Is email marketing still an effective marketing tool?

And how to use it to convert people into paying customers

Clients often ask me if email marketing is still an effective marketing tool for business. My answer is always yes, of course.

That is if it's done well enough to convert people into paying customers.

So, why do I encourage my clients to give email marketing a go?

Because you're reaching an audience, who has asked to hear from you, they signed up for an offer or to join your database and they freely gave you their details. You already have that connection with them, and they expect to hear from you.

Email marketing generates a higher return on investment (ROI) than other digital marketing channels. People often get great open rates, but they don't see conversions. For your email marketing to be successful, you need to have both - great open rates and conversions.

What does email marketing conversion mean?

An email marketing conversion rate refers to the percentage of people who complete an action that you've set on your email.

These actions can mean many things and not just making a purchase. They can also include items such as downloading an eBook, signing up for a program or event, following a link to your blog post and much more.

You can work out your conversion rate by dividing the number of conversions (people who completed the desired action), by the number of emails delivered and x 100. Here's how that looks:

Number of Conversions / Number of emails delivered = … x 100

It's hard to give you a figure on a 'decent' email conversion rate as there are a few factors to consider. These include the size of your database, your personal business goals, the industry you're in, the type of email platform you're using (is it picked up as spam, etc.) and more.

For example, if you're happy to make one sale as the result of an email campaign and you make the sale, you can consider this a success. Especially if that one sale outweighs the cost of you writing, uploading and sending the email.

Let's look at my top 4 tips to make your email marketing campaign a success

1. Your email subject line

As a business owner, you'd know how crazy an email inbox can be. We have so many messages coming at us from every direction, that if 'just another email' hits our inbox, we are likely to ignore it.

Without a compelling email subject, your email won't be opened, and your recipient won't read your message or click through to your offer.

Here are some ways to write a compelling email subject line:

• Ask a question: 'Do you know what compels people to open an email? '

• Use urgency and FOMO: 'Get 10% off all social media services during January'

• Use prices, discounts, stats and emojis: 'Did you know that email marketing offers a 49% better ROI than digital marketing? $$'

• Personalise it: 'Sam, here's how to double your email conversion rates'

• Spark curiosity: 'Here are proven ways to increase your email open rates'

As with any marketing copy, you need to focus on the benefits. Make it clear, compelling and concise.

Most email subject lines are 65 characters (optimal), however keep in mind that most people are reading emails on their phone, so the characters are more limited.

2. Send targeted emails to different segments

The beauty of most email marketing systems is that you can create segments of people on your database. You can separate them into areas such as:

• Where you met them (networking etc.)

• Demographics (male, female, age etc.)

• Purchase history

• Browsing activity (e.g. did they sign up on a certain offer - that's what they're interested in)

• Cold, warm or hot leads

Once you have these lists, you can write a targeted email to suit them. When you're sending relevant emails (rather than a mass-produced, send-to-all type of email), you're more likely to retain your email subscribers and keep them engaged.

3. Send emails to suit your sales funnel

When you're running email campaigns as sales funnels, you'll end up with people at varying stages. You must have your database set up to reflect where they are in the funnel and keep it personal.

If an email comes through knowing what 'stage of the journey' they are on and is personally addressed; they are more likely to click and open.

You can set up triggers such as the time since they subscribed, previous open and click-through rates, past purchases and orders. These triggers can help you set up appropriate emails such as:

• Welcome emails: these are essential after someone has signed up to your database, signed up for a course or event, opted in for your giveaway etc. These should be sent immediately, so the person feels acknowledged for giving you their details.

• Abandoned cart: if you've ever been online shopping and then left your cart, you'd know what these emails are. Often they are infused with humour and remind you that you've got items in your cart and encourage you to come back and finalise your purchase.

• Post-purchase: when a customer completes their purchase, it's always polite to follow up and say thank you, give them details of their purchase, and let them know when to expect their article.

• Engagement: you'll find some people are on your database and at no stage of a funnel at times. It's always a good idea to re-connect with people with an email. It could be for a new promotion (to start them on a new funnel), an eNewsletter, or even a simple hello can we help you.

4. Direct recipients to take action

The best way to get your email marketing recipients to act is to tell them what you want to do! More times than not, if people are left wondering what to do, they won't do anything.

This is where your call-to-action (CTA) comes into play. It has to be strong, it has to be genuine, it has to be beneficial, and it has to be what your audience wants (i.e. solves their problem).

If your email CTA is strong and they 'click-through' to the page or offer, you need to take it one step further and ensure the landing page is also set up to convert. Without going into too much detail here, your landing page will need to 'continue the sale', with a strong headline, benefit-driven copy, and great images.

You also need to make sure the landing page is still relevant to the offer and hasn't taken your reader down a misleading path. They have clicked-through with the promise from your email, and they expect to find it on this page. This is where you'll convert them to a sale.

Ready to make more sales this year by using email marketing?

If you want to find out how email marketing can help your business, please get in touch. There are so many ins and outs and ways to start that you can easily get lost in the maze without a good plan.

Have you had a successful email campaign you'd like to share with us? Tell us below what you did and how you increased your sales.