As they say, a good sense of humour is the oil that lubricates the engine of life. But can you use humour to stand out in your sales email strategy?
Yes, you can. You can make your audience laugh, smile, and be curious. At the same time convey your message in an interesting way. It’s a process of trial and error.
There are various stages of marketing and now it’s time to understand how to use humour in sales emails and whether it’s a good idea to do that or not.
Business goal for creating this content:
- Boost Sales with Humour: Unveiling the Pros and Cons of Using Humour in Sales Emails
- Target persona(s): Small businesses, Marketing professionals, Freelancers, Entrepreneurs E-commerce Entrepreneurs,B2B Sales Professionals, Sales Trainers and Coaches, Customer Relationship Managers, Business Development Executives, Sales and Marketing Trainees, Digital Marketers, Sales Professionals
- Voice/tone: Informative, clear, they like lists.
The benefits of using humour in sales emails
As per Zippia stats, 347.3 billion emails are sent globally every single day. Now the question is: As a marketer, what are you doing to stand out among these billion emails so that your customers are curious to open, read and click on your email?
Well, Using humour in sales emails can be one of your sales strategies to stand out. Here are several benefits of using humour including:
Regenerate response:
Humour is the best way to capture attention. Grab your reader’s attention and make them more likely to engage with your message. Since humour is not always about sharing a joke.
You can add humour in your email subject lines.
Check out this example from Really Good Emails where they have written Creepin’ instead of Keepin’ in the subject line. This has added a spooky feeling to their Halloween email.
Making your message memorable:
If your sales email is funny or entertaining, your readers will remember it forever.
Dollar Shave Club is a brand that has used humour in proving that generating new sales is easier than you think. The brand’s debut video featured its founder delivering a humorous monologue about the expensive razor blades.
This video went viral and helped to establish Dollar Shave Club as a ruling force in the grooming industry.
Establishing rapport with prospects:
Humour can help build rapport with the reader by creating a positive emotional connection. If you can make your customers feel emotions like laughter or smile, you will connect on a deeper level with your audience.
Increasing engagement and response rates:
By making your call-to-action entertaining or humorous, you can encourage your reader to take action.
In short, you can increase the likelihood of a response. Want to know how Geico has been using humour in its advertising for years?
Its iconic “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance” slogan is memorable. Now this slogan has a strong CTA behind it. It includes different types of humorous characters in its commercials.
Characters like a talking gecko, a caveman, and a stack of money with googly eyes are enough to attract customers.
Humanising the sales process:
Creating a personal connection with the help of humour is the best thing you can do for your business.
By sharing a laugh or a funny story, the salesperson can break down barriers in their sales pitch and make the prospect feel more comfortable and at ease. Moreover, It can be used to relieve tension in the sales process.
Whether you run an e-commerce business, contractor SEO agency, or any other type of enterprise, incorporating humour into your interactions can have a positive impact on building rapport with potential clients.
Strategies for using humour effectively in sales emails
According to recent studies, the average open rate for sales emails across all industries was around 21.33% in 2021.
This means that even to reach this number, your sales email is supposed to be opened first. And to make sure that this happens you need to use strategies like incorporating humour in emails:
Here are a few strategies to include humour and skyrocket your sales email open rate::
Knowing your audience and their sense of humour
The best way to know your audience’s sense of humour is to research it. Conduct market research to understand your target audience’s demographics, interests, preferences, and behaviours. You will get insights into their communication style and what kind of humour they might find funny.
Balancing humour with the intended message
Balancing is a delicate task. You want to incorporate humour but don’t forget your core message. Sometimes you can use humour to show that you understand their needs and challenges.
Example, intention: To introduce your product to a potential customer.
Humorous statement: “We know you’ve been searching for the perfect product to solve your problem. Well, look no further! Our new product is like a genie in a bottle, except it won’t grant your wishes, but it will make your life easier. Let’s chat about how we can make that happen.”
Using appropriate timing and tone
Note: Avoid using humour that is over the top or using humour at the wrong time. Make sure it doesn’t overshadow your main message.
A subject line like “Don’t worry, I am not a robot” can be used to promote your new product and get the attention of your customers at the same time.
Avoiding controversial or sensitive topics
It’s generally best to avoid controversial or sensitive topics when using humour in sales emails. While humour can be a powerful tool for connecting with your audience, it can also be risky when dealing with sensitive issues.
Firstly, it’s important to remember that what may seem funny to one person may be offensive to another. You never know who your email is going to be, so it’s important to avoid potentially divisive topics that could alienate certain segments of your audience.
Testing the effectiveness of humour in sales emails
You can conduct a split test where you send two versions of the same sales email to two different groups of people. One version can include humour, while the other version does not. Now analyse the results to see which email performed better in terms of open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates.
Real-world examples of humour in sales emails
Now that we know how to use humour in sales emails, here are a few examples to get you inspired and make your customers laugh.
- Check out this humorous sales copy by Hubspot. This Dilbert cartoon is a sales pitch with a different angle. It is a reminder of how you can always differentiate and promote customer value.
- Stats suggest that Thirty-five per cent of people say they open emails based solely on the subject line Here’s an example of a humorous subject line by Patagonia that used “Sleep around” to add a playful note to their message.
Analysis of their effectiveness and potential drawbacks
Using humour in sales emails can help you optimise your open rates. It is the best communication strategy that can help to break down barriers. It acts as a differentiator in your sales email from the countless other sales emails that the recipient receives daily.
However, there are also potential drawbacks to using humour in sales emails. For one, humour is highly subjective. This means what one person finds funny, another may not. If your humour misses the mark, it can backfire and create a negative impression.
Conclusion
To conclude, using humour in sales emails can be an effective way to connect with your audience and stand out from your competitors.
However, it’s important to use humour judiciously and consider the potential risks before incorporating it into your email strategy.
