Email marketing may not be a new concept, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still a very effective way to build an audience and get results. It can be a great tool for building relationships with customers and boosting conversions and revenue. It can help to keep your brand and your services in the minds of prospects until they are ready to take the next step. Email marketing also helps to make retaining customers affordable and easy. 

Choose an email marketing service 

There are many email marketing services that have useful features such as easy-to-build opt-in forms, landing pages and CTAs. They help you to automate your email marketing and comply with email regulations. 

You also usually have access to analytics and reports. There are some email marketing tools that feature easy-to-use visual editors and email templates so you can create your marketing emails easily. The reputation of your email service provider will affect your email marketing success, so it’s important to choose a well-established and reliable company. 

When you use an email marketing service and become familiar with how it works and its tools, you can think about joining its affiliate program. Companies like HubSpot and ConvertKit offer email marketing affiliate programs that could help you to benefit from a recurring passive income stream. You could recommend tools for email marketing to help companies drive sales. 

Build your email list

It takes time to build up a list of subscribers, but it helps to use a lead magnet to attract prospects. People are very protective of their personal information, and you can’t expect them to give it to you unless you offer something valuable and relevant to them in exchange for it. White lists, ebooks, checklists, templates, webinars and tools are just some of the lead magnets you can use. 

Your lead magnet should include practical advice that provides a way to solve a problem. Eventually, you can get subscribers to pay for offers, but when you give them free content, you can show what type of value you can provide. 

You need to decide how often you will send subscribers emails from the outset and inform them upfront. They will know what they’re letting themselves in for when subscribing, and your consistency will help to build trust. 

Segment your email list

How you choose to segment your email list will depend on your business needs. You could look at demographics like location, age, education level and job function, as well as interactions with past campaigns. 

You may want to segment your list based on where your contacts are in the buyer’s journey. You can then create automated sequences that target certain behaviors and nurture leads accordingly. New leads, inactive subscribers and cart abandoners all automatically receive appropriate emails.

Quizzes are one way for subscribers to identify what they are most interested in, so you can tailor email content based on this. You could offer subscribers an opt-in gift and add a short survey where they can tell you a little bit more about themselves. 

Personalize your emails

The more you can personalize your emails, the more traction they are likely to get. Some email marketing attribution software allows you to insert the name of a recipient, but you can also include information specific to their region and write about relevant and personal events, such as birthdays and holidays in the region. End off with a personal signature. Every email you send should treat subscribers as people with whom you want to connect rather than leads you want to stuff into a one-size-fits-all box.

Carefully craft your email message

Starting with the subject line, your email must provoke interest, or people are unlikely to even open it. Subscribers want to know how an email will benefit them. If this comes across in the subject line and is paired with a sense of urgency, they are likely to want to know more. 

Be concise, keep your message brief and provide a link to the blog on your website where they can find out more. If an email takes more than a minute or two to read, it is likely to be ignored. 

Include a call-to-action in your email message, such as alerting subscribers to a special offer, promoting a new product etc. Simply adding a link to download a free guide can increase your open rate. 

Try A/B testing

With A/B testing, you test two strategies against each other to see which one offers the best results. This may be as simple as testing two different subject lines. You may just make an unexpected discovery, such as the fact that using an image of a person’s face can increase the click-through rate. CoSchedule is a platform that allows you to test your subject lines. It scores them and makes suggestions to help you increase your open rate.