Bill Gates once said that he would always hire a lazy person to do a difficult job. Why? Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it. You may not be lazy, but we all want an easy way of doing things. That’s why we have remote controls for our TVs, dial-a-delivery services, and washing machines.
When it comes to lazy digital marketing channels, email marketing is top of the list. You may end up spending a large amount of time working out how to get it right, but in the end, you will do the minimum amount of work for the maximum result.
That result is a whooping ROI of 3800%. This means that, for every $1 spent towards email marketing, brands are seeing an average ROI of $38.
Could you be the next Bill Gates just by sending emails? Perhaps. But you have to do it right.
Email marketing can help you grow your business, acquire new customers, launch a new product, or offer a promotion.
But before you start spamming your subscriber list, there are several DO’s and DONT’s of email marketing to keep in mind to ensure that every email you send not only looks great, but gets opened, read, and acted on by your subscribers.
DO: Use a sign-up form to grow your email list.
Give your customers the option of wanting to receive emails from you or your company. Is it something they need or want? Is it helpful and actionable content? If it checks all the boxes, they will open and click. A lot.
DON’T: Buy an email list.
There’s being lazy than there’s being lazy and stupid. It’s tempting, but that subscriber list for that fashion brand your sister-in-law owns, may not work in growing your car spare parts business. Instead, invite your subscribers, then send them a welcome email immediately after they have subscribed.
DO: Use technology to your advantage.
Here’s where the ‘lazy’ in you will scream for joy. The right tech will help you create customer journeys with analytics, software integration, email templates, and so much more. The right market automation tool will also help you send promotional emails, follow up, segment your audience according to age, gender, demographics and so much more. Want to know how it works? Reach out to us here and we’ll effectively deploy a winning email marketing strategy to grow your business.
DON’T: Overdo it.
Those wonderfully crafted emails will just end up in the spam folder or the trash if you send too many. Wait two days to follow up on an email. If you don’t get a reaction then, wait four days, then another three days, and so on. Monitor the actions taken, and instruct your market automation tool (your very own “Igor”) to do what’s right.
DO: Set goals for your email marketing campaign. What’s your end game?
Here are a few goals to get you started:
- Attract new subscribers
- Increase engagement
- Provide value to existing customers and subscribers
- Gain back the interest of your inactive subscribers
- Become the master of your market automation tool
DON’T: Be redundant.
The one size fits all approach to email simply doesn’t work anymore. Be brilliant and create excellent well-crafted emails. And for crying out loud, stop overusing images. Less is more.
DO: Get Personal.
Personalisation increases your email’s chance of being opened by 26%. However, there’s a fine line between “Wow, this email is really relevant and personalised” to “What the F? Are they hiding under the bed? Have they bugged the house? How did they know that?!” It’s really not hard to get it right – just put yourself in your customers’ shoes.
DON’T: Forget the pre-header text.
Attention spans are lessening, (we’re getting lazier) especially during this pandemic era. Consumers are becoming increasingly intolerant of experiences that are not optimised from the get-go, especially on mobile, where we all spend the majority of our time. Emails get deleted immediately, purchases get abandoned… Simply put, adapt a great headline or be ignored.
Keep in mind the following tips while writing the subject line:
- Keep it short, sharp, and snappy; make it easy-to-digest over a cup of morning coffee.
- Avoid trigger words. View over 100 trigger words and phrases here https://www.simplycast.com/blog/100-top-email-spam-trigger-words-and-phrases-to-avoid/#post
- Personalize the header to show some warmth and to catch their eye.
DO: Keep the body of your email short and sweet.
Who wants to read a lengthy email that’s trying to sell them a new pair of sunglasses? No one. Adhere to the lazy in all of us. Don’t write a novel. We all have things to do (like ponder on whether or not we’re going to exercise today or not), and unless reading that email is the fountain of youth, forget about it.
DON’T: Sell your subscriber’s email addresses.
Just don’t. Not only is it illegal, but it could lead to lawsuits, fines, or worse. Treat every email address like a very important commodity that has been loaned to you. If people perceive you to start invading their privacy, they can very easily take this commodity back.
Take some time to practice the DO’s on this list to create emails that convert your potentials into customers. If you’re ready to embrace your lazy side and try market automation, get in touch with the Digital Bees. We’ll help grow your business with an effective email marketing strategy so you can sit back and relax.