Whether you’re writing emails for branding, business writing or promoting your new product, don’t forget to add a little dash of humour and make your customer’s day.
Email marketing is a powerful tool for businesses looking to reach their target audience and convert leads into customers. However, with so many emails flooding inboxes every day, it can be challenging to get your message noticed. That’s where optimizing your email open rate comes in.
In this blog, we’ll discuss how to write effective subject lines that will entice your subscribers to open your emails. We’ll explore the psychology behind subject lines, top tips for writing effective subject lines, common mistakes to avoid, and key takeaways to keep in mind. Let’s dive in!
Top Tips for Writing Effective Subject Lines
Keep it Short and Simple
Short and sweet subject lines tend to perform better than longer ones. Most email clients only display the first few words of the subject line, so it’s important to make those words count. Keep your subject lines under 50 characters if possible and make sure they accurately convey the content of your email.
Personalize your Subject Lines
Personalization is a powerful tool in email marketing. Use the recipient’s name or other personal information to make the subject line feel more tailored to them. Personalized subject lines have been shown to increase open rates by up to 26%.
Use Action-Oriented Language
Action-oriented language encourages the recipient to take action, whether it’s to read your blog, make a purchase, or sign up for your service. Use strong verbs and clear calls to action to make your subject line stand out.
Create a Sense of Urgency or Scarcity
People are more likely to act quickly if they feel like they might miss out on something. One effective way to create a sense of urgency is by setting a deadline for a sale or promotion. By letting subscribers know that the offer will only be available for a limited time, you can encourage them to take action before it’s too late.
For example, using phrases like “limited time only” or “offer ends soon” can be effective in conveying a sense of urgency.
Leverage the Power of Emojis
Emojis are a fun and eye-catching way to add some personality to your subject lines. Emojis have become a ubiquitous part of modern communication, and their use has also found its way into email marketing.
By incorporating emojis into your email campaigns, you can add personality and emotion to your messages, making them more engaging and impactful. Use them sparingly and make sure they are relevant to your content.
Test and Experiment With Different Formats
Not all subject lines will resonate with your subscribers. Experiment with different formats and styles to see what works best for your audience. A/B testing can help you determine what subject lines are most effective.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
While there are many effective strategies for writing subject lines, there are also common mistakes to avoid. Here are a few mistakes to keep in mind:
- Overusing capitalization and exclamation marks: Overusing capitalization and exclamation marks can make your emails feel spammy and unprofessional. Use these formatting options sparingly.
- Being too vague or generic: Vague or generic subject lines won’t grab your subscriber’s attention. Make sure your subject lines are specific and relevant to your subscribers’ interests and needs.
- Making false promises or using clickbait tactics: Making false promises or using clickbait tactics may get your subscribers to open your email, but it can damage your brand’s reputation in the long run. Make sure your subject lines accurately reflect the content of your email.
- Ignoring mobile device limitations: According to an email marketing agency, more than half of all emails are opened on mobile devices. Make sure your subject lines are short and easy to read on mobile devices.
Key Takeaways
Crafting emails that get read is essential for any successful email marketing campaign. By optimizing your open rate, you can increase the chances of your subscribers engaging with your content and taking the desired action.
To do this, you should focus on creating attention-grabbing subject lines, delivering valuable content, and segmenting your email list for targeted messaging. Additionally, it’s important to pay attention to the design and format of your emails, ensuring they’re mobile-responsive and easy to read.
However, if you’re struggling to see results from your email marketing efforts, it may be worth considering working with a full service email marketing agency. These experts can provide you with the knowledge and resources needed to develop a successful email strategy, from designing templates to analyzing data and refining your approach.
Contrary to what many people believe, email marketing is not dead. It’s actually very much alive, and a number of marketers have been able to successfully leverage it to generate leads and sales. However, these campaigns require careful planning and execution to ensure they’re effective.
When it comes to email marketing, the importance of tracking metrics can’t be understated. In fact, every email marketing strategy should have a set of goals and a tracking method in place in order to measure success. It is necessary to understand whether your emails are connecting with your audience and helping you accomplish your online business goals.
In this article, we will discuss the three most important email metrics you should understand and track in order to create a successful email marketing campaign, as well as provide actionable tips for email delivery service made easy.
Open Rate
The open rate is the percentage of recipients that read your email. It is a useful metric to know because it helps you understand how well your email is performing, which allows you to optimize your campaigns to increase click-through rates and conversions.
The best way to track open rates is by using a third-party email tracking software, such as HubSpot or MailChimp. These platforms allow you to track analytics through a series of reports. The open rate report shows the number of recipients who opened your email and how many times they opened it.
For example, you can see what time of day your emails are most likely to be opened, which provides new possibilities for scheduling. This information can help you schedule your campaigns accordingly, increasing the likelihood of clicks and conversions. You can also see how many clicks an email receives, which can help you determine the effectiveness of your call-to-action.
If your open rate is low, it could be because of subject lines or content that isn’t interesting enough to make recipients want to know more. To increase your open rate, consider adding an attention-grabbing teaser or offer in the subject line to entice recipients to open your email. You can also test different types of content and messaging.
Click-Through Rate
The click-through rate is the number of people who clicked on a link in an email divided by the number of people who opened the email. It is a key metric because it tells you how effective your call-to-action is. It helps you determine what message resonates best with your audience and gives you clues about what type of content they prefer to read.
To track click-through rates, use the same third-party email tracking software that you use for tracking open rates. These platforms will allow you to track the number of times a user clicks on a link in your campaign, broken down by the type of link: standard text links, images, videos, and so on.
For example, if you are running a campaign that sends out two different versions of an email, one with a text link and another with a video, using this feature will allow you to see which type of link has the highest click-through rate. This information will give you insights into what content your audience likes to consume and help you determine what types of links perform best based on their preferences.
