It's way past time that we let the phrase "email blast" die. Email marketing, however, is very much alive and flourishing. In fact, it may be the most influential tool to drive conversions. At its core, email marketing is about creating connections with your audience. It’s not a “blast” you broadcast to a mass of nameless, faceless people.
But how do you transform your “email blasts” into effective and personal emails that build relationships with your audience?
1. Listen to your subscribers
One of the most important methods to creating a relationship with your subscribers is to listen. Listening and responding to feedback from your audience by surveys and asking subscribers to share their thoughts is a surefire way to strengthen your relationship with them because it enables you to send even more relevant content in the future, which brings us to tip number two:
2. Relevancy matters
Even in 2008, when email marketing was at its peak, savvy marketers always insisted that you need to make your message relevant and add value to the reader, not sell. However, today, it goes much deeper. Recipients sign up for your email list to receive something of value, such as information, entertainment or an answer a question or problem. Once you’ve provided them with that value, they’ll be more inclined to do something for you in return, and the more you give them, the more they’ll trust and rely on you.
3. Personalize your emails
Sending an email that is irrelevant to your audience can damage your email engagement and your ability to create connections with subscribers. It’s like trying to sell peanuts to someone who is allergic. Just like personal relationships, professional ones must be mutual, natural and unforced. No one likes being badgered. When you send messages that are irrelevant to a subscriber, they may feel like you’re wasting their time, which can lead to lost engagement and subscribers, as well as spam complaints. To avoid this, try segmenting, a method where you categorize your subscribers into a group based on a common factor, such as their location, interests, hobbies, or work.
4. Be welcoming!
Creating a welcome email to automatically send out to subscribers when they sign up to your list get four times higher open rates and fives times higher clickthrough rates in comparison to other emails. They’re also a critical part of developing relationships with your subscribers and growing your engagement for future emails.
In your welcome email, you should:
- Begin with a warm introduction that displays your company’s personality.
- Describe what kind of content they’ll receive from you
- Create a clear call to action
- Be mobile-friendly, as 79% of smartphone owners use their device for email.
In the end, however, if there’s one word that can sum up what the key is to making sure your emails build connections with your recipients, its value. Your subscribers should love your emails so much that they’d never contemplate unsubscribing or marking you as spam. Furthermore, they should be eager to see when another one of your emails arrives in their inbox. By providing and segmenting content your audience will love, welcoming them to your list and listening to their feedback, you’ll avoid the spam filter, and bombarding your subscribers with emails they don’t want.