3 Keys To Email Marketing Success

Written by Mike Trakalo

This is a guest post by Bold Commerce’s Mike Trakalo. Mike leads marketing services at Bold and has a deep understanding of traditional & emerging ecommerce marketing channels.

Overview

Since its founding, Bold Commerce has been on a mission to create growth using online tools and apps that help stores increase their bottom line. Because growth is always on our minds when it comes to helping our customers and clients, it was so easy to make the decision to partner with Rare to bolster our email marketing efforts.

Rare’s laser focused approach on increasing revenue for online stores by making email marketing more efficient, has “growth” written all over it. Together, we came up with 3 keys to succeed in email marketing.

The 3 keys of email marketing are: the purpose, the value and the engagement.

First : The Purpose

A great email manages to immediately show the user why they should open it and why it won’t be a waste of time. This feat is usually accomplished by optimizing the subject line and the ‘from address’, as they communicate clarity, curiosity and more. Everyone is busy these days, so clearly communicating the purpose of the email helps increase the likelihood the recipients will open it.

Subject Lines

The subject line must answer the question: What’s in it for me? Great emails have clever ways to preview the main offer using the subject line without giving away too much. The goal is to give customers a reason to open the email. Remember, the subject line is one of the first thing recipients look at when checking their inbox.

From Address

The correct ‘From address’ indicates you’re a legitimate and safe entity. Recipients must be able to trust you before opening the email. You can experiment with the from address; some companies keep it personal with the editor’s name, others give a name to the newsletter. The choice is yours, but keeping it clear is a must.

Time of Delivery

The time of delivery plays an important factor in email marketing as it predicts when the recipient is most likely to engage with your email. This can be the difference between an email opened within minutes of delivery and unread emails in the box waiting for the weekend cleanup. Save your customers time by appearing at the right time in their inbox.

Second : The Value

A great email must also deliver great value to its user. The right content targeted to the right user is a must, because anything outside of that realm is considered “spam”. For this purpose, segmentation is needed as it enables you to clearly target the specific audience that shares similar characteristic. A predictive engine takes segmentation abilities to the next level as it leverages data to further customize the content of the email. Delivering value is delivering the right message to the right recipient.

Segmentation

Behind every store with successful email campaigns, there’s a digital marketer segmenting the email lists. Segmentation is practiced by the best online stores as they match customers lists with the customer buying journey. A prospect from Facebook should not be treated the same as prospects who actively navigated your store and even clicked on items. Segmentation helps achieve higher results as emails are targeted to the right audience.

Personalization

Have you ever heard of the power of a name? As Dale Carnegie said, the sweetest and most important sound in any language is the name of the person who hears it. Personalizing is not only the easiest way to get a recipient’s attention, but it’s also expected. Not using personalization might be construed as a sign of laziness.

Predictive Content Generation

Imagine having the ability to send individual emails to all of your customers? Beyond the first and last name, predictive content generation helps marketers further personalize the email and improve the recipient’s engagement. This requires marketers to gather data from different end-points to get valuable insights, which is a form of advanced segmentation. As a result, campaigns are more successful at conversions and customers are more responsive to the message.

Third : The Engagement

A great email must delight customers, which is a mix of relevance and amazing design. Can your email be so amazing that recipients remember it? Share it? Here, the look and feel of your email must clearly represent your brand and make you look awesome. The positive experience increases the space your brand has in the mind of customers. In order to have a positive experience, every component listed for the purpose and value must be combined into one beautiful email.

Design

Design is the art that ties everything together into one clear message, encouraging users to take action. Remember, good design is good business. The design must be compatible across all mail clients and device types as recipients tend to use the same email on multiple devices. The rule is simple, beautiful and responsive email is the way.

The Great Email

The great email is the email that applies all those keys to delight customers. In the process, they grow their business and brand awareness across their niche. Do not forget to “Always Be Testing” as optimizing pieces of the email make a big difference to the bottom line.

Another one

Give your subscribers a way to share the email as well as get in touch—via share, forward-to-a-friend, blog comments or simple reply. Generating feedback from customers is an effective way to improve your email marketing strategy on the go.

Conclusion

You now have the keys to success in email marketing, it’s now time to take over. Remember, you’re smart, you’re loyal and we appreciate you.
Rare.io makes it easy to start using automated email campaigns for common challenges like: Welcome Series, Abandoned Carts, Order Follow-up emails and more! You can learn more about our powerful email marketing automation features here or go ahead and get started right away by using Rare.io for FREE.

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And if you’re one of the thousands of merchants who are already using Rare’s Smart Email Marketing software and want to see how our Customer Success Team can work with your brand to grow your revenue – feel free to book a call at your convenience here.