Bounce Rate
The bounce rate is the percentage of messages that were returned as undeliverable by a recipient mail server. The bounce rate is usually caused by an incorrect email address or a server that doesn’t accept messages from your domain.
Email bounces can be caused by a number of factors. First, if your email provider is sending to an email address that doesn’t exist, the recipient will receive a bounce message. Sometimes, the recipient’s spam filter will automatically return your email as spam or the recipient may have changed their email address and not updated their records with their email provider.
There are hard bounces and soft bounces. Hard bounces are those that result when a server doesn’t exist. Soft bounces occur when the email is accepted by the server, but the recipient doesn’t receive it. This could be caused by a spam filter or an inbox that is full.
To track bounces, you should use your email tracking software, which will report this information. If you’re not using software, you can use an email address verification service such as Return Path, which allows you to detect hard bounces and understand why they’re happening.
How to Improve Open Rates, Click-Through Rates, and Bounce Rates
The key to improving your email metrics is to continually test and optimize your campaigns. Here are a few tips for how you can improve your open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates:
- Test and optimize your subject lines. Your subject line should be interesting and compelling enough to make recipients want to open your email. Try testing different types of subject lines to see which ones garner the highest open rates.
- Optimize your content. Your content should be engaging and relevant to your audience in order to keep them interested. Consider using segmentation or personalization to ensure that you are sending the right message to the right people.
- Use an email verification service. This will help reduce hard bounces and ensure that emails are being sent to valid addresses.
- Monitor your bounce rate. If your bounce rate is too high, it could indicate a problem with your email list. Make sure you are removing invalid emails from your list on a regular basis.
Conclusion
Email metrics are essential for tracking the success of your email campaigns. Open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates are all important metrics that you should be monitoring in order to ensure your campaigns are effective and help you reach your online business goals.
By understanding these metrics, you can better optimize your campaigns and increase your success.
To improve your open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates, you should test and optimize your subject lines, optimize your content, use an email verification service, and monitor your bounce rate.
With the right strategies in place, you can ensure your emails are connecting with your audience and driving the desired results.
It may seem like an unimportant detail, but when it comes to professional email signatures, they are a very important part of the equation. An email signature provides a professional impression and helps people find you on the email platform that you’re using. In this article, we’ll go over why people love email signatures and how to design yours to be as professional as possible!
What is an Email Signature?
An email signature is a text or image that appears at the bottom of an email message. It is usually a brief message that tells the recipient about who you are and what your email is about.
Some people find email signatures helpful because they can quickly learn about the sender and what they have to say. Other people use email signatures to show off their work or to engage with other recipients in a conversation. Whatever your reasons for using an email signature, it’s a great way to add personality and organization to your emails.
5 Reasons Why People Love Email Signature
People love email signatures because they provide a quick and easy way to personalize their messages.
Here are five major reasons why people love email signatures:
A professional look
The importance of an email signature goes beyond just looking professional. A properly formatted signature can help convince your recipient to work with you. A well-written signature includes your name, title, company name, and contact information. It’s also a good idea to include your website or blog address if you have one. Including this information will help potential customers find out more about you and your work. Signature blocks are also a great way to market your services or products. By including a block that showcases your skills or product information, you’ll increase the chances of getting the deal you want.
To get more leads
Many people love email signatures because they make it easier for customers to contact you. A signature can be a visual representation of your brand, and it can help to distinguish you from other businesses. It can also help to connect with customers who might be interested in what you have to say. By creating a signature that’s relevant to your business, you’re more likely to attract new customers and keep current ones happy.
Brand Awareness
Email signatures are an important part of any business’s marketing strategy. They can help promote the company’s brand and create a sense of brand recognition among potential customers. Signature lines can also be used to capture contact information for future business opportunities. By including a signature line in all of your email communications, you can ensure that your brand is always top-of-mind for your customers.
Builds Trust
Creating trust is one of the most important things you can do when building a business. Emails are a great way to build relationships with your customers and show them that you care about them. By including magazine pages in email where your company’s name is featured, you can show that you’re a credible source of information and that you’re worth trusting. This will help you create stronger relationships with your customers and increase the likelihood that they’ll return to your website or recommend you to their friends.
Reviews and Social Media Influencing
Email signature is an important part of any marketing strategy. It can help you get social media followers and good reviews. As a business owner, it’s important to remember that a good email signature can influence many customers to get your services. By having a catchy email signature, you can increase the chances that someone will click through to learn more about your business. A well-designed email signature will also help you to stand out from your competitors.
Importance of Personalizing an Email Signature
Email signatures are an important part of email marketing. They help to personalize your message and make it more likely that recipients will read and respond to your email.
Some of the reasons why people love email signatures are because they make it easy to track the effectiveness of your email campaigns. By including a signature, you can see which emails have been opened and read. This information can help you to improve your strategy for future campaigns.
Another reason why people love email signatures is because they make it easy to identify who sent the email. When you include a signature, it is easy to identify the sender’s name and company. This information can help you to build relationships with potential customers or partners.
By personalizing your email signature, you can ensure that your messages are delivered to the right people and that they are received in a positive way. Email signatures are an important part of any email marketing campaign, and should be included in every mailing piece.
Tips for Professional Emails
Email signatures are an important part of any email, and they can make a big difference in how people perceive your message. You can get your free email signature from designhill email signature.
- Keep it Short and to the Point: Your signature should only be a few lines long, and it should focus on key points of your message.
- Use Graphics to Inspire Action: Use graphics or images to illustrate your points, and make sure they are relevant to your topic.
- Keep it Personal: Make sure your signature is customized specifically for each individual subscriber. This will help you build a personal connection with them.
Why is Email Important for Business Success
Email is one of the most important communication tools that businesses use. It helps in acquiring a large number of audience in seconds. Email signatures are a great way to market your business to potential customers.
