Email Marketing Best Practices
Email marketing has been around since 1978 when Gary Thuerk of Digital Equipment Corporation sent a single email to about 400 people that he claims generated $13 million in sales. That sort of return on investment (ROI) might be a thing of the past but just like advertising email marketing has evolved beyond all recognition. Email is still an essential component in the modern marketer's toolbox.
With every new technological development, email marketing is declared dead. Facebook Messenger would kill email. WhatsApp would be the cause of its demise. Social media, in general, would take the place of email marketing.
All those predictions have turned out to be wrong. Email is still the most effective, consistent, and cost-effective marketing tool in the modern arsenal. According to Optic Monster, the potential return on investment (ROI) is over 4400%. That can mean up to £44 for every £1 invested.
Why use email marketing?
Trust
The foundations of effective email marketing are permission and trust. Someone who has opted in to your mailing list trusts you will treat the privacy of their inbox, and that you won't waste their time by sending them irrelevant messages. If there is a choice between two brands, the consumer will always choose the one that they trust the most.
Authority
The idea that your brand, or you as an individual, are worth listening to because your information is useful is at the heart of modern marketing. Using email marketing correctly, you get repeated opportunities to prove to an already warm audience that your solution talks to their needs, so they'll pick up the phone when they need your services. Use what you know about your customers well, and and you’ll be able to refine and personalise what you send them so that things feel more conversational.
Intimacy
Can you build brand awareness, trust and your authority via other forms of advertising and marketing? Yes, but it's not as direct. When a prospect permits you to market to them via email, you gain their attention at a level unavailable elsewhere, bypassing a multitude of distractions. Although the average person receives about 90 emails a day, that's not nearly as many posts as they see on social media every day.
Relevance
The early days of email marketing were the Wild West. Today our behaviour is not only guided by an etiquette imposed by a savvier audience, but laws in most major countries also enforce higher standards. we welcome the evolution of standards and regulation. Giving recipients more control over what advertising and communications they see means that they—and the companies sending them—can concentrate on what’s relevant.
The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is Europe's law that protects the consumer from personal data abuses. In the United States, the CAN-SPAM Act provides some protections, and in the UK the Information Commissioner's Office has powers to enforce information rights. These laws enable consumers to opt out of emails, give them the ability to report violations and serial spammers and, in the case of GDPR, provide them with the right to be forgotten.
It's easy to give into temptation and buy a list of 5,000 addresses for a few hundred pounds, but it's a false economy. Aside from possible questions over the quality and validity of the data, brokered lists are full of cold contacts - people who haven't opted into your marketing or expressed an interest in your services. Sending unsolicited emails to someone who isn't interested in receiving them isn't the most effective way of convincing them they want to do business with you. It's also a sure-fire way to generate a level of complaints high enough to have your account black-listed.
The value of building your list over time rather than buying it in is in the data you collect along the way. Advanced segmentation turns what was once a mass marketing tool into something that answers the requirements of an audience demanding an increasingly sophisticated and tailored experience. Behavioural data and customer intelligence collected through opt-in forms, landing pages and customer interactions enable automated programmes to deliver dynamic content focused on the needs of each user. Dynamic content is the key to unlocking the trust, authority and intimacy that builds deeper, stronger relationships - not just a list.
Tools To Build Your List
Opt-In Forms
Many people will opt-in simply because you've asked them to and they value whatever information you're sharing for free. If you have a great blog that provides a fresh point of view or teaches them new things, a regular reader might choose to opt-in so you can send them updates when you publish new content. Regulation means that people can be confident they can opt out later if they change their minds.
Landing Pages and Lead Magnets
A lead magnet is an offer you make to access gated content in exchange for a lead's email address. This giveaway can be anything your target audience will perceive as offering additional value, for example:
Templates, checklist and workbooks
White papers and e-books
Webinars or e-courses
Competition entry
Free review or consultation
A discount or other special offer
Lead magnets can be embedded anywhere on your website or in a blog post. You can also include them on a landing or lead capture page - a stand-alone page designed around one specific offer or campaign and optimised for conversions.
Progressive Profiling
If you've ever signed up to download multiple lead magnets from a company and noticed that the fields you've filled out have been slightly different on each form, you've experienced the latest evolution in email marketing. Some marketing automation platforms can recognise returning leads and tailor any additional opt-in forms they encounter to enrich the records the organisation holds on them. As customer trust builds they may be more willing to share more information about themselves. Progressive profiling is what enables the advanced segmentation to deliver the relevant, personalised and timely customer experience audiences now expect.