blog posts in an email. Or, you can ask your audience questions to help build user-engagement.
Segment Your Emails to Target Different Demographics
Segmentation is the name of the game in effective email marketing today. The more targeted you can make your emails, the greater their chance of success. With more data available now, segmentation is easier and more effective. By examining more than just click-through rates, the email data will guide a way to better target different demographics. Try sending tailored messages to different targeted audience groups to increase email engagement. And, of course, constantly update your email distribution lists.
Create a Mix of Campaign Styles and Methods
If you keep your content fresh, there’s a much better chance your audience will remain engaged. Today’s effective email marketing methods suggest you should mix campaign styles and methods to avoid boring your contacts. Try changing up delivery days and content angles or even include a survey. By being creative in your emails, your audience will likely remain attentive longer.
Encourage Social Sharing
For marketers, email is a good place to start a conversation with your target audience. Social media, however, is where you want the conversation to continue. Effective email marketing best practices call for the inclusion of social share buttons in all email communication. This allows your message to be spread organically to various audiences. Next time, we encourage you to create highly visible social sharing buttons in your emails.
Give-it-away, Give-it-away, Give-it-away, Now!
Contests or giveaways have always been an excellent way to increase engagement with your target audience. These special offers are fair game for emails, too. By offering something your contacts value in an email contest or giveaway, you will see audience increase spike. Even though email lacks the buzz of social media, email marketing remains the most cost-effective way to reach a customer. To remain relevant in today’s changing marketplace, try practicing our five strategies for effective email marketing in the age of social media.