Email signatures play an important role in business success. They can help to identify a company and its products to potential customers. They can also show that you are dedicated to customer service and that you are interested in your customers. Email signatures should be customized for each individual company and the contents should reflect the company’s brand. They should also be clear, concise, and easy to read.
A Successful Email Signature Should Address the Followings:
Design
With mobile-optimized design, your email signature can function as a clear branding strategy by organizing every element of the content in an effective hierarchy. Consistent fonts and colors make it easy to digest this information even while using a small screen.
Consistency
When your employees all use the same email signature layout, your business is more likely to be consistent and easy to identify with. This helps you establish brand identity and keep it in mind across all marketing channels while also maintaining continuity of tone and style.
Online presence
Stick to social media channels where you have a strong online presence, and share links to your other social media accounts like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. By inviting recipients to contact you or find your company on other social media platforms, you are making it easy for them to take advantage of your content.
Disclaimer
Certain regulations may require you to include a legal disclaimer with your email. As long as the legal disclaimer is already in the email signature, you won’t have to include it every time.
Keeping it simple
Keeping your email signature to a minimum. You can keep it simple, including the name of the company, your title, phone number, website URL and the business logo. If you want to include links or other information, leave that in an accompanying document.
Standard email format
Know your audience
There are no rules when it comes to the email you send. For example, some business emails should be more formal than others. If you’re not familiar with your recipient, it is better to write in a less formal style. The tone of the email and language used can also be determined by the style chosen.
Well- structured format
The way you format your business email can make a difference. Effective formatting of your email promotes clarity and understanding which tells the reader what is being shared and why. A poorly formatted email, on the other hand, can leave a negative impression.
Generally, email messages should include subject line, salutation, and body text. Subject lines should be specific and short. Salutations are how you introduce the subject of the email — formal or informal – depending on your audience. Body text is where you provide the major points of your email message in short paragraphs containing one to two sentences. Bullets or numbered lists can help clarify points if necessary. A professional email signature should also include time, date, name of sender, and contact information such as a phone number or address.
Conclusion
When we send out an email, the last thing we want is for someone to unsubscribe from our list without knowing why. That’s why it’s so important to include a good email signature in your repertoire. A well-designed signature can help you increase your subscriber base and ensure that people know who you are, what you stand for, and what services or products you offer. Signature design isn’t hard – all you need is some creativity and some knowledge of font types and how they can be used to convey your message effectively. So get creative with your email signatures – after all, it’s one of the most effective ways to make sure people stay subscribed to designhill email signature
Independence Day is a time for festivities, fun, and patriotism. The 4th of July is the time of the year when friends, family, and neighbours celebrate barbeque parties. Many go on camping adventures and rest, relishing the Backyard Fireworks brightening the night sky.
It is a time when businesses selling food, outdoor barbeque and camping equipment, and fireworks reach out to their customers. During Independence Day celebrations, the food industry itself amounts to sales of about $6 billion (about $18 per person in the US). Just one day offers such an enormous opportunity.
However, not only the food industry, other businesses can also employ 4th of July holiday email marketing campaigns to boost their sales. Before looking at some email marketing ideas, let us dive into some essential elements of these campaigns.
Essential elements of a 4th of July email marketing campaign
Since the 4th of July is a patriotic celebration, an email marketing campaign for such an event must contain elements suited for the occasion.
- It must have greetings for the 4th of July.
- It must invite customers to celebrate Independence Day with you.
- It must instill patriotic pride.
- It must convey the idea of freedom.
- It must be light and fun-oriented.
Some powerful email marketing ideas for the 4th of July
Traditionally companies that deal with food, fireworks, camping implements, and barbeque equipment market their wares before this event. However, companies offering other goods and services can also use this opportunity effectively.
The holiday email campaign will differ from company to company. The campaign will depend on the business, its brands, and its customers.
Some of the ideas are:
Exclusive discounts
Who does not love a good discount? Businesses can offer exclusive discounts for the exclusive holiday. Discounts are a sure way to maximize sales, whether the business deals in products, services, tickets, or memberships.
Great offers
Customers love great offers. This aspect is especially true during any holiday. Independence Day is one of the days when businesses devices are offered. Some of these are:
- Free products or services on purchase value exceeding a certain value
- Buy one and get one free offer
- Heavy discounts on second or third products purchased.
These offers bring an element of surprise to the customers.
Rewards for referrals
Referrals are a fantastic way to add more customers. There is nothing like satisfied customers referring to their family and friends. It is free and positive marketing for the business.
Businesses understand this and run referral programs throughout the year. Independence Day is a good occasion to run exclusive referral programs. Some ideas are:
- One-time attractive bonus for joining the referral program in July.
- Extra reward points for each referral for the entire month.
- Additional discounts to the one referred as well as those being referred during July.
Competitions and quizzes
The 4th of July is a good occasion to remember the heroes of the American independence movement. Email marketing campaigns can include competitions and quizzes based on American history. Correct entries can be awarded points. Accumulated points can then be exchanged for discounts and services offered. Such competitions and quizzes evoke responses as they add values of rich history to the campaign.
Some effective points to remember when crafting emails
A 4th of July email marketing campaign must effectively create the right festive atmosphere. Hence, it is good to remember a few points while designing the marketing campaign. Each element of the email must be carefully designed. It must be original. It must relate to the idea of freedom. It must be about celebrating independence.
Let us look at each element and some important points for each.
Email subject line
Creating an engaging email subject line is primary as this is what decides the open email rates. Although drafting a good 4th of July email subject line can be challenging, you can overcome it by:
- Keep it appealing and memorable.
- Bring some patriotic element to it.
- Keep it as concise as possible.
- Convey a sense of urgency by using the fear of missing out strategy.
- Are creative with word usage. Words like ‘hot deals’ and ‘bright ideas’ attract attention quickly.
