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Welcome! Today’s podcast is all about email marketing and what you need to do to get people to open your emails. There’s been a bit of a debate as to whether email marketing is still worth it given that many people are so bombarded that they ignore emails. We’re going to take a look at some stats.
What did Andrew and Heather learn this week?
Heather has been testing sales forms online this week. She has found that while you are testing there is a ‘dummy’ or ‘sandbox’ mode you can use to test your gateway with fake money. So you don’t need to sit there testing your credit card using real money!
Andrew learnt that, if you’re running Facebook ads to your website but you do not have a responsive website, your click through rates will be very low. However, if your website is responsive, there is something like a 300% improvement. This shows how many people are using Facebook from a mobile device so it makes sense to ensure your site is responsive!
Email Marketing – Industry percentages
Depending on which industry you are in, there are different stats for email opens.
- Non-profits – 40% open rate on average.
- Retail, Financial, Real Estate – 20%
- Web design, Marketing – 20%
Remember, these stats depend on you doing well with your emails and keeping your list ‘warm’.
Email marketing does still work for people from around university age up, but you need to be savvy about how you do it.
Subject Line
Pretend you are in a cafe or at a dinner party having a chat and that you are going to announce something to the person. This helps to get a subject line that sounds like your own voice. Think about what is going to peak their interest and want them to know more. First names as a merge field in the subject are not working so well anymore as everyone knows that they are not personal.
Content
Autoresponders
- Starting with a story works well. People like it when you come across as personable and stories are memorable too. By telling a story you are creating a connection with people.
- A tip when you are writing is to picture an ‘avatar’ or persona of your ideal client so that you can think about and write directly to them. This also helps you to screen what stories you tell so that they are more applicable to your client.
- Using suspense is another good technique. People want to know what’s going on if you have an interesting enough story and will follow to the next email. You may have seen this used to good effect by some of the best speakers out there.
- Use images such as video stills to grab attention. Your readers like to be able to scan and see an image that represents what they want. Remember to put play buttons over video stills and link to the video, or use images of PDF covers etc.
Broadcast Emails
- Surveys – just ask people what they want if you are wondering what content you should be putting out next. Surveymonkey is a great resource to help you do this.
- Use images as for autoresponders.
- Link your social platforms to your broadcast emails so that your social followers get your content and may sign up with you too.
Remember that less is more with emails. Make sure that you add value rather than add noise. Is your content going to be helpful to your list? We’ve also found that shorter emails get a better open rate as people are able to consume them quickly.
When to send them…
With autoresponders, send them every 2-3 days for the first couple of weeks so that they get to know you over that time. After that they can go to your broadcast email list.