If you think you can send a plain text email here and there to a huge mix of people and get results, well, you are wrong. Generating revenue from email marketing requires a watertight strategy that accounts for everything from the content to the recipients.
So, yes, it requires work, but with an ROI of up to 4400%, we would say it’s more than worthy of investment. Now, you may be wondering where to begin – and that’s where we come in. If you are a complete email novice, be sure to check out our ultimate guide to email marketing here to gather all the information you need to kick start your campaigns, but if you are up and running and ready to turn those emails into sales, keep on reading.
1. Subject line
Arguably, the most important part of any email marketing campaign is the subject line. With up to 69% of people agreeing they will report an email as spam based on this alone, if you get it wrong once, it could be game over forever.
So, what exactly makes a compelling subject line? Well, for starters, you need to make it personal: if you include a personalised subject line with your email, your audience will be 26% more likely to open it – now that’s a number worth taking action for. Next, you need to think about how to engage your audience and motivate them to take action. This could be by creating a sense of urgency or FOMO (fear of missing out) or perhaps by engaging them with direct questions. Ultimately, you need to give them a reason to want to open your email: so make it interesting!
Top tip: who says B2B has to be boring? Companies that include emojis in their subject lines have up to 56% higher open rates.
2. Relevant copy
If you want to see increased conversions, you need to write captivating copy – and keep it concise. Whilst there is no written rule to say how many words an email should contain, the most effective tend to be between 50 – 125, and there are two reasons for this. Firstly, people sign-up to email newsletters to stay up to date efficiently; they are looking for succinct overviews of relevant topics; if they need more information, they will click – don’t overwhelm them. And secondly, almost half of all emails are now opened using mobile devices; these users do not want to be flooded with huge amounts of text filling their tiny screens.
If you do include a reasonable amount of text, use things like images, videos, headers and bullet points to break it up and make it easier to digest. Remember: people typically skim emails, so they want key information to be made clear. Keep it concise and to the point – make your purpose obvious.
3. Personalisation & segmentation
Segmenting your audience can increase revenue by up to 760% whilst also helping to increase your clicks and reduce unsubscribes by ensuring your content is highly relevant and offers value to each subscriber. Typically, you’ll want to start by segmenting your email list and then progress to personalisation to supercharge your campaigns.
With 94% of professionals agreeing that email personalisation is extremely important when it comes to meeting email marketing objectives and research finding it to deliver up to 6 times higher transactional rates, if you are looking to increase your revenue, this is the way to go.
4. Powerful CTA
Did you know that email marketing drives up to 174% more conversions than social media? That is, of course, if you know how to use it. To motivate your audience to take action, you need to make the process uncomplicated and impossible to miss: cue the CTA (call to action) button).
A CTA button is used to prompt users to click to progress to the next stage – be that registering for a webinar or signing up for an exclusive offer – and should include compelling text, bright colours and be placed in a prominent position. Whilst you can use link-based CTAs, research has shown that CTA buttons increase click-through rates by up to 28%. Other tips to help optimise your CTAs include:
- Keep the text between 2-5 words to keep your audience engaged whilst delivering your point.
- Use actionable words.
- Avoid friction words, such as “order” or “download” as these can come across as forceful.
- Use benefit statements to drive home your points.
- Be wary of words such as “buy” or “free” as these can sometimes get picked up by the spam filter (not always!).
5. Automation
Are you opposed to automation? Well, with automated email marketing campaigns generating up to 320% more revenue, it’s about time you got on board. Not only this, but 77% of ROI comes from triggered, targeted and segmented campaigns, so if your campaigns are not automated, your time will be wasted. Some examples of when email automation can be effective include:
- Welcome emails triggered by sign-ups: when it comes to this type of campaign, research has found sending a series is more effective, with Mailchimp yielding 51% more revenue when compared with sending a single email.
- If your business sells products available for purchase online, you can trigger abandoned cart emails to help give your audience that extra push needed to get them over the line. With an average click-through rate of 28.6%, it’s certainly not something you should overlook.
- Personalised automated emails can help upsell products and services – and with 58% of marketers saying it’s one of the most effective uses of automation, there’s no denying that it’s successful.
And if the above isn’t enough to convert you, how about the fact that 76% of businesses using automation see an increase in ROI within one year? Or that 80% of marketers say automation has led to an increase in leads? So, you may be sceptical of change, but the numbers don’t lie.
With 59% of B2B marketers saying email marketing is their number one source of revenue, it’s not something that you can afford to miss out on. So, if you are looking for a helping hand, check out our B2B digital marketing page to see the services we can offer your business, or contact us for a free consultation with one of our marketing experts.
