Research over the last few years has consistently proven the benefits of email marketing for businesses.
Low cost, high conversion rate, and detailed tracking are some of the notable features. But email marketing is becoming more than just a tool for spammers and e-businesses. Consumers are increasingly aware of the difference between spam and permission-based email, and more consumers are accepting permission-based email marketing as a positive alternative to direct mail.
The best news is that the vast majority of people who receive permission-based email open an average of 78% of the emails.
Jupiter Research reports that effective email marketing campaigns can generate nine times more revenue than broadcast emails and 18 times more profits. But writing effective business emails is as much an art as it is a science. Here is a list of factors, potential issues, and effective solutions to consider.
- Spam! spam! spam! I don’t want Viagra!
The average consumer receives over 300 emails per week, 62% of which are spam. No wonder there is such hostility towards the industry. However, spam filters, bulk folders, and the “report spam” feature can help consumers better understand the dangers of spam. In 2003, 89% of users cited spam as their top concern, but that number dropped to 85% in 2004. This is proportional to the increase in the use of anti-spam tools.
So what can you do as a permission-based business email marketer? One tip is to notify your subscribers to add you to their safe senders list. The second most important tactic is to make sure your email marketing service provider has a good relationship with her ISP. This ensures that your email marketing campaigns end up in your subscribers’ inboxes and out of their spam folders. When choosing email marketing software, make sure the company has a strict anti-spam policy and adheres to a no-spam policy.
- Images and formats: Why does my email look corrupted?
Email campaign disruption is a growing concern for email marketers, especially as some companies and web-based email providers block images as an anti-spam measure. In fact, according to ClickZ, 40% of email marketing messages sent to his inbox are “broken.”
This actually happened during the beta testing phase of Eliteweb. A Canadian government customer whose recipients primarily used secure email programs. The solutions we have developed are now one of our key competitive advantages. Eliteweb publishes all email marketing campaigns sent to a secure location on the web, accessible only to the original recipient of the email thanks to encryption technology that automatically authenticates users To do. The technology also allows us to track user behavior even when the user is reading his e-mail campaigns from his secure website.
- Personalization and Related Content: When it comes to business email, one size does not fit all.
A recent study by DoubleClick found that an email user is 72% more likely than her to reply to a business email if the content is based on their interests. This figure highlights the importance of allowing users to select their interest groups and control the business emails they receive. According to this research, the most popular interest categories are coupons and household items.But your coupon is useless unless the user opens the email. People who took part in the survey said the name in the From field was the most compelling reason to open a business email. So make sure your company name is clearly stated. Another important element is the “subject” line. Users cite discount offers and exciting news as the most compelling subject lines, followed by new product announcements and free shipping offers.
- Click-throughs and conversions: show me money
So the user opened the email and read the contents. big. But where is the market? Here’s the good news. First, consumers are increasingly likely to make purchases as a direct result of business email campaigns. A third of her users who participated in DoubleClick surveys clicked links in emails to make purchases. Another 42% clicked on the email link to learn more and later purchased the product. Second, online coupons are booming.
73% of consumers redeemed online coupons for online purchases and 59% redeemed online coupons offline.
At the industry level, Travel, Hardware/Software, Electronics, Apparel, Grocery, Home Textiles, Gifts/Flowers, and Sporting Goods are the top performers. All companies sending business emails in these categories report that between 71% and 80% of recipients purchased a product as a result of their email campaigns.
If your business doesn’t fit into any of these industries, don’t worry. The overall picture of email marketing conversions is getting brighter by the day. The average click-to-purchase rate has increased nearly 30% since 2004, and the average order rate per email delivery has increased over 18% since last year.
- Statistics tracking: Who are my true consumers?
Email marketing is becoming more and more popular as an effective CRM tool, and it’s about time many companies realized that. First of all, if your provider’s business email service doesn’t include detailed real-time tracking capabilities, you’re in for a bad deal. Real-time tracking is now the industry standard and is extremely valuable as it allows you to know exactly when a user opened a campaign, clicked a link and made a purchase. By surveying your users, you can improve your communication efforts and make each campaign perform better than the last (if you use multiple email services his provider, compare campaign performance can also do). But many marketers are still fumbling in the dark. According to a recent survey by WebTrends, only 5% of marketers are confident in measuring their marketing efforts online, and 26 of them are “blind”. WebTrends says the low confidence is due to a lack of measurement knowledge. That means we still have work to do.
Blind shots don’t do much in email marketing. But like many online and offline businesses, if you follow these important rules of the game and hit the right goals, you should be able to reap great results in no time.