- Bring a smile to the reader’s face.
Content of the email
Once the email has been opened, the next important thing is reader engagement. This aspect can only be achieved through great content. Therefore, a content design must include these important points:
- The text must be fun to read.
- It must have patriotic elements.
- It must invoke a feeling of nostalgia.
- It must be short, sweet, and simple to read and understand.
- The graphics must be lively.
- Effective use of colours is important. Colours of the flag, like red, blue, and white, can be used. July is a warm month, and using warm colours is a good idea.
- The design must include elements of the flag, like the stars and the stripes.
- Motifs relating to the 4th of July, like barbeques, camping, and fireworks, must be used. Motifs relating to summer can also be included.
CTA (call to action)
The effective subject line and catchy content are good for engaging the reader. However, an effective holiday email campaign must include an effective call to action. This CTA decides the conversion of the campaign into sales.
While designing an efficient CTA, it is important to be aware of a few things.
- The business must be aware of what the reader wants.
- The CTA button must be eye-catching.
- A single click must lead the customer directly to the website or landing page. Ideally, a special landing page must be created especially for the 4th of July.
Conclusion
4th of July is a time of celebration that customers spend with a spirit of freedom. Businesses position themselves to help customers with their purchase decisions. Holiday email marketing campaigns vie for the reader’s attention. A marketing campaign that gives value to the customer is a sure winner. Regardless of the product or service offered, you can easily kickstart your 4th of July email marketing campaign with these powerful ideas.
Author Bio:
Chris Donald is the Director of a professional email marketing agency that specializes in providing email marketing services from production to deployment. He has worked directly with Fortune 500 companies, retail giants, nonprofits, SMBs, and government bodies in all facets of their email marketing services and email campaign management programs for almost 2 decades. Chris’s success track record covers building email programs at competitive email marketing pricing and using data-driven strategies to turn around underperforming accounts.
There’s pretty much no end to successful email marketing strategies. Still, to use this marketing avenue to generate leads, you need to find some brilliant strategies that can work wonders.
By using all the modern methods, most businesses are making efforts to attract recipients to open emails. But for the industry favorites, it has been discovered that customers want brands to connect with them more personally. So, defining these requirements, if you try to incentivize your users properly, then certainly will boost your customer base and increase sales dynamically.
Having an email lead generation strategy involves strategically nurturing leads. This approach is an effective system for gathering leads and ultimately transforming them into customers. A good lead generation strategy can boost your brand awareness and ultimately convert your probable lead from prospect to paying customer.
Below we are mentioning some brilliant email marketing tips and strategies that can be specially employed for effective lead generation and can help you reach your target audience easily –
Optimize efforts with lead scoring
Enabling the lead scoring option is an effective technique for ensuring that you get qualified leads. By adding them to your list, you can reach the right people with the right message. You can even use an email automation tool to help score leads and use this facility to boost your leads for the signup process.
Design clean and concise emails
With that vast number of emails flooding your customer’s inbox every day, make sure to design clean and concise emails. Having an excess of templates can distract them from the targeted message. So, use only simple fonts without any flashy graphics and make it as easy as possible for your subscribers to go through your valuable content.
Learn to grab attention with subject lines
By far, the best way to keep your emails contextual is by highlighting your subject lines. Capture your audience’s attention and leave a hint of curiosity to engage the subscribers to get your emails opened. This strategy will drastically increase your email open rates and give your business quality conversion rates.
Always include a strong call-to-action (CTA)
It is also important to incorporate an element of urgency with subject lines by placing your call-to-action buttons at appropriate places. It will compel your readers to act on it immediately and thus encourage them to follow through with the buying process. Using some action-oriented text can spur readers into the action and generate higher click-through rates.
Leverage social media channels
To build your lists and encourage better leads, you need to promote your CTAs on social accounts. You can also try tools like Facebook marketing to generate leads on autopilot mode. Additionally, a signup button and opt-in form can even generate a faster number of leads. Thus, you can leverage the social platforms with the help of an email marketing consultant and thereby expand your audience reach.
Use email automation
Using an email automation tool is the best email marketing strategy to attract the best of leads. It helps you automatically send bulk emails to specific recipients at specific times. With automatic personalization, you can trigger your potential buyers with the right type of email. Thus, this is one of the most effective and the easiest tactics you can use for lead generation in recent times. With the right email marketing software this could be an important step.
Incentivize referrals from current subscribers
Try to lend incentives to your current subscribers who refer your products and services to other customers. By offering appealing rewards, you can get them to refer customers and thus expand your lead base. Make sure that what you offer is beneficial for them in every sense and make them interested in promoting your offerings to their friends and family.
Use Compelling Offers
One of the most lucrative strategies to attract your subscribers is by enabling attractive offers, discounts, and Call-to-Actions to draw huge crowds. This technique is crucial to any email marketing strategy, so ensure to delete the wrong audience from your contact list and increase the effectiveness of your email marketing. These discounts and gift coupons will require the customer to go through the email signup process to unlock the offer. So, use such types of giveaways thoughtfully and retain customer interest seamlessly.
Conclusion: A Roundup of Email Marketing Strategies
With Email marketing being the most powerful marketing strategy, you need to be very cautious in implementing the strategies. Choose only those strategies that may work for your business. By utilizing the correct email marketing strategy for your platform, you can get the maximum reach of your leads. They have been proven to be effective over time, and by implementing them in your email marketing campaign strategies, you can certainly reap the maximum ROI for your business. Follow these full-service email marketing strategies and ensure better leads with some enticing appealing offers.
Email has been in use for nearly four decades now. While it’s gone through various interpretations and numerous other forms of communication have arisen, there is still no communication method as strong as email marketing. Marketing teams nowadays are giving a lot of attention to social media, but they sometimes overlook the benefits that email provides. If you’re just getting started with email marketing, you should consider some of the following tips and advice along the way.
