All posts tagged Email Marketing

Email and digital marketers can be excused if they have been feeling a bit stressed over the past year. Beyond the immense challenges presented by the pandemic, there have been ongoing developments in the data privacy landscape and changing technologies to deal with. But it’s good to remember that challenges also often provide opportunities. Let’s take a look at a few big changes that could impact email marketing in 2021 and in the future — and how marketers can adapt and identify new opportunities.

Evolving Consumer Engagement

Consumer behavior evolves constantly. Some changes can occur suddenly and require quick decisions, while others allow marketers the time to adapt more gradually. Over the past year, email marketers have been dealing with largely unprecedented and sudden changes in consumer behavior.

Just one example was the shift to working from home that impacted workers around the U.S. and the entire world. People who had previously never had the option of working remotely were now scrambling to set up home offices with no certainty about when or if they would return to a traditional office setting. While marketers had already seen a shift toward more remote work in years past, according to Global Workplace Analytics data (via Business 2 Community), the massive acceleration of the change was a game changer for many companies. Consumer needs for some products and services skyrocketed while the need for others plummeted, and many marketers found that all of their existing campaign performance forecasts and benchmarks needed to be reevaluated and potentially tossed aside as organizations pivoted on long-standing strategies.

More people working from home means more people spending more hours in front of their desktop or laptop in a home office setting. Marketers may be seeing this shift in the form of increased desktop email activity and decreased mobile email activity.

Read more: Three Digital Marketing Industry Challenges That May Positively Impact Email Marketing

Email quickly emerged as an unsung hero during the pandemic. Branch availability and safety protocols changed almost daily. Government stimulus program rules changed weekly. No customer communication vehicle was as timely or cost-effective as email. But how else did bank marketers successfully deploy email, and what enduring lessons can be learned? Finally, for those who are revisiting which email system to use, what can they learn from their peers in terms of must-have functionality and pitfalls to avoid?

Most successful uses

Bank marketers have an eternal debate regarding sales versus service. This debate carries over into the optimal use of email communication. Community banks often fall on the side of service, emphasizes Jamie Conaghan, CFMP, vice president of marketing, Main Street Bank of Marlborough, Massachusetts.

“We are a relationship bank, so our email is relationship based,” Conaghan says. “We use it to establish trust and add value to our customers. We offer helpful information they can use and benefit from.” Jamie went on to say, whether it is fraud education, holiday hours notification or an invitation to a virtual seminar on HR recruiting, email is a very popular and effective medium.

Other community banks and larger institutions come down on the side of sales, such as Chad Murray, SVP marketing of Think Mutual Bank. “Email is our second most important connection point with customers, after personal interaction,” Murray says.

Read more: Email Marketing Success Lessons from the Pandemic

You hear a lot of chatter about live videos and webinars but while these are awesome marketing tools you should not overlook the tried and true method – email marketing. It is still one of the most effective options available. Research from Litmus Resource Center shows that email generates $42 for every $1 spent, which is an astounding 4,200% ROI. Wow!

Let’s take a look at your email marketing tactics and see where you can improve.

1. Use your name in the “from address” of your email marketing campaigns. Using your business name results in fewer opens because it isn’t as friendly and personal.

2. Make it worth it for your audience to open and read your emails. Always include a surprise in every three or four emails so they get used to the idea that you may give something away in your emails that no one else is going to get. This can be something as simple as a free audio download.

email marketing headlines3. It’s all about stand-out headlines. Focus on crafting headlines that let your readers know what’s inside and why they should open without being dishonest. Your text should deliver everything your headline promises.

4. Segmentation is imperative for good email marketing because that’s the only way you can freely mention the right product, the right service, and the right topic to them at the right time. If you’re new to this tactic, read 50 Smart Ways to Segment Your Email List Like a Pro from Optin Monster.

5. Check out your competition’s email marketing list. Sign up for their freebies and watch how they do things. Don’t copy them, but do figure out how they do it, identify the gaps, and note the topics.

6. Work on building a real relationship with your email list members. Let them reply directly to the emails you send, and then answer them. They like knowing a real person is behind the emails rather than nothing at all. Check your email marketing software, many of them default to a generic reply to address. You can change this for each email.

Read more: 11 Ways to Increase Your Email Marketing Response Rates

It’s time to start rockin’ around the email tree. With the holidays fast approaching, businesses should start thinking about using marketing automation to get registers ringing.

This year, make the process easier with email marketing and automation. Rather than creating and sending emails during the thick of the holiday season, use marketing automation features to create relevant campaigns to arrive in subscribers’ inboxes at exactly the right time, all season long.

For most businesses, the last two months of sales account for forty percent of the total revenue earned throughout the year. With so much riding on the holiday season, using marketing automation is a decision even the Grinch wouldn’t disagree with.

To help businesses get their marketing automation groove on, we’ll give you a list of holiday emails that you can send and provide tips to get the most out of your marketing automation during this critical time of year.

Light up inboxes with these 4 automated emails

Wondering what emails you can automate this holiday season? Here’s a list of four emails that will light up inboxes:

1. A welcome email or series
2. Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals
3. An inspiring gift guide
4. Helpful holiday hints

Read more: How To Leverage Marketing Automation For Holiday Email Marketing