When marketers(clients) connect with us they have many concerns and queries about email marketing. They are still contemplating about using email as a marketing tool to expand their business and create a brand presence.
So, we thought of sharing some FAQs making it easier for our prospects and customers to decide and choose email marketing as an effective marketing tool.
10 most frequently asked questions about email marketing:
1) How can I make customers read through my email?
Customers open emails they connect with and those, which sound relevant. So, the first thing you need to do is to understand your customer’s expectations and things that matter to them the most.
Whenever you shoot an email ask yourself, “Does the email content, especially the subject line matter to my customer?”
Customers instantly connect to emails, which are personalized and when the call to action is relevant. Also, if you create an urgency they do read and respond as well.
Focus on the value you create for the customer and the benefits you are offering.
2) Will my sales hike due to an email marketing campaign?
Email campaigns can surely hike sales, provided you stimulate and inspire the audience towards investing their money in your brand/ products.
When would you buy a product?
When it provides a solution to an existing or future problem. When you trust the brand and you connect (emotionally and rationally) with the message/signal the advertiser is trying to convey to you.
Well, then you have your question answered.
So, convey to the audience that your product/service will provide them with a solution and add value to their life.
Share testimonials and case studies to build trust.
Create an email with inspiring content and visually strong images (a picture is worth a thousand words) that emotionally and rationally connect with the customer.
3) Any tips on how to write the content of an email?
Content that offers value to the customers, for example, a discount or sale would elicit an instant response. But, emails are not just meant to inform customers about offers and discounts.
There is a journey that each brand has to travel vis-a-vis each customer to drive him/her to reach to the end of the sales funnel and ultimately make a purchase.
Through emails, you connect with the audience, build interest in your brand, build trust and then get down to talking about the sale. When you directly talk about the sale, it might generate a positive response once or twice but, to convert that customer into a loyal one, you need to go through this journey.
4) How do I grow my email subscribers’ list? Should I buy an email list or build it myself?
Buying an email list is strictly a no-no! As these email ids are not verified and not all are interested in your brand. The email list is of no use if your subscribers do not open your emails. If subscribers aren’t actively engaging with your emails or aren’t interested, your email campaigning efforts are redundant.
There are various ways in which you can grow your own opt-in email list. You have to ask for email ids from customers when they visit your website and in return provide them with some deliverable like e-book, whitepaper, etc.
A pop-up window asking them to share their email ids should help build a list of subscribers. You can have a sidebar that will ask your blog visitors to sign in and share their email ids. Ask for their permission to send emails and promotional items.
5) What are the best kind of subject lines?
Subject lines should be striking so much so to generate a response of opening the email. It’s the first thing that your subscribers notice. It’s your gateway to further communication.
So, make it personalized, short and have a message that matters to the audience. You have only 3-4 seconds to create an impact and let anyone decide to open an email.
You can ask questions or create urgency by stating a deadline.
6) What should be the frequency of sending emails?
Sending an email once a month helps to create your presence in someone’s mind. Twice or thrice a month develops a connect and doesn’t create a nuisance. But, when you send emails four times a month it creates consistency.
When you send offer emails you can send two emails and then send the third one as a final reminder. But, sending more than three emails just to mention the offer creates a nuisance ultimately losing a subscriber as he/she might mark you as spam. Here, in desperation to get a sale, you’ve lost an opportunity.
Email frequency varies from industry to industry and you need to keep testing in order to know what works best for your brand.
7) What is a good email open rate?
Email open rate is the percentage of people who opened your email. If someone doesn’t open your email, there are zero chances of engaging with your content and brand.
On an average, 10-15 percent of email open rates work well for the sender. But, it all depends on your industry and your target audience.
It’s true that open rate alone isn’t indicative of the success of your email marketing campaign. Its what people do after opening your email is what really matters.
8) How do I design an attractive email?
Use catchy images, call to actions and animated gifs that attract attention. Don’t use too many font types, font colors, and font sizes. Let the line spacing be enough. This gives good readability. Depending on the context of your emails its great to use bold colors.
Don’t forget to make your email template responsive, so that it looks good across all devices.
All in all, designing an attractive email includes minute details and an eye for creativity. It also depends on the type of content and the message you are conveying.
9) How do I analyze the results from my email campaign?
Curious to know how your email campaign performed? Track these few things :
Click through rate:
Click through rate is the percentage of recipients who clicked on the links in your email. The total number of clicks divided by the number of emails sent, multiplied by 100. This gives you an understanding of how your email campaign performed.
Conversion rate:
This reflect that percentage of people who opened your email, read it and responded as per the desired action. You can calculate it as follows:
The number of recipients who completed the required action/ total number of emails delivered multiplied by 100.
Bounce rate:
When we see “your email has bounced”, it means that your email never actually got to your intended recipient.
Divide the total number of bounced emails by the number of emails sent, and multiply it with hundred. This is your bounce rate.
There are various ways in which you can manage bounces so that your email gets the desired response.
10) How do I prevent people from unsubscribing?
If the email subject line is irrelevant to the customers, they will ignore it a couple of times. But, if this keeps repeating they get bugged and unsubscribe from your emails.
So, send relevant emails that benefit the customer. Don’t send emails that focus only on sales, offers, and discounts frequently. Send information about your company and offerings so as to connect with the customers. You can also inform them about the recent trends in your industry.
The basic role of an email is to first connect with the customers, leverage this tool to the maximum.
We know you still have some more questions and are eager to ask them. Connect with our team and have them answered.
You can also keep reading our blog to know more about email marketing.