Would you like to triple your email clicks and deliver your emails to the inbox, not the promotions folder? In this article, I outline 6 simple steps to achieve that.
Not too far back in time, email marketers would send long emails to their subscribers that told stories, gave value and sold products.
The problem with email is that around 50% is spam, which equates to around 100 billion emails daily. The Internet Service Providers do a great job ensuring this spam is filtered out but this filtering presents a challenge for us Email Marketers:
Emails are sent to the promotions folder. IP addresses are blocked. Spam filters remove emails from existence. Domain names need to be verified. Apple opens all emails and scans them so that you have no idea how many real people opened your emails.
Maybe you can identify with some of that.
Email marketing is evolving
Email marketing still works, and is still the most cost-effective method to reach your audience and make sales. But times change and the way we do email marketing needs to change as well.
Many email marketing strategies involve writing a long email which often evaporates into the ether within a day or so. It’s like you never wrote it at all.
Rather than sending a 1000-word email to your audience, put the effort into writing an article for your site. Over time you have a long-term asset, then send short emails to your subscribers to read your article. Share on XPlace that same content on your website, and you can spark conversations while you cut your workload in half. Instead of writing an email and an article, you focus your efforts on just the article. Now you can send social media traffic to your article and refer back to it in future pieces of content and emails, too.
Email marketing should still form a core part of your marketing mix, but if your open rates are low below are the 6 suggestions to fine-tune the process:
Send out short emails
When you write to a friend, do you send them a thousand-word essay? Not likely. Google likes to decide what emails get through and which are relegated to the promotions folder.
By sending out a short, catchy email that directs your subscriber back to your website, you’re increasing the odds the email will land in their personal folder. And you’re also going to increase your open rate as well.
Place your real message on your blog. Then send your readers a pertinent, catchy email that lets them know if they want to continue reading, here’s the link to do just that.
Create a database of content
Put your efforts into creating a database of content. Instead of having to write articles and posts in addition to your emails, you can focus on creating quality content for your audience.
Quality content is a tangible, long-term asset that will serve your business. If the quality of your content is good, there’s a higher possibility that new subscribers will visit your site and consume your content compared with email. Content has SEO benefits for your site as well.
Encourage discussion
Encourage discussions on your site. Some of your best ideas for future content and products won’t be your ideas at all. Instead, they’ll come from your readers IF you give them the chance to interact with you and your content.
Encourage their feedback. Ask them questions. See what they have to say. Experiment with interactive tools on your website to see what works best. These tools include Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and even the good old comments section.
Add a call to action
Within your email, you can add the ‘continue reading’ call to action to boost clicks. Using this method you’ll likely see your clickthrough rate greatly increase over time.
First, you’re sending out a SHORT email of just a few lines. Entice them with the solution to a problem or with a great story. Then let them know that to read more, they simply need to click. This works like magic because the technique is simple.
Email list segmentation
Most email services provide segmentation through tagging. When you send them an article about driving targeted traffic, offer them a cheat sheet or list of resources to get their email address.
Yes, you already have them on your primary email list, but now you also know they are specifically interested in driving traffic, too.
Tell stories
Whenever possible, use storytelling. Storytelling is a primal instinct for us humans and is pure magic for capturing attention, removing barriers and even making sales. Start many of your emails with a story and let them click the link to find out how the story turns out.
Test this method of emailing by sending one short email every day for a month. Pay attention to your click-through rate and see how it improves over the course of the month. And then decide if this method is right for you.
I think you’re going to be impressed with the results.
Email Marketing Training
Email marketing is the #1 most effective marketing strategy. If you want more help and support with email marketing and growing your online business, visit the McLauchlan Academy