Why Email Marketing?
Still not convinced that email marketing is superior? Here are just a few reasons to implement an email strategy:
- Most everyone checks their email every day. You should be targeting people in hope that they’ll open your email and check out what you have to say.
- Conversion rates are high among emails, meaning that it’s more likely for a past customer to return to your site after seeing an email with intriguing content.
- You can curate a list of people to email. With a subscribers’ list, you can effectively target specific people, keeping in touch with them, both now and in the future.
Getting Started with Email Marketing
Before you can begin creating emails for customers, you need a list of subscribers to work with. One of the best ways to accrue a list of potential subscribers is to feature a pop-up on your website—one that asks visitors if they’d like to sign up for your email service. You can further entice them to do so by saying they’ll be notified via email about sales, new products, and more. To-do Monday.com is also a great resource.
Once you begin establishing your list of subscribers, you’ll want to move on to finding the right email marketing service for you.
Choosing Your Email Marketing Service
Email marketing services are platforms and software which simplify the email process for businesses. Upon signing up, businesses will be provided with an intuitive, interactive interface that allows them to store subscriber lists that can be emailed on command. Think of the software as a means of streamlining the process, where emails can be scheduled ahead of time—like using Hootsuite to schedule future social media posts.
Mailchimp is a popular email marketing software in the business world. With affordable plans, you can have anywhere from 2,000 subscribers to more stored within your email database, ready to email once the right content has been crafted around a campaign.
Segmenting Your Email List
Some email management software will allow you to segment your subscribers’ list, meaning you’ll be able to add tags to specific subscribers with available information. Rather than keeping your subscribers’ list as is, you can customize lists with various designations, including subscriber location, preferences, interests, activity, shopping cart abandonment, and more. Maybe you’re sending mass emails to employees or business partners and want to ensure you meet the same tone.
Segmenting makes it easier to target specific people when creating email campaigns for any type of group. Instead of emailing your entire subscriber base at once, this segmentation allows you to effectively email certain groups of people. Examples include sending a welcome email to new subscribers or rewarding with coupons and special deals recipients who have opened past emails.
Improve Email Engagement
Write to the Right Audience
With your subscriber list segmented, you should make sure to target specific individuals from the list. You should be writing to the people you are targeting with each one of your emails.
While you should set the tone and content for the particular group, remember to write the email in a personal way—you shouldn’t be writing to a group but to an individual. This is important to make recipients feel as if they alone were emailed rather than just received a generic group email. Get an idea for what these people want to hear and how they want to have that content provided, prior to sending your email.
Make Content Stand Out
Emails should be interesting. You shouldn’t just be pitching your services and products to recipients with every email. And, even if you are pitching a service or product, it should be wrapped in more interesting, informative content.
You want people to open your email. Consider presenting them with the information they might be looking for or a headline that pops and catches their attention. They might already know what you offer as a business, so show that you understand just what it is they’re looking for in life.
Analyze Your Timing
The time that an email is sent can have a serious effect on whether or not it is opened. An email sent during the middle of the night is sure to be missed by a large segment of your subscribers’ list. Instead, consider tracking the engagement of your emails via a “time posted” basis. Consider doing some A/B tests to see how certain timeframes affect the rate at which recipients open emails. With a bit of research and testing, you can find the best time of day to send emails to your subscribers’ list.
Keep Track of Your Data
To make the most of your email marketing campaigns, you should keep track of available metrics to make the most out of every future post. Most email marketing platforms will provide you with metrics that can be tracked to determine the effectiveness of past campaigns.
Metrics you should consider tracking include deliverability rate, open rate, and click-through rate. These metrics allow you to identify how many emails successfully made it to recipients, how many recipients opened their emails, and how many recipients who opened your email clicked on a posted link. These analytics can be used to determine how effective past campaigns were and what things need to be tweaked. Perhaps certain emails didn’t make it to some recipients or maybe some people received them but didn’t open them. What could be the reason? With these metrics, you could start analyzing past emails to see flaws that could be fixed for future campaigns.
Summing Up
Email campaigns don’t have to be complicated. With the right host and a smart strategy, you can effectively reach recipients and keep them interacting with your brand.
Emails can be effective ways to reach out to your customers. But, if you’re not able to initially entice them to sign up on the mailing list, that’s a substantial problem. Below, we’ll go over six practical ways to make people realize your emails contain information they need and want.
Don’t Make People Complete a Long Form
Sometimes, individuals click on email signup links, then realize they have to populate several fields with information to subscribe. Even though you may want to ask for numerous demographic details, only ask for the essential information at first. Most important of all is the email address itself because it’s the gateway to other insights you could gather later. By only requiring an email address to get onto a mailing list, you let people sign up in a few seconds.
As you can see from the Bath & Body Works email form, it merely asks for an email address. If people put their cursors over the information symbol to the right of the submission button, they see a few more details, such as the company’s mailing address and disclosure that subscribers are free to leave the mailing list at any time. Those extras add credibility to the email address request.
The inviting color scheme and pleasing font draw viewers in and make them interested. Also, the text underneath the header graphic emphasizes being able to get the scoop on the latest news with the company before non-subscribers can.
Make the Signup Form Prominent But Not Annoying
Experts say one of the best ways to get people to sign up for your email list is making sure that people don’t miss the subscribe method.
One approach is to make the form “sticky,” so it follows visitors as they scroll down the page. You may also want to make it appear after people have been on the site for at least a couple of minutes. By then, they’ll be able to gauge whether signing up is worth the effort.
In your quest for visibility, make sure not to exasperate users with an email signup box that’s too obnoxious. If you use a pop-up window that covers the entire screen or features the X icon to close the overlay in a color that’s hard to see, people may get so fed up that they close their browser windows and never return to your site.
