Email marketing has been around for decades now, but even with all the new ways to reach customers digitally — social media, search, digital ads— email is still king in many ways. In terms of ROI, email marketing wins against every other channel. These numbers are very generalized, but on average, for every $1 spent on email there is a $42 return. This isn’t to suggest email marketing is without challenges. Since email has been such a successful marketing channel for so long, every business is sending emails today. This means our inboxes (and our prospect’s) are more full than ever. As marketers, we need to handle email carefully if we want it to be effective.

1 — Get Targeted

The days of spray and pray email are long gone. We have to be specific about who we’re emailing and why they might find what we’re sending them valuable. This is done through segmentation of lists, where contact lists are broken into smaller lists based on criteria like demographics, purchasing behavior, etc.

Segmentation allows us to create messaging that is more relevant to our prospects, naturally a more effective way to communicate. This translates to better open rates, click through’s, and more business growth.

2 — Be Value-Driven

One of the best ways to reach people who are constantly being sold to is to give them something of value. This can look differently depending on the type of business you’re in. If you’re a retailer, discount codes can be effective. If you’re a SaaS business, maybe offer a free trial.

You can also simply give away content that your prospect may find useful. This could be in the form of a blog post, a white paper, a case study, or other forms.

3 — Personalize It

There are a number of ways an email marketer can use personalization to better resonate with their audience. The obvious ways are to use dynamic content that automatically pulls in prospect information like name or company name into the email subject line or body. Another great way to personalize your campaigns is through action-based campaigns where prospects are taken through an email series based on the actions they have (or haven’t) taken with your organization.

If you’re in B2C, one excellent way to market to existing customers is through celebrating special occasions like your customer’s birthday. These special occasions are a great way to offer a discount or something similar to help drive sales.

4 — Optimize Your Messages for Mobile

This should be fairly simple to achieve with modern email marketing platforms, but it’s important to always test your emails and make sure to view them on your phone. Are the graphics you created readable on the phone? Is the font size too small? Just make sure your email looks fantastic on mobile.

5 — Make Clear and Concise CTAs

Keep your call to action (CTA) copy succinct and easy to understand. You should also make sure your CTA stands out from the rest of your email, with contrasting colors and ample whitespace around it. Your CTA should be above the fold in your email, and placed throughout, to maximize visibility. Lastly, you should A/B test different CTAs to determine what is most effective with your particular audience.

6 — Always Test and Refine

Email is never a set and forget kind of thing. Email requires constant testing of subject lines, body copy, graphics, call to actions, etc. Break up your segmented lists into A/B tests so you can try out different aspects of your emails — one at a time — and optimize your campaigns efficiently.

7 — Automate Where it Makes Sense

While email is not a set and forget, automation can be extremely helpful in a number of ways. Timing your emails effectively is one way that automation can be of use. Many email platforms offer the option to automatically time your emails to send at a time that your prospect is most likely to engage with your email.

Another great way automations can help is through action-based email follow-ups that can be set to automatically send to prospects when they take an action such as opening a previous email, visiting a webpage, adding something to their shopping cart on your website, or any number of other actions (or inactions).

TLDR

Email marketing remains a very effective channel for marketers, offering the highest ROI compared to other channels. Inboxes today are crowded, but email’s success can be maximized through targeted segmentation, providing valuable content, personalizing messages, optimizing for mobile, using clear CTAs, testing and refining campaigns, and leveraging automation for timely and relevant communication.