Let’s think about some of the most successful businesses in the world.
You have Instagram, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and so on… Now while these businesses vary across numerous industries, one thing they all share in common is that they take their audience very seriously.
Each one of these companies goes through a painstaking process to get to know every single one of their customers or users. They find out your name, where you live, your gender (or preferred gender), your race, the amount of time you spend on each page of their website, what your eyes focus on, where you came to their website from, and so much more.
While it is disturbing what these algorithms learn from us, simply put, the most successful businesses in the world are those who understand and know their audience to the finest degree.
One of the main reasons for this is to personalize the way your company interacts with your audience and make it feel like a closer relationship. There are not that many ways to make your audience feel like they have a 1-to-1 connection with you outside of shopping in person at the same store over a long period of time and building that relationship.
When you show up to the car dealership, how often is the person there waiting with your name and information unless you’ve been going there for years?
It can be even harder to build these relationships when you don’t have a physical location, but it doesn’t have to be harder.
It can in fact be easier.
One way to really get up close and personal (see what I did there) with your audience is via email marketing.
If done correctly, email marketing can be what sets you above your competitors, let’s talk about it.
What Is Email Marketing and Why Should I Care?
In the simplest terms, email marketing is the process of communicating with your audience via email, usually with the end goal of making money from that audience.
The first question that needs answering is how do you get your audience to care that you are emailing them? How can you convince them to take 30 seconds to read a promotional email?
It isn’t as easy as you’d think… but it also isn’t insanely difficult.
The reason we brought up those big successful companies and how they get personal with their customers is because that is a big part of how you start to get your audience to want to open your emails.
Truthfully, email marketing may be the easiest way to make your client feel like they have a 1-to-1 connection with your brand aside from actual in-person interaction. More than that though, it is also a marketing channel with legs.
Look at billboards, radio, etc. These channels have mostly died while email marketing is still going strong. The reason is you are not likely to just up and stop using your email, while the invention of all different new technologies killed radio, print and some television advertising.
Email marketing is one of the cheapest ways to be in touch with your audience on a recurring basis.
When I used to work at GroomingLounge.com, I personally responded to every single comment on orders from my work email address. It was something that our base really appreciated and it put a face on the company.
Every business should care about email marketing because it is one of the best and most accessible ways to communicate with your clients!
What Makes a Good Marketing Email to my Clients?
There are plenty of best practices and strategies to getting your email opened and read by clients but there is no magic “follow these steps to success” guide.
It doesn’t matter if you have the most amazing content on the internet if no one engages with it.
The whole point is to make your audience feel like part of the family and want to engage with your brand and content.
There are a ton of factors which lead to higher clickthrough rate and better engagement with your audience so let’s talk about some of the most important ones:
Invest in an Email Service Provider (ESP)
ESPs like Hubspot Email Marketing Software, Omnisend, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, etc. help with every aspect of email marketing. Want to spend hours learning how to create automated email prompts for your website based on complex spreadsheets of names, numbers, emails, and more?
It is infinitely easier to sign up for a free service or pay a small monthly fee to do all of the above on top of tracking and reporting on your campaigns. Trust me, this one is imperative.
Personalize your emails wherever possible
Personalization is a huge contributing factor to the success of larger companies and the same is true of smaller companies. If anything, smaller businesses have the strategic advantage because they have fewer clients to get to know.
Some great steps are to include their first name in your greeting, send a happy birthday email, know their shopping preferences and curate coupons for the things they like. These can make the client feel like you know them. And of course you do! You’re a good business owner!
Write a compelling subject line
How many times have you deleted an email based on the crappy subject line? I got rid of 8 this morning from senders I knew without having opened them. After reading the subject line, I realized it wasn’t content for me and deleted it. Make sure your subject line is specific so your reader knows what to expect.
Many people would suggest using powerful or emotion evoking words so your reader reacts to them and then chooses to open it.
Target & segment your audience to better tailor message
The more specifically you can segment your audience, the better. Think about it like this, men and women buy different clothes for themselves, right? If you were an e-commerce store for clothes would you send a new in stock email about men’s clothes to your female audience? Probably not.
Not only can you segment by demographics (gender, location, age) but also by behavior! If you have clients who almost exclusively come to your site for sneakers, you bet your ass they want more email content regarding your sneaker inventory or deals.
A/B Test to send the best
Furthering the above point, you want to split test your email campaigns so that you can test and see which subject line or content works best.
For example, you can send your A/B Test to moderate openers and see which subject line performs better among people who open your emails most of the time.
Alternatively, select a group that opens almost every email so you know that your open rate will be high and you can pull significant data about the response. Did they go to the landing page or did they clickthrough to the homepage? These are important questions that won’t have enough data to be answered without good open rates.
Either way, A/B Testing is a good way to guarantee you are sending out the best version of an email to your audience at large.
Know why you send and leave a call to action
If you are sending an email with no call to action, you may be wasting your time. The more emails you send, the more ‘annoying’ your audience usually sees you. I know this is true for me.
If you are sending an email it should be because you want to convey X message and have Y response. It may be to convey that whatever product is 10% off and you want to see an increase of 5% or more in sales. Once you know the message, you have to get the audience to do what you intend, so be specific and tell them!
What Else Makes A Good Marketing Email?
Those were the big block items which help you decide how every email is sent however, there are a few less important but very helpful details added below:
Focus on the customer, not the brand
A lot of people talk about the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) approach where you prioritize the selfishness of your client. It sounds a bit crude but it is true that consumers are selfish and they are almost always buying for themselves. I don’t go to the mall and think, “I must go to Patagonia so they succeed.” I do it because I needed a jacket or something…
Sell your ethos by sharing your philosophies
Similar to the point above, while most client’s shop out of need, many consider what the brand’s do that speak to their values. Patagonia for example, uses 75% recycled materials to make each product (up to 100% in 2025) and that is something many consumers can get behind. When I look to buy outdoor gear, I usually look at sustainable companies like Patagonia. I only know they are sustainable because they email me about it so often at this point, it is one of the things I associate with Patagonia.
Telling your clients how you affect the world with your carbon footprint or how your company treats workplace misconduct won’t be the only factor for a new customer but it can be the factor which convinces them that you are the brand they want to be wearing or working with.
Sending time (know when to send)
If you know your audience tends to open your emails at about noon from wherever they are in the world, you can automate the sending time. Maybe send it a half hour before that golden time for you. This should increase your open rate.
Making Sense of it All
When done correctly, email marketing is a very easy and effective way to communicate with your audience.
Considering the steps above is a great start point for anyone looking to improve their email marketing skills but is by no means the definitive guidebook. In fact, there are thousands of different strategies that a company can take to have successful email campaigns.
It could be setting up long term campaigns that win the customer over in time (ie talking about your brand’s sustainable resourcing) or taking advantage of your audience’s love for discounts.
One thing that is important through it all is making sure you get as personal and 1-to-1 with your audience as possible.
It gives your company an endearing feel to it and leaves the audience feeling warm and fuzzy.
The best way to get started is to get to work!
