Email marketing is a tough business and it’s hard to find out what works compared to other strategies. I always encourage my clients to keep testing until they find what works and then tweak it until they achieve optimal results. However, sometimes, it’s NOT easy because there are a lot of hidden factors involved and some you’re NOT even aware of until you’re told about them. This has happened to me several times before and I’ve always been surprised how knowing about specific rules can help double or even triple your conversions. Anyway, I decided to continue with my research into email marketing because I know how powerful this marketing strategy can be when done correctly. Here are some email campaign rules you have to follow to increase conversions, traffic, profits, and loyalty.
Let’s jump right in and get started…
Understand the Customer Flow
Did you know how effective it is to understand how and where your customer moves on your website? This also means understanding where they come from and what you can do to increase engagement with them. For example, we know you are going to be utilizing email campaigns to increase conversions and profits so your objective should be to find the most effective content or page where your visitors love to go. This seems very complicated, but all you need to do is utilize Google Analytics to gather the data you need. Google Analytics provides the following:
- Heat maps
- Top Landing pages
- Top content pages
- Bounce Rate on the page
All this information can be used to understand your visitors and how they interact with your website. The key is to find out where the most engagement is on your website, then, through an email campaign, direct everyone to that page. Why? Sending people to a page that’s already getting higher than normal activity will most likely convert better than lower activity.
Know What You Need
These days, it’s very hard to get a lot of information from visitors so you need to know what information you need to continue doing what you do. If all you need is their name and email address, then don’t ask them for phone number, address, etc., because this will push the opt-in away. The information you need is easy to figure out because you have to understand your product and what will increase conversions. Many of my clients think they need someone to provide their whole life story when opting in and they couldn’t be more wrong. Asking for too much will push the visitor away, especially when they are desperate search of information. It’s NOT helping that people don’t trust email marketing as much since spamming has become a huge issue. Here’s my point…
Keep it short and simple so visitors don’t feel it’s work to fill out your form. If you want my personal opinion, you should focus on name and email address so this way, you’ve opened the doors for communication.
Automation
This is a very important rule and if you learn how to automate, you can take the stress out of running a campaign. For example, I’ve noticed whenever I don’t automate things, I’ll do a poor job sending out messages especially when I have to send out a few throughout the month. It takes time to write out an email and continually set things up, especially when your list is always growing. Imagine having to write out follow-ups each time someone new is added to your email list. It’s important to automate the process, which shouldn’t be a problem because ESP’s always provide this function.
I use Aweber.com and I’ll take time ONLY ONCE to write out email messages. I’ll even hire someone to do it for me. Next, I’ll set up the automatic follow-up sequence and every time someone opted-in to my newsletter, they go through the sequence automatically. All I need to do is keep track of what’s working and then tweak along the way to ensure I get maximum results.
Testing the Value
To keep your subscribers happy, you should focus on providing them with value. This means only sending them content that you know gets high engagement, which I figure out by simply viewing total shares, etc. When you give value, your subscribers are more than happy to stay on your list because you provide substance. Look for the following when providing value:
- Check for # of comments
- Check for # of shares
- Bounce rate on content page
- Split test email campaign and check for open rate