Focus on Freebies
Sometimes the promise of high-quality future content arriving in an inbox is not enough to make people take the all-important step of providing their email addresses to sign up for your list. With that in mind, consider offering a free item that relates to your business.
Giordano’s, a pizza brand, does this well by offering a free appetizer in return for signing for the brand’s G-Club email list. The creative use of the wooden table background and the plate of food in the corner gets visitors’ mouths watering in anticipation.
Notably, this window appears whenever a person navigates to the main Giordano’s page. However, the clearly visible X button in the upper right allows visitors to quickly close the window if they don’t want to sign up immediately.
Cater to Smartphone Users
Hootsuite and We Are Social teamed up to publish the Digital in 2017 Global Overview, a report that highlights technology usage around the world. It revealed there are over 4.9 billion unique smartphone users worldwide. That statistic highlights why it makes sense to ensure any email signup strategies you employ work as intended on those handheld gadgets.
Incorporate mobile usage trials into your overall testing strategies and build functionality that allows users to zoom in on email forms or fill in the fields with the auto-fill features built into most smartphone operating systems. Of course, you also need to create email content that looks great and is easy to read on small screens. If you don’t take that additional step, people could unsubscribe after their first emails arrive.
Set Expectations for Frequency
People understandably want to know if your emails will come every few days, weekly or less often. You can fill them in about frequency by simply including additional information inside parenthesis or denoted with an asterisk.
The newsletter signup page for Mother Jones, an activism-centered magazine with a strong online presence, isn’t extremely visually appealing, but it makes up for it with information people genuinely would want to know before signing up.
To the right of each checkbox for a particular newsletter, people can read the publication’s name, the day it’s published and a list of the topics typically covered. These thoughtful additions make it simple for people decide whether to put their email addresses in the signup box. The privacy statement below the email field also provides context about data usage, which could offer peace of mind.
Emphasize How Consumers Could Give Feedback for the Future
Your target audience doesn’t want to feel like you’re only asking for their emails to try and get them to buy things. You can use language to strategically point out how people on your email list may play vital roles in what your business does.
Consider mentioning that people who sign up for emails can give feedback that shapes the development of new products. Your emailed content might include polls about new features, products, logo designs and more.
If applicable, point out how input from visitors makes up for one of your most important lines of communication for knowing what works and what doesn’t. Mentioning that makes people feel like they’re getting exclusive material that could enable them to play meaningful roles in your business or website moving forward.
Also, consumer feedback lets you take a proactive role in decisions. Instead of hoping your audience will be on board with something and rolling it out without asking first, you could use email content to encourage them to weigh in. Then you’ll see if you’re on the right track.
Final Thoughts
Thanks to these strategies and case studies, you can decide how best to make email signup forms attractive to your audience. They might not all apply to your needs, but they’re easy to adapt as appropriate.
Author
Lexie Lu is a designer and writer. She loves researching trends in the web and graphic design industry. She writes weekly on Design Roast and can be followed on Twitter @lexieludesigner.
Sending emails is an important task for just about any business. Whether you’re communicating with customers and clients or employees and business partners, you’re likely to spend at least part of your day sending emails. However, emailing can quickly become an overwhelming and time-consuming endeavor.
Using email templates can be one way to cut back on the amount of time you spend emailing. As a way to become more efficient, a template allows you to spend less time crafting emails — particularly ones you need to send repeatedly.
What exactly are email templates, and how can you use them effectively? Let’s take a look.
What Are Email Templates?
A template acts like a skeleton for your email, allowing you to keep the same basic foundation while filling in specific details based on who you’re sending the email to. Email templates are particularly helpful for individuals who seem to have similar conversations with each client, customer or business partner.
To use an email template, you simply need to copy and paste the text into a new email. You can then change any information you need or add new details that relate to that specific conversation. This allows you to save time because you don’t need to retype the same information over and over.
Email templates can also be more detailed. If you send out weekly or monthly newsletters to a subscriber list, a template can help you send consistent emails every time. They can also ensure images, videos, graphics and other items appear correctly for your recipients.
Email templates are useful for many reasons. Regardless of the industry your business is in, you can use templates to make you more efficient. Here are four ways email templates can make your day-to-day activities more efficient.
Email Templates Save You Time
As we already mentioned, one of the biggest benefits of email templates is that they can save you time. Because you don’t need to spend time typing out the same information over and over, templates can cut off a few minutes with each email you send. If you’re sending dozens of emails each day, this could potentially be hours of time you’ve just freed up each week.
Email templates are additionally beneficial if you’re sending intricate emails. If they include images, HTML or other special formatting, an email template can save you hours each day. When you don’t need to start an email from scratch each day, you can focus on other tasks and get even more done.
Email Templates Ensure You Don’t Forget Important Information
Email templates can also be beneficial if you have a lot of information you need to cover that you don’t want to forget about. Because an email template will have places where you can fill in additional information, you’ll know just what you need to include before sending a message off to a client or business partner.
Email templates are particularly helpful if you’re a business owner sending important information, such as meeting confirmations or contract details. Because forgetting information in either of these kinds of emails could cause confusion for both you and your client, you want to be sure you include everything the first time around. An email template allows you to fill in the specific details and ensure you’re covering all your bases.
Email Templates Create Brand Consistency
A strong brand can improve your image with your customers and clients. When your branding is consistent, customers and clients will become familiar with your company and grow to recognize what you offer. The stronger your brand image is, the more customers and clients will be willing to pay to work with you.
Brand consistency should go into everything you do, including your emails. When you use templates, you can ensure each of your emails keeps the same branding. This means that when a customer, client or business partner receives an email from you, they will immediately know where it came from. This can strengthen your overall brand.
