The Best Email Marketing Techniques To Maximize ROI

Social media marketing is all the rage these days – and most e-commerce brand owners already know that (kind of). That being said, social media marketing isn’t the only thing that can help your brand maximize ROI. Contrary to popular belief, email marketing is one of the surefire ways to take your brand to the next level.

What is ROI?

ROI stands for Return on Investment. You may have already heard of the term in passing, but few know exactly what it means. Return on investment refers to the income you generate when you use any type of marketing or growth tactic. Essentially, ROI is expressed as a percentage of your cost.

But isn’t email a thing of the past?

You may be skeptical about the impact email marketing has nowadays, and you have every right to be. After all, with the rise of digital platforms like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, people have begun to foresee the fall of email as we know it. Is email really dying though?

It turns out that NOT only is email not dying, but it’s actually growing. It’s the way we’re using it that’s changing. In 2019, the number of email accounts had increased overall by 26% to 5.59 billion. Consider even more statistics below:

• 88% of B2B marketers say email is the most effective lead generation tactic.
• Marketers consistently ranked email as the single-most-effective tactic for awareness, acquisition, conversion, and retention.
• 42% of businesses say email is one of their most effective lead generation channels.
• 122 billion emails are sent every hour.

A simple look at the numbers will tell you email is clearly far from dead, it’s actually more vital to be aware of than ever before. Take a step back to think about how you use email in your own life: You subscribe to interesting newsletters, you get your receipts emailed to you, your bills arrive in your inbox, you get alerts from your bank, you correspond with friends and family members, customers contact you via your website and their messages arrive in your inbox. The list goes on and on. Therefore the next question is rather simple: why use email marketing?

The answer to that is simple. Even if you choose to ignore the anecdotal evidence supporting the growth of email as a channel, one thing is clear, email marketing is one of the cheapest most cost-effective forms of advertising. Not only can you reach a large number of potential customers easily and cost-effectively, but you can contact your audience directly in their inboxes. These are only a few of the key advantages one might profit from.

The best email marketing techniques maximize ROI

Unfortunately, email marketing doesn’t just involve sending a mass email to all your customers and potential buyers – there are a few tricks to it that you need to know. Here is a guide to the best email marketing techniques to maximize your ROI.

1. Segment your subscribers

As is the case with subjectivity, your subscribers probably do not want to receive the same message from your brand as everyone else. Segmenting your subscribers is a broader form of personalization. Different people will demand different content from you, so do your best to cater to their needs.

This segmentation is not just based on demographic data like age or gender. Rather, in this case, you may want to segment based on your subscribers’ habits, personal needs, and objectives. One of the methods for this is to ask a question about what they are hoping to get out of their subscription to your newsletter. You can use those responses to categorize them and send their emails accordingly.

2. Personalize your content

Although similar to segmentation, personalizing takes things a step further. After dividing your subscribers into broader segments, you can use their responses to personalize the content you think they want to see.

Whether it is the content within the email, their preferred style – such as through videos or text – or altering the subject lines of each subscriber, a little adjustment like this will undoubtedly show results. Research suggests that more customers prefer and utilize personalized email offers rather than those that are generally sent to everyone – the more specific an email is, the more likely a subscriber will click on it.

3. Time everything properly

This might not be common knowledge when it comes to email marketing, but the fact remains: timing is everything. Switching up the timing and sticking to a regular schedule can make or break your email marketing campaign. Not only do you need to construct the email carefully, but you also need to send it at the optimal time.

Use big data to your advantage – marketing applications read through your subscriber’s activity history and provide you with the information you need to pick the best time to send the email to your subscribers.

4. Try out A/B testing

A/B testing essentially involves separating your audience into two groups, with each group receiving different versions of an upcoming email marketing campaign. At the core of this tool is the idea to optimize your content for your audience.

Through A/B testing, you can glean which aspect of the campaign is working and what needs adjustments. It allows you the room to experiment with slogans, layouts, and content, all while making sure the content is being catered to the audience’s preferences. The key to an optimized email is to keep trying out new things and seeing what works the best. Rather than the final result, A/B testing is essentially a process, so make sure to treat it as such.

5. Automate your emails

This is a lesser-known technique but one that is helpful nonetheless. If you are an entrepreneur of a smaller business or a first-time business owner, automating your emails will be all the more useful for you. In a smaller business, you may have to take on more jobs than if you were an employee, so it will be important to work smarter in this case.

Automating emails basically means that your emails will be delivered directly to your subscribers when certain behaviors trigger them. This means that your customers will receive emails catered specifically to their behavior, making them more personalized and time-effective.

6. Utilize all your platforms

Email marketing doesn’t have to be done separately. You can garner more returns if you utilize and coordinate between all your media platforms, be it through email or social media. By combining these methods, you will be able to make the best of both worlds, rather than isolating them and increasing your workload.

Whereas email marketing is definitely more personalized, utilizing your social media accounts will allow your customer base to connect with you on a separate level. By combining the information you gather from both media, you can further personalize your email content for your subscribers. To build a good relationship with your customers, it is crucial that you reap the benefits of both emails and social media platforms.

Something to keep in mind

Although, personally, you may not be utilizing emails as frequently as, say, five years ago, email marketing is still thriving. Research has shown an increase in ROI through emails, so there is no doubt that emails are still effective. Similar to personalizing email content, you may also need to personalize these techniques in a way that will maximize the benefits to your business.