Email Marketing

with Skylight Digital

What is email marketing?

Using emails to promote your products or services are classified under email marketing services. This is also considered part of internet marketing which is all done online using websites, social media, and blogs.

Email marketing can also include newsletters with updates, promotions, exclusive deals and discount codes.

If done correctly, an email marketing campaign can keep your customers informed and engaged. A poorly structured one sent too frequently will most likely be flagged as spam.

The benefits of email marketing

Email continues to be one the best ways to reach out to your customers and potential leads alike.

There are several benefits to planning out the perfect email marketing strategy for your business:

Personalized content

With email marketing you can create different lists based on preferences and send personalized content to each one. Create a sweet subject line, source a great image and you will create content that speaks to your intended audience. Email marketing is great tool to drive engagement.

Brand recognition

Imagine getting your business to a level where your branding is recognized immediately. Email marketing campaigns are a great way to build your brand identity as it gives you a direct line to your customers and potential customers. Continue to create valuable and original content and you’ll stay one step ahead of your competitors.

Increase sales

Customers can be gently led into impulse buying with an appropriate email marketing strategy. You can achieve this by:

Listing items that are generally purchased with the item the customer has purchased
Send through special offers and discount for future purchases

Budget friendly

Small to medium businesses often have budget constraints, email marketing provides these businesses with an affordable and effective marketing option.

In comparison to printed mail campaigns which are time consuming and costly, email marketing campaigns can be streamlined to maintain professionalism while still achieving your marketing goals and keeping in budget.

Monitor your analytics to see what works

A good open rate means your customer base wants to hear from you. Your click-through-rate tells you how many customers took the next step to go through the content and click on the links. The final metric is your conversion rate, this tells you how well your call-to-action has worked.

Increase traffic to your website

Emails and newsletters are a great way to drive traffic to your website. Include strategic social sharing buttons to encourage customers to promote your content across social media. You can direct the customer to specific pages for various reasons such as completing a questionnaire or watching a video.

How to set up your email marketing campaign

Create your targeted email list

Start off with a list of qualified leads that are interested in your business. One of the best ways to start generating names for this list is to convert your website visitors into subscribers by creating a pop up prompting them to enter their details.

Exit pop-ups can turn website visitors into subscribers and customers. This nifty technological invention can increase your conversion tenfold.

Establish your marketing goals

Before you even create your first newsletter, think about the goal of your email marketing campaign. Popular goals for an email marketing campaign include the following:

Telling new subscribers about your business and starting to build a relationship with them.
Maintaining relations with existing subscribers by providing value such as an interesting read, discount, or something free.
Engaging with inactive subscribers.
Boosting engagement by sharing appropriate content.

Segment email types

Group your emails in their categories to make life easier. Are you familiar with the various email types? Take a look at our list below.

Promotional – discusses offers and sales.

Transactional – includes sign up confirmations, welcome messages, purchase confirmations and acknowledgement of changes to subscriber information.

Technology is your friend

Use comprehensive email marketing software to get the job done. The good ones come with features such as:

Easy campaign creation
Various automation features
Email newsletter templates and workflows
Integrations that work with software you currently use like WordPress
Analytics

Create eye catching opt-ins

You need to create suitable opt—in forms to encourage people to sign up.

It goes without saying that you need to get people on your email list to run a successful campaign. Experiment with different types and monitor how they perform.

You can use a welcome pop up that appears as a visitor arrives on your website. You could use a lightbox pop up which could appear on strategic pages. An exit pop up to catch them before they leave is also popular.

Plot out emails and follow-ups

Now it’s time to plot out your campaigns content. A few things to think of are email frequency (not too often), email type, content plan and the main action you want the user to take such as signing up or buying a product etc.

Once you’ve decided on your plan, it’s time to start writing.

Subject line do’s and don’ts

Stay between 41 and 50 characters
Be clear about the email contents
Personalize with person’s name
Avoid spam trigger words
Use a popular high converting subject line with your own twist

Start writing

Keep your copy short but make the potential customer feel comfortable before making your pitch.

Besides personalizing the copy by adding the person’s name, companies should try making an emotional connection by telling a personal story. Additionally, add something of value to your readers in the form of useful information or helpful resources.

Other popular and engaging choices include polls, surveys, GIFs and videos.

The last and most important part is your call to action. This doesn’t mean that your call to action comes last though. Usually there are several CTA’s throughout the emailer.

Design

Your content could be top notch but if your design is less than desirable then your campaign will fail. Don’t forget to make your design responsive for the many users on their mobile devices.

Test drive it

Collect as much data as you can to improve on what you’ve created. From design to copy, subject lines and CTA’s, you can even test email send times. Monitor analytics and check clicks, unsubscribes and forwards.

Types of email marketing campaigns?

Welcome!

After someone signs up for your mailing list, send them a friendly message to welcome them. Welcome emails have a generally high open rate, and you can use them to let subscribers know what to expect from your mailing list and even entice them further with a freebie.

Thank them for signing up
Provide call to action
Provide additional information about your products and services

Feedback

One of the best ways to improve your service or product is to get feedback from your customers. Instead of waiting for someone to give you a review, send an email to request a review. This is not only efficient but proves to be more effective as you can use various feedback forms to make the feedback process hassle-free for the customer and detailed enough for you to receive accurate data.

Feedback is an essential tool to improve your service and product offering and provides your customers with a sense of importance as their opinion is requested by you. Avoid long and overly detailed feedback forms. Streamline the process to serve your purpose while keeping it easy for the customer.

Updates

This is a great way to keep customers informed and to generate new interest in your business. Whether you have simplified a service or improved a product, your customers should be the first to know. Anything new related to your business such as new products, discontinued products and new processes, should be communicated.

Subscription confirmation

These are essential to avoid being marked as spam. If your emails vary in topics, you can give the customer the option of choosing which ones to opt out of.

Getting consent from your subscribers is key and in turn this will lead to more accurate metrics and higher conversion rates. So quality is the goal, not quantity.

Fun and festive

You not only have the opportunity to send your best wishes to your customers, but you can simultaneously share important news or just have a bit of fun.

Say Thanks

You can thank your consumer base for supporting for business by providing a freebie or discount on their purchase. To maintain sincerity, you should stick to the point and not use these emails to promote a product or service.

Reach out

Many people subscribe to an email list and then never open any of the emails. Reach out and see if there is anything you can do to help. You could offer something small for free to entice the user. An aggressive sales approach is not suited for this. Use a soft touch and focus on improving things for a more pleasant user experience.

Newsletters

These are the most popular form of email marketing types. If you have a blog this is a huge way to share snippets of your content calendar with your following.

Email newsletters keep your readers engaged by letting them know what they can expect from you. This is also a way to drive traffic to your website and you could add questionnaires and competitions to keep it interesting.

What can we offer you?

Skylight Digital can offer you a well-researched and expertly designed email marketing campaign created for your business to generate high quality leads that your team can convert into sales. Contact us today if you’re interested in a email marketing campaign