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5 Ways to Make Email Marketing Work for You

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A common question new clients ask me is “Which marketing channel will give me the best return on my dollar?” That’s a good question, in any economy, but especially now. I come up with one consistent answer—Email Marketing. With an average ROI of $45 for each dollar spent, it’s a good choice and one I confidently recommend clients include in their marketing mix.
Recently a local cemetery administrator, with no email broadcast experience, asked me to help him launch an email marketing campaign to sell geraniums to beautify grave sites. I did. Two hours after the initial round of emails went out to his list of 800+ opted-in recipients, he had orders coming in. His campaign will reach its goals because we designed it using the five essential components of a successful email broadcast.

1. Make sure every email recipient has opted in

Get customer consent before adding them to your email list. My cemetery administrator already had a solid list of emails. Another client simply integrated emails from his existing CRM system into our email broadcast system. You can expand your email contact list by:

  1. Dropping a form into a Facebook post to collect contact information. Platforms such as Mail Chimp (my favorite) provides such a template.
  2. When networking, ask a person interested in what you do if they would like to receive your regular emails/newsletter.
  3. Incorporate a blog into your website along with a sign-up form for these regular posts/newsletters. Mail Chimp provides a plug-in you will add to your website so contact information can be gathered and automatically added to your Mail Chimp contact list.

2. Deliver emails that engage your audience

Think like a marketer. Email marketing is one component of your overall marketing effort. Like all other elements, it needs to be on brand. Weave in your company logo and color scheme, and even brand your regular emails. Here at Corporate Images, we want our website posts and emails to provoke curiosity and engage our readers. Therefore the name “Fresh Ideas.”

Strong visuals engage readers so be sure you (or your agency) use interesting images that relate to content. A recent post focused on branding and how effective imaging hooks our interest and sticks in our memory. At the top of the post the word brand is surrounded by such iconic brand images as Apple’s apple, Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger, and Pillsbury’s doughboy—all referenced in the post.

Remember to design your images to be compatible with both light and dark modes. Dark mode is a display setting for smartphones or laptops in which a light color text presents against a dark or black screen.

3. Design your email to be responsive

Since 61.9% of emails are opened on mobile devices, test every email send on your mobile device before sending. Reliable platforms such as Mail Chimp or Constant Contact provide responsive or mobile-friendly templates for designing emails, but always check before sending in case some adjustments need to be made.

4. Create content that has a consistent voice and sounds human

With the advent of CHAT GPT, content that sounds human is available through OpenAI.com.  Create an account, ask a question and voila! There’s your content. However, CHAT’s ability to understand your customers and their needs remains questionable. And its information isn’t always factual. That said, engage your email readers with language that is well organized, conversational and, when possible, personalized by the inclusion of name or location. Revealing a bit about yourself and showing empathy for the email recipient’s situation always brings an element of humanness to email broadcasts too.

5. Write a subject line that grabs attention

For example, in this email broadcast the subject line reads  5 Ways to Make Email Marketing Work for You.

From all indicators, email marketing will continue to thrive as a cost-effective way to reach customers. Even though technology is constantly changing, email marketing is here to stay. And if you’d like some help making it work for you, just give me a call. I’ll work with you to build and deliver email campaigns that ROI.

Be sure to sign up so you don’t miss a single blog post in the weeks to come.  Like this post? Make a comment, share with a colleague, or drop me an email.

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Maureen Bagg, VP of Client Services, Corporate Images

Maureen Bagg is a dedicated business resource to her clients, providing sales and marketing support along with virtual selling training and consultation. Reach her at 262-633-7772 or email mbagg@corporate-images.com.

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