Over the past few years, research has continued to prove the business benefits of email marketing: low costs, high conversion rates and detailed tracking are all notable features. But email marketing is becoming more than just a tool for spammers and e-entrepreneurs.
Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the difference between spam and authorized emails, and more and more of them are embracing authorized email marketing as a positive substitute for direct mail. The best news is that most people who receive permission emails open an average of 78% of them.
According to Jupiter Research, effective email marketing campaigns can generate nine times more revenue and 18 times more profit than broadcast mailings. But crafting an effective business email is both an art and a science. Here's a list of factors, potential problems and effective solutions to keep in mind:
1. Spam! Spam! Spam! I don't need Viagra! The average consumer receives over 300 emails a week, 62% of which are spam.
No wonder there is such hostility towards this industry. But spam filters, bulk mailing folders and a "report spam" function help consumers take a calmer view of the dangers of spam.
While 89% of users cited spam as a major problem in 2003, that number dropped to 85% in 2004, proportional to the increased use of anti-spam tools. So what can you do as a resolution-based business email marketer?
One tip is to remind your subscribers to add you to a "safe sender" list. The second, and most important, the tactic is to make sure that your email marketing provider has a good relationship with your internet service providers.
This ensures that your email marketing campaigns reach your subscribers' inboxes and not your junk mail folders. When choosing your email marketing software, ensure that the company has a strict anti-spam policy and adheres to Can-Spam guidelines.
2. Image and formatting: Why do my emails look broken? Broken email campaigns are a growing concern among email marketers, especially since some companies and email web providers now block graphics as an anti-spam measure. In fact, according to ClickZ, 40% of email marketing messages delivered to inboxes are 'broken'.
This problem arose during Eliteweb's beta testing phase because we had a client from the Canadian government whose recipients were mostly using highly secure email programs. The solution we proposed has now become one of our key competitive advantages.
Elite web publishes every email marketing campaign sent to a secure location on the Internet (only the original recipients of the email have access to this location, thanks to encrypted technology that automatically authenticates the user).
This technology also allows you to track user behaviour even if they read your email campaign in a secure location on the internet.
3. Personalisation and relevant content: In business emails, one size does not fit all. According to a recent DoubleClick study, email users were 72% more likely to respond to a business email if the content was based on the interests they had indicated.
This number points to the absolute importance of allowing users to choose their interest groups and have control over which business emails they receive. The most popular interest categories, according to the study, are coupons and home goods.
But your coupon won't do any good if the user doesn't open the email. Users in the study said the most compelling reason they open a business email is the name in the "from" field. So it is worth making sure that your company name is clearly stated there.
Another important factor is the "subject line". Users cite discount offers and interesting news as the most compelling subjects, followed by new product announcements and free delivery offers.
4. Link clicks and conversions: Show me the money! So the user has opened your email and read the contents. Great. But where are the sales? There is good news here. Firstly, consumers are increasingly making purchases directly as a result of a business email campaign.
A third of the users in the DoubleClick study purchased something by clicking on a link in an email. Another 42% clicked on a link in an email for more information and then purchased the product at a later date.
Secondly, online couponing is flourishing: 73% of consumers used an online coupon to buy online, while 59% used an online coupon offline. When it comes to industries, travel, hardware/software, electronics, apparel, food, home goods, gifts/flowers and sporting goods are the most successful.
All companies that send business emails in these categories said that between 71% and 80% of recipients purchased their products through an email campaign. Don't feel bad if your company doesn't fall into any of these industries. The overall picture of email marketing conversions is getting rosier by the day.
The average conversion rate to purchase has increased by almost 30% since 2004, and the average order-to-delivery rate is up more than 18% since last year.
5. Tracking stats: who are my real consumers? Email marketing is becoming an increasingly popular tool for effective CRM, and it's time more companies recognised this. Firstly, if your provider's business email services don't include detailed real-time tracking, then you're failing.
Real-time tracking is now an industry standard, and it is very valuable because it allows you to see the exact moment when a user opens your campaign, clicks on your link and makes a purchase.
Learning about your users can help you improve your communication efforts so that each campaign is better than the last (some email service providers also allow you to compare the effectiveness of your campaigns). But many marketers are still in the dark.
According to a recent WebTrends survey, only 5% of marketers are very confident in evaluating their online marketing efforts, and 26% admit to "flying blind".WebTrends argues that the low confidence is due to a lack of knowledge of measurement, meaning there is still a lot of work to be done.
In email marketing, a blind shot won't get you very far. But if you take the right aim by following these basic rules of the game, you can soon get results as significant as many online and offline companies.
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