Email may be as old as the internet itself. Yet, it remains one of the most powerful ways to drive up sales. It even blows the new kid in town – social media – clear out of the water. A study by The Radicati Group found that more people use email than any social media platform. Also, over half of the people are more likely to check their email before they check their social channels.
Although email can help boost sales, creating an effective campaign can be a daunting task. You need to think about what will hook your reader’s attention and strongly nudge them to act. The best sales courses say the following strategies could help you create email marketing campaigns that are almost certain to entice even the most reluctant recipient.
Personalization
Most email inboxes are bursting at the proverbial seams. According to Campaign Monitor, the average person sends and receives 121 business emails daily. A report in The Harvard Business Review shows that the average number of messages someone has in their inbox is over 200 at any given point. That’s a large crowd to compete against.
Personalization can help you break through the noise and clutter in someone’s inbox. Do it right and sales could skyrocket. According to McKinsey and Company, brands using personalization rake in 40% more revenue than those that don’t.
Here are a few simple ways you can personalize your emails:
- Include the recipient’s name in the subject line and body of the email.
- Use dynamic content. These are elements of an email that constantly evolve to match the reader. For example, a sales email that promotes products in the nearest local shop to the subscriber’s location.
- Make the sender a person. For example, send emails from Peter at XYZ Company, not The Marketing Team at XYZ Company. The recipient is more likely to feel they’re part of a community and not just another number. This can go a long way in forging relationships with customers and encouraging loyalty.
Create captivating subject lines
To lock in a sale, you need the target audience to open your emails. A report by Barillance found that 64% of people decide to open emails based on the subject line. Maybe even more alarming is that almost 69% of email recipients report messages as spam after reading the subject line, according to Invesp. So, you’re going to need to create killer subject lines.
Sales training courses say that enchanting subject lines are those that:
- Trigger the reader’s curiosity – e.g. “Black Friday Secrets Revealed,” “We’ve been waiting for MONTHS to announce this.” Sales business experts, however, caution against using curiosity in a click-bait manner.
- Spark a sense of urgency – e.g., “One Day Left To …,” “Get this now before it’s gone!”
- Are brief and concise. According to Marketo, the sweet spot is 41 characters or 7 words.
Segment your audience
Segmenting your audience means tailoring your messages to address the specific needs and interests of different groups of people within your general target audience. When done correctly, this strategy can help you reach people who are more likely to be interested in what you are offering. This can result in some stunningly impressive outcomes.
According to Help Scout, segmented campaigns noted a 760% increase in revenue. There are a few ways to segment your audience, including:
- Demographics – age, gender, income, occupation, interest, family status, etc.
- Email engagement – active vs inactive users.
- Geographic location – city, town, country.
- Position in the sales funnel – new subscribers, cart abandonment, etc.
Strong call to action
The call to action, or CTA, is one of the most important elements of an email marketing campaign. It’s the part of the message that tells subscribers what to do next and can flip casual window shoppers into paying customers. Without a strong call to action, your campaign is likely to fall flat.
According to WordStream, messages with a single call-to-action saw an eye-popping 371% increase in clicks and 1617% in sales. Here are some tips shared in email sales courses on how to create an eye-catching call to action:
- Keep it simple, short, and easy to understand.
- Use active verbs such as “click here” or “visit our website.”
- Create a sense of urgency, like “act now” or “limited time only.”
- Use colors, fonts, and other design elements that will make the call to action stand out from the rest of the email.
