Making your emails more personable: why and how
Together with your social media presence and website performance, your email marketing campaign is an important element of your overall online marketing strategy. However, research has found that the number of marketing emails a customer receives each year will reach 9,000 by 2014. In order to make your emails effectively create conversions, they need to follow the trend begun by social media: becoming more personable, responsive, and engaging. The more your marketing emails conform to that images, the more successful they will become.
Change Up Your Subject Lines
The popularity and prevalence of marketing emails means that many of the go-to terms used by email marketers have become stale. Using a casual subject line devoid of traditional email marketing terms can encourage your subscribers to open emails they would otherwise ignore. Last year the Obama campaign raised $690 million, mostly through fundraising emails. According to BusinessWeek, one of the best and most effective subject lines used by the campaign was “Hey…”. Any time you change up your email messages, be sure to experiment with split (A/B) testing to gauge their effectiveness. You may find that alternating between personable subject lines and more traditional versions may give you the best response over time.
Improve Your Content
In order to get the best open and click-through rates, you need to pique the customer’s interest, and that means giving them what they want in an email – and what they want isn’t necessarily pure marketing. Provide them with interesting, engaging content that adds value and familiarity to their interactions with your company. With a more personable tone, you can make better connections with your customers.
Utilize focus groups, conversations on your social media pages, and comments on your blog to discover what kind of content your customers are interested in seeing in your emails. Look at your blog comments and discussions on social to see what your customers’ concerns are regarding your company and what interests them the most.
Use your emails to engage customers in conversations. Thank them for their patronage, ask for an opinion on your product, introduce them to your team members, and remind them that behind your logo is a company comprised of real people. The content you include in your emails is limitless: blog posts, behind-the-scenes videos of your company, podcasts, contests, articles, white papers, and more. In order to reach the greatest number of customers, be sure that your website is optimized for mobile access. Add a link in your email signature to take mobile customers directly to your site.
Make Your Call to Action Fit
The end goal of your email is to motivate customers to make a conversion. It doesn’t have to be a purchase, but it needs to be some sort of action beyond opening the email itself. That’s where your call to action comes in. Just as your subject lines and content need to be more personable, so too does your call to action.
Keep the tone of your email uniform. If you’re using a casual subject line and casual content, don’t switch to marketing speak for the CTA. Keep it consistent, and don’t jar readers with a change in tone. Place your company logo above the fold. Even if they don’t read the text of your email, they’ll still see your logo and create a brand impression that could lead to a future purchase. The new emphasis on social networks and social media has changed what elements marketers value the most. It’s no longer about “Sell! Sell! Sell!” Rather, the emphasis is on, “Interest! Engage! Connect!” By making your marketing emails more personable, you can forge more valuable relationships with your customers.
Bio: Megan Webb-Morgan is an online marketing blogger for B2B lead gen company Resource Nation. You can follow Resource Nation on Twitter and Facebook.
