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Email Optimization Techniques For Your Marketing Campaign
This is a guest post from Miromind.
More than 75% of marketers admit they’re investing more in email marketing today than they were a couple of years back: To put that in perspective, roughly $2 billion was invested in email marketing in 2014. With personal and business emails expected to grow to 333 million by 2022, you need email optimization marketing strategies to target high ROI.
If your inbound marketing strategy is veering toward increasing investment in email marketing, are you focusing on emails alone, or will you consider even more marketing techniques?
Read on to discover some result-oriented options to ensure that your email marketing campaign achieves the perfect lift-off.
Email validation: low-quality recipient lists compromise your emailing campaigns.
No matter how good your emails are, your campaign success hinges on the quality of the recipient list.
There’s also the problem of customer attrition or churn: You’ll find that 20 to 25% of the recipient list disappears, due to people unsubscribing, opting out, or changing their addresses.
While some churn is normal, unsubscribe rates differ depending on your industry, and there are steps you can take if yours are low.
Inbound marketing: growing your subscriber base and generating leads
What attracts a customer? The value that you provide and how you address their pain points.
It’s possible to deliver customer satisfaction through a simple tactical move: Creating blogs with search-friendly content customized to solve individual problems the customers are facing.
Consider 4 successful lead-generating strategies:
- Do A/B testing to increase the visibility of your subscriber box and ensure that visitors fascinated by your blog know where to reach you. By removing distractions and by positioning the box correctly, you prompt visitors to engage you at the first opportunity.
- Fill your blog with informative and knowledgeable attention-grabbers like webinars and podcasts, where third-party experts, peers, and industry leaders discuss your strengths. This strategy is a proactive way of overcoming customer churn with a steady stream of new subscribers.
- When the customer reaches for the unsubscribe button, present a preference center that offers multiple emailing options, such as fewer emails or emails that convey only relevant offers and discounts. Alternatively, ask if you can send e-brochures or white papers regarding customer-specific problems.
- Over 80% of successful email marketers reduce their unsubscribe rate, simply by asking readers to choose an email frequency they’re comfortable with.
Predictive analysis: targeting the right audience with the right message at the right moment
The moment customers sense that emails are irrelevant to their needs, they reach for the unsubscribe button. Irrelevancy occurs when you fail to read the audience and what they need. You have a problem when the right message pings the wrong people and the wrong message disinterests the right people.
Of course, we all know it’s impossible to gauge what thousands of customers want.
Luckily, we can turn to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms.
Predictive analysis (PA) is an AI-driven statistical modeling tool that studies consumer browsing behavior and purchasing habits to predict how consumers are likely to behave in the future.
Using PA, you can gain a better understanding of your customers. Once you know what attracts the customer or what propels the search query, you tailor the message to address individual needs directly.
3 ways predictive analytics models boost email marketing campaigns
1. Customer segmentation: predictive analysis broadly classifies your audience into three categories:
- Customers segmented by differences in behavioral patterns
- Customers categorized based on their affinity to products and services, and
- Customers that are brand conscious and desire lasting relationships with your company.
The algorithms note behavioral patterns like the frequency of visits, points of dissatisfaction (pogo-sticking), what attracts visitors the most, the time they spend on your content, and seasonal variations in buying behavior. The product and brand-related interactions tell you a great deal about what attracts or repels visitors the most.
2. Customer engagement: predicting the probability of the customer engaging the brand in the future
- The chances of the customer clicking your link in the email: This helps you decide what to send and which information to withhold.
- The likelihood of the customer buying the product: If it’s a first-time buyer, you need detailed messaging that informs and nurtures the relationship. A repeat visitor would find special offers and discounts more appealing.
- The possibility of customers unsubscribing from you: An algorithm can automatically suggest an upgraded offer or different email frequency.
3. Customer retention: maximizing avenues for cross-selling or upselling products
Amazon is far from perfect, but email marketers can actually learn a lot from the world’s number one retailer. Amazon goes above and beyond in retaining a customer after the first buy, and it does this through algorithms that manage “Amazon Recommendations.”
Amazon studies customer profiles and buying behavior to gain insights regarding what customers may be interested in, and, as a result, buyers see “similar” products that others have liked or clubbed with each purchase.
Every sale comes bundled with offers upgrading to better models or cross-selling similar products, creating opportunities for expanding sales and boosting revenue.
These predictive analytics models and tools are immensely useful in deciding the right products, marking the right links, and addressing the right recommendations through emails. The most successful email campaigns are those that respond correctly to the unique interests of customers evidenced by individual customer behavior.
4. Media integration: synergizing emails and social media for better marketing impact
Surveys place email marketing at the top of inbound digital marketing strategies, and social media is the globe’s largest generator of referral traffic.
See how social media and email compare here.
The all-inclusive digital marketing strategy emphasizes the integration of both email marketing and social media outreach.
For example, if your clients are proud and happy to associate with your product or service, why not give them bragging rights via social media? When Sony launched their VAIO series of PCs and smartphones, red arrow-marked Pin-It buttons were placed in company emails so that buyers could share their purchase with their inner circle.
The exponential force of positive customer response click-throughs (CTRs) enabled Sony to exceed all their email revenue objectives. Both Sony and Pinterest benefited through media/email integration.
- Build an active online community through social media and remind subscribers (potential and existing) of the advantages of associating with your brand, and to share ideas and innovative products.
- Incentivize community members by offering attractive prizes (products of their choice) in online quizzes and contests.
- Use Twitter to encourage email signups. Consider a promotional tactic such as, “Learn about industry happenings with our biweekly email.”
- By uploading your social media subscriber lists, you effectively put a face to your subscribers. It’s a way of gently reminding clients that you care enough to engage them directly, and you value their input.
Wrap up
Ensure email deliverability, spur customer engagement, and boost campaign performance using the tips and tricks we’ve shared. These are guaranteed ways to get results.
And if you feel you can’t do it all, consider AI-driven technology. In no time, you’ll notice a change in the quality and quantity of traffic you’re attracting.
Remember customer segmentation and constant email optimization bring you closer to understanding each visitor’s journey, and success happens when you address customer-centric pain points.
Maria specializes in business and marketing, and she has been writing articles for several years. When she’s not writing for Miromind, she loves to read and go to the park with her dog.