Email Templates Allow for Consistent Formatting
When an email comes in that is not properly formatted, it can be difficult for your recipient to read. If you’re starting emails from scratch each time, then you will need to send numerous test emails to ensure the formatting comes out correctly. This is especially true if you’re sending HTML messages or detailed newsletters.
However, if you create an email template, you don’t have to worry about the formatting. Because you’ve already tested the email, you know it will go through to the recipient the way you intended. This can save you time needing to restructure the email to get the formatting down.
There are a number of benefits to creating an email template. Whether you create an email template for emails you send frequently throughout the week, or you use a template for your company newsletter, having templates ready to go can save you time and make you seem more professional.
Feel free to get creative with the way you use email templates. Because each professional or company will have different needs, you’ll want to create templates that work for you. Use trial and error to create the best email templates that help save you time, maintain consistency and help you improve your image.
Author
Lexie Lu is a designer and writer. She loves researching trends in the web and graphic design industry. She writes weekly on Design Roast and can be followed on Twitter @lexieludesigner
If you are a start-up, a small established business or even a large scale company, you need to have a strategy on your website in order for your visitors to sign up to your email list. Having a website is completely obligatory in the age that we currently live in being 2017. We live in what is called the information age, meaning that when people have questions, they turn to the internet to find their answers. Before you worry about getting your email campaigns opened, you must first compile an email list!
If you are not active in the online world and using it to promote your business, you are simply losing out in the full potential your business can achieve. However, if you already have a website, which is why you are here, then you are ready to find out how to maximize from it. We are going to show you 4 ways to use your website to collect email addresses for your list!
1. Easy to Read Navigation Bar
Your Navigation bar is the bar atop your site which allows your visitor to navigate through your site. Make sure your website has one or find out how to add a Navigation Bar. Plain and simple, you want to create a button here that reads “Sign Up” or “Join our List”. This is just the best real estate on your website for your email sign up offer to be. It is the first section that your visitor sees and you want to make it very easy for your visitors to sign up to your list. The more hidden your button to sign up is, the less people will actually sign up. Believe me, people aren’t looking for your email sign up button when they land on your page.
However, if it is right in front of them once they open your site, chances are everyone will see it and a higher percentage will sign up. Simply because the button was easy to find and if your business and website pleases them, then they will most likely give you their email addresses.
2. Hold a Contest or Newsletter Offer
The best way to get your visitor’s attention for this is to have it on the sidebar or as a pop up ad. If you go with a pop up ad, most visitors will see this as long as they don’t have a pop up blocker. You want to remember that most people dislike pop ups. Therefore, you want to make this message as enticing and as exciting as possible! Understand your customers and visitors and understand why it is that they are navigating through your website.
Once you believe you fully understand who your visitors are, hold a contest or a newsletter offer. Things you can place on a pop up ad can be of the following:
- Offer a Free gift or discount for a product or service you sell
- A short survey that will help you understand your customers better and allow them to claim a prize for filling it out
- A submission to the monthly raffle you hold at the end of the month for a free item or discount
- A Onetime Offer for all new customers
The objective is to get your visitor to pause and truly understand that they will miss out on a great opportunity by closing that pop up ad. What’s the catch? None! All they have to do is provide their email address to you and they can claim their prize. Keep it catchy and eye-appealing and remember to make the offer revolve around them and not you!
3. Maintain a Blog
Having a Blog on your website is crucial in this age of information we live in. Not having one is one of many email marketing mistakes you can make. As stated earlier, people turn to the internet to find answers to their questions. The internet makes it so easy to simply go online and Google whatever it is you want to know or find out.
Therefore, having a Blog about your business or line of work will benefit the niche your business falls in. A Blog on your site should be all about your business, company, line of work and basically anything that can relate to the products or services you sell. Your Blog should answer any questions or concerns your customers or potential customers may have. Make your Blog interesting with great content such as videos or relevant to trending topics. Also make sure that you also provide proper SEO strategies for your articles or hire a SEO company to optimize your articles so they can be easily found in search engines.
Your Email Sign up forms will go below every single Blog Post you write! Why in the bottom of the posts? You want to build credibility. If you write great articles with great content, your visitors will read the entire content. If they like your content, then most likely than not, they will sign up to your mailing list.
Do not place the mailing list offer on top before the Blog Posts. Reason being is because you have not sold your image to your visitor yet. Even if they like your posts, by the time they reach the bottom, they have already forgotten about the email list offer you placed at the top. Most likely, your visitor forgot about it and won’t scroll back up to find it. Place your email sign up offer at the end of every blog post so that readers who enjoy your information will then sign up after being convinced that you are a problem solver and so is your business.
4. The About Page is Important too!
Many people think the “about” page is just a page one should have in a website but it always feels like a filler page. People feel that it’s just a page to make your site more official. However, this is a very bad perception of what it truly is and what it can truly do for you. The about page is the place where you sell yourself, your brand and your image overall. The about page is where you should convert visitors into customers!
Things you should place in your about page should consist of the following:
- State how your products or services add direct value to your customers
- Show exactly what makes your company stand out from the competition
- Should express your interest and care for your customers versus yourself
- Add an Email Sign Up form at the bottom of the information
Just as your blog, your about page should also contain a section for your visitors to sign up to your mailing list. Also, just as your blog, you should place the sign up form below the page. This is for the same exact reason that you want to sell yourself to your audience before even offering to join your list. No one signs up to anything without being convinced of the direct benefits they will receive by doing so!
Wrapping Things Up!
Remember that in order to attain email addresses, you must not just ask for them. You must show and explain what your subscribers will gain by signing up. Make sure you are crystal clear and show the direct benefit there is to be a part of your mailing list. The more explicit and specific you are of the benefits, the more people will trust you and the more subscribers you will get. Remember to be honest and keep your word. Show that you care and your customers and potential customers will also care for you and your business. If you keep these things in mind, you can apply these four strategies and benefit from them and collect email addresses in